Flag of Rwanda

What the flag of Rwanda looks like

The flag of Rwanda has three horizontal bands. The top band is sky blue and covers half of the flag's height. Below it are two narrower bands of equal height, each a quarter of the flag: yellow in the middle and dark green at the bottom. The proportions are 2:3.

A golden-yellow sun with 24 rays sits in the upper fly corner, the corner farthest from the flagpole, inside the blue band. The sun is drawn as a small disc surrounded by a ring of straight rays, with a thin blue ring between the disc and the rays.

You can see how it looks as an icon on the Rwanda flag emoji page and download the image from the download page.

Rwanda flag meaning and symbolism

The meanings officially given for the flag are:

• Blue for happiness and peace.
• Yellow for economic development and the hope of a better life.
• Green for prosperity, in particular from the land and its natural resources.
• The golden sun for enlightenment and for the warmth and light that drive effort and unity among Rwandans.

The design was meant to express national unity, patriotism and hope for the future. Red, the main color of the previous flag, was dropped, partly because it was associated with bloodshed in the country's recent past.

History of the Rwanda flag

Rwanda was part of German East Africa from the late 1800s. After the First World War, it passed to Belgium under a League of Nations mandate and later became a UN trust territory. Under Belgian rule it used Belgian symbols.

Rwanda gained its independence in 1962, and the republic had adopted its own flag in 1961, a vertical tricolor of red, yellow and green with a large black letter R in the center of the yellow stripe. It used the Pan-African colors, and the letter was added to tell it apart from the flag of Guinea, which has the same colors. The R stood for Rwanda, but it was also tied to the Hutu-led revolution of 1959-61 and to the ruling party, so it came to be seen as a symbol of division.

After the 1994 genocide, the government set out to replace national symbols. A public competition was held, and the current flag, designed by Alphonse Kirimobenecyo, was chosen. Parliament voted to adopt the new flag and anthem, and the flag was officially introduced in October 2001.

Rwanda flag compared with other flags

The current Rwandan flag has no close lookalike. The old Rwandan flag was often confused with Guinea and Mali, which also use red, yellow and green in vertical bands, and this is why the black R was added to it.