Flag of Ghana

What the flag of Ghana looks like

The flag of Ghana is a horizontal tricolor. From top to bottom, the stripes are red, gold (yellow) and green, all of equal height, and the proportions are 2:3. In the center of the gold stripe is a large black five-pointed star, with one point facing upward.

The red-gold-green colors are the same as those on the Ethiopian flag, and the same set was later taken by many African countries. In Ghana's case the order is red on top, which also sets it apart from some flags that look similar. The black star is the only emblem on the flag, and it is often called the Black Star of Ghana, and gives the national football team its nickname, the Black Stars. The flag is shown in small form on the Ghana flag emoji page.

Ghana flag meaning and symbolism

Each part of the Ghana flag has a meaning that is taught in Ghanaian schools. Red stands for the blood of those who died in the struggle for independence. Gold represents the mineral wealth of the country, which was known as the Gold Coast during colonial times. Green stands for the forests and the rich natural environment. The black star is the "lodestar of African freedom", a symbol of African emancipation and unity.

The star is linked to the Black Star Line, a shipping company founded in 1919 by the Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey to carry people of African descent back to Africa. Garvey's movement was an inspiration for Ghana's first leader, Kwame Nkrumah, who named the national shipping line the Black Star Line and put the star on the flag. The meaning of the black in the star is therefore not about race as such, but about the idea of African freedom and Pan-Africanism.

The red, gold and green are called the Pan-African colors, which came from Ethiopia, one of the few African countries that was never colonized. After Ghana's independence, other states such as Senegal, Mali and Guinea adopted the same set.

History of the Ghana flag

Before independence, the area was the British colony of the Gold Coast, which flew the British Blue Ensign with a colonial badge. When it became independent on 6 March 1957, it took the name Ghana, after the medieval Ghana Empire of West Africa, and was the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to become independent from European colonial rule. At that moment the new flag was raised.

The flag was designed by Theodosia Okoh, an artist and teacher from Ghana, at the request of the government of Kwame Nkrumah. She is credited with the arrangement of the red, gold and green stripes and the black star. Okoh was later honored for her work, and the flag is a source of national pride.

From 1964 until 1966, under Nkrumah's one-party state, the flag was changed to a red, white and green horizontal tricolor, with the black star in the white band. This reflected the party colors. After the military coup that overthrew Nkrumah in February 1966, the red-gold-green flag was restored and has been used since. The design has not changed since 1957, apart from the return in 1966.

Flags that look like the Ghana flag

Many flags use the same palette. Senegal has green, yellow and red in vertical stripes with a green star, and Bolivia has red, yellow and green horizontal stripes with no star but a coat of arms. Cameroon's flag is vertical green, red and yellow with a yellow star in the red stripe. Ghana's flag can be told apart by its black star and by the order of its stripes, with red on top.