Flag of Mozambique

What the flag of Mozambique looks like

The flag of Mozambique is made of three horizontal stripes of equal width: dark green at the top, black in the middle and yellow at the bottom. Thin white stripes separate the colors. The proportions are 2:3.

A red isosceles triangle points into the flag from the hoist. In its center is a yellow five-pointed star. Above the star, an AK-47 assault rifle with its bayonet and a hoe cross each other, laid over an open book. The national coat of arms uses the same star, book, rifle and hoe, together with a rising sun and a map of the country.

Because of the rifle, the flag is one of the most distinctive in the world. It also appears as the Mozambique flag emoji 🇲🇿.

Mozambique flag meaning and symbolism

The design is based on the flag of Frelimo (the Mozambique Liberation Front), the movement that led the war for independence from Portugal. The constitution explains the meanings as follows:

• Green represents the country's soil.
• Black stands for the African continent.
• Yellow is for the country's subsoil and its mineral wealth.
• White stands for peace and the justice of the struggle of the Mozambican people.
• Red symbolizes anti-colonial resistance and national defence.

The emblem has its own meanings. The yellow star stands for the spirit of international solidarity of the Mozambican people. The open book represents education, the hoe production, and the AK-47 defence. Together they show the idea of a country built by farmers and students who are also ready to defend it.

The rifle is the symbol that people ask about most. Supporters of the flag say the rifle shows the determination of the Mozambican people to protect their country, while critics have long called for it to be removed because some see it as an allusion to violence.

History of the Mozambique flag

Portuguese traders arrived on the coast at the end of the 15th century, and in time Mozambique became a Portuguese colony, known for a while as Portuguese East Africa. Under Portuguese rule it flew the Portuguese flag.

Frelimo was founded in 1962 and began its armed campaign in 1964. After a change of government in Portugal in 1974, the Lusaka Accord set the path to independence, which came on 25 June 1975. The new People's Republic raised a different flag: four diagonal stripes of green, red, black and yellow separated by white lines, with a white cogwheel, a red star, a rifle, a hoe and a book near the upper hoist. Frelimo's own earlier flag, which was similar to today's design but had no charges on the triangle, had flown beside the Portuguese flag during the transition.

The flag was changed in April 1983 to a version based on the Frelimo flag, and the cogwheel was dropped shortly afterwards. The current design dates from 1 May 1983 and has remained in use since then. Mozambique has had a multi-party system since the 1990s, but the Frelimo-era flag has stayed.

Mozambique is often compared with its neighbor Zimbabwe, which also has a triangle and a star on its flag. The two designs are different but come from the same period of African independence movements. Both are on the flags of Africa page.