Flag of Cameroon
Three equal vertical stripes, green, red and yellow, with a gold five-pointed star in the centre of the red, as Cameroon’s constitution describes it. Cameroon’s embassy in the Netherlands says the green stands for hope and the southern forests, the red for unity and the yellow for sunshine and prosperity, and calls the star the “Star of Unity”, for the unitary state; the constitution itself gives no meanings.
Easily confused with
- Flag of MaliMali’s flag is three vertical bands of equal width: green, gold and red. The constitution adopted in 2023 describes it in those words and, like the constitution of 1992 before it, gives the colours no meaning.
- Flag of GuineaGuinea’s flag is three vertical bands of equal width: red, yellow and green. The constitution gives the colours no meaning; at Guinea’s national citizenship week in 2024, a senior official of Coyah prefecture said the bands stand for the ancestors’ sacrifices for the freedom, dignity and happiness of the Guinean people.
- Flag of SenegalSenegal’s flag is three vertical bands of equal width, green, gold and red, with a green five-pointed star in the centre of the gold. The constitution gives no meanings; the explanation published by the guide Au Sénégal and by Le Petit Journal Dakar has green for faith and hope, gold for the wealth won by work, red for the blood of sacrifice, and the star’s five points for Senegal’s openness to the five continents.
How to read it
Article 1 of Cameroon’s constitution of 1972, as revised in 2008, says the flag “shall be three equal vertical stripes of green, red and yellow charged with one gold star in the centre of the red stripe”. The same article gives the motto, “Peace - Work - Fatherland”, and the anthem, “O Cameroon, Cradle of our Forefathers”. It sets no proportions and no shades of colour. The embassy in the Netherlands and the Larousse encyclopedia both date the present flag to 1975. The embassy calls it a vertical Pan-African tricolour; Larousse says it takes three of the pan-African colours and arranges them on the model of the French tricolour.
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What flag is red, yellow and green?
Several, and the order of the bands and the star tell them apart. Cameroon’s runs green, red, yellow from the pole, with a gold star on the red. Guinea’s flag is red, yellow and green in equal vertical bands with nothing on them, as its 2010 constitution describes it. Senegal’s constitution gives it green, gold and red bands with a green five-pointed star in the centre of the gold, and Mali’s gives it the same three colours with no star.
Two readings of the colours
The embassy’s and the encyclopedia’s explanations differ in the red and yellow. The embassy gives green for hope and the southern forests, red for unity and yellow for sunshine and prosperity. Larousse gives green for the riches of the forest, hope and faith in the future, red for independence and yellow for the savanna. Both say the star is for national unity.
Read next
- Next in African flagsFlag of the Central African RepublicFour horizontal stripes, blue, white, green and yellow, crossed down the middle by a red band, with a yellow five-pointed star in the top corner by the pole, as the Central African constitution describes it. The constitution gives no meanings; Larousse says three of the five colours stand for natural resources (cotton, forests and diamonds), the red for the union of the peoples and the white for peace.
- The same shape in Asian flagsFlag of AzerbaijanAzerbaijan’s flag has three horizontal stripes of equal width, blue, red and green from the top, with a white crescent and a white eight-pointed star in the middle of the red. The President’s office gives the meanings: blue for the Turkic origin of the Azerbaijani people, red for the wish to build a modern society and develop democracy, and green for belonging to Islamic civilisation.
More african flags
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with lines, squares and rectangles or stars.
Sources
- Cameroon 1972 (rev. 2008) Constitution, Constitution of Cameroon (1972, rev. 2008), Article 1, Constitute Project, Article 1
- National Symbols (Embassy of the Republic of Cameroon in the Netherlands), Embassy page on Cameroon’s national symbols, Embassy of the Republic of Cameroon, The Hague, National Colours (The Flag)
- Drapeau du Cameroun (Larousse), Encyclopédie Larousse en ligne, image entry with caption, Larousse, Caption
- Senegal 2001 (rev. 2016) Constitution, Constitution of Senegal (2001, rev. 2016), Article 1, Constitute Project, Article 1
- Guinea 2010 Constitution, Constitution of Guinea (2010), Article 1, Constitute Project, Article 1
- Mali 2023 Constitution, Constitution of Mali of 2023, Article 30 (English translation), Constitute Project, Article 30
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 13, 2026. How we research
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