Flag of Malawi

What the flag of Malawi looks like

The flag of Malawi has three horizontal bands of equal height: black at the top, red in the middle and green at the bottom. The ratio is 2:3. In the center of the black band is a red half-sun that is rising from the lower edge of the band, with a number of rays spreading upward. The red sun is drawn as a half-disc with 31 rays.

The black-red-green order is unusual among African flags. Many other countries that use black, red and green put them in a different order, or add a white or yellow stripe.

Malawi flag meaning and symbolism

The commonly cited meanings are:

• Black stands for the African people of Malawi.
• Red stands for the blood shed in the struggle for freedom.
• Green stands for the country's nature and vegetation, and for the lasting beauty of the land.
• The red rising sun stands for the dawn of hope and freedom for Malawi and for Africa as a whole.

The three colors are the colors of the Malawi Congress Party, which led the country to independence. The sun is said to refer to a new era for the continent, as Malawi was one of the early states to become independent in the 1960s.

History of the Malawi flag

Before independence the area was the British protectorate of Nyasaland, and later part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. It flew British ensigns with the colonial badge. Malawi became independent on 6 July 1964, and the black, red and green flag with a rising sun was adopted for the new state.

In 2010, the government of Bingu wa Mutharika replaced it with a new flag. The new design had a full white sun in the upper part and different bands, with the argument that the rising sun on the old flag showed a country just starting out, while the full sun showed that Malawi had reached a new stage of development. The change was criticized as costly and unnecessary, and it was unpopular.

After Mutharika's death and the arrival of a new government under Joyce Banda, parliament restored the original flag in May 2012. It has been in use since.