Red, White and Black Flags

Which countries have red, white and black flags?

• Yemen: three plain horizontal stripes of red, white and black.
• Egypt: the same stripes with the golden Eagle of Saladin in the center.
• Iraq: the same stripes with the words Allahu Akbar ("God is greatest") written in green script.
• Trinidad & Tobago: a red field with a diagonal black band bordered by thin white stripes.

Flags that add green are mostly Pan-Arab: Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Palestine and Western Sahara. Others are Kenya, South Sudan and Zimbabwe. Brunei, South Korea, Uganda, Mozambique, Eswatini, Dominica, Guyana, Antigua & Barbuda and South Africa complete the list.

Yemen, Egypt and Iraq share a base design, the Arab Liberation flag. To tell Yemen from the others, look for the lack of an emblem.

Among the non-Arab flags, Uganda has six stripes of black, yellow and red with a white disc holding a crowned crane. Brunei is yellow with white and black diagonal bands and a red crest. South Korea has a white field, a red and blue taegeuk and four black trigrams.

Why are red, white and black so common?

They are three of the four Pan-Arab colors, which come from the 1916 Arab Revolt flag. Red, white, black and green each stand for a period of Arab history. In 1952 the Egyptian revolution used red, white and black in the Arab Liberation flag, and several states adopted it as the pattern.

Egypt, Iraq and Yemen each add their own emblem or lettering to the plain stripes. Yemen has used the plain version since unification in 1990.

Trinidad & Tobago is a separate case. Its flag was designed in 1962, with red for the vitality of the land and its people, white for the sea and the equality of all, and black for strength and unity.