Flag of Liberia

What the flag of Liberia looks like

The flag of Liberia has eleven horizontal stripes of equal height, starting with red at the top and ending with red at the bottom: six red stripes and five white. In the upper left corner, next to the pole, is a blue square canton that holds a single white five-pointed star. The flag is long compared with its height, with a ratio of 10:19.

The pattern is familiar because it follows the flag of the United States, but the two are easy to tell apart. The American flag has thirteen stripes and a canton filled with fifty stars. The Liberian flag has eleven stripes and one star, and its canton is a smaller blue square. The Liberian version is also close to the flag of Malaysia, which has fourteen stripes and a yellow crescent and star.

Each of Liberia's fifteen counties also has its own county flag, and many of them repeat red, white and blue.

Liberia flag meaning and symbolism

The eleven stripes stand for the eleven men who signed Liberia's Declaration of Independence in 1847. The red stripes are usually said to represent courage and valor, and the white stripes stand for moral excellence and purity. The blue canton is often read as the continent of Africa, and the single white star stands for freedom: Liberia was the first African republic to declare independence and, for decades, one of only two African states that were not under colonial rule, along with Ethiopia. This is why the star is sometimes called the lone star.

These readings are traditional rather than set out in detail by law, so you will see slightly different wording. The blue is also sometimes tied to the Atlantic Ocean and to the sea voyage that brought settlers to the coast.

History of the Liberian flag

Liberia was founded by free-born and formerly enslaved Black Americans who emigrated to West Africa from 1820 with the support of the American Colonization Society, a private organization. They settled on the coast around present-day Monrovia, and the colony was run by the society and later by its own settlers. Liberia declared independence on 26 July 1847.

A flag was needed for the new republic. The convention of 1847 approved a design on 24 August 1847. It is traditionally credited to a committee of women, said to include Susannah Elizabeth Waring, and it kept the stripes and star pattern that was familiar to the settlers from the US.

The flag has stayed the same since 1847, which makes it one of the older unchanged national flags in Africa. Liberia celebrates Flag Day on 24 August. It has never been a US territory: it was a settlement and then a fully independent republic, and the United States recognized it in 1862.

Why Liberia and the United States have similar flags

The Liberian flag was designed by people who had lived under the American flag, and the connection to the United States was a core part of the country's founding. It is a tribute to that connection, not a sign of control. Liberia's constitution, early laws and capital name, Monrovia (named for US president James Monroe), reflect the same link. Malaysia's flag is a separate case, since it developed from earlier flags in Southeast Asia and has a different layout.