Flag of Ghana

How to read it

Theodosia Salome Okoh designed the flag, and it replaced the British flag when Ghana became independent on 6 March 1957. The Junior Graphic reports that she chose red, gold and green because of Ghana’s geography. The flag historian William Crampton dates its first announcement to 10 October 1956. Ghana’s mission to the United Nations calls it the second African flag in these colours, after the flag of the Ethiopian Empire; the Junior Graphic calls it the first after Ethiopia’s. The third verse of the national anthem calls the star the “black star of hope and honour”.

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Where the black star comes from

Ghana’s mission to the United Nations and the Daily Graphic both say the black star was taken from the flag of the Black Star Line, the shipping line Marcus Garvey incorporated, which ran from 1919 to 1922. Garvey’s organisation also adopted the red, black and green flag. Crampton describes the shipping line’s flag from FBI agents’ reports of a rally at Madison Square Garden on 30 October 1919: green silk, with two red stripes crossing each other and a large black star over the point where they meet. He argued that the star on Ghana’s flag is there “by very purposeful design”, borrowed by Kwame Nkrumah from Garvey, though his enquiries to the National Archives of Ghana and the College of Arms in London found no record of the choice. The national football team, the Black Stars, takes its name from the star, the UN mission says.

The white stripe of 1964 to 1966

Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, replaced the gold stripe with a white one, the Junior Graphic says, and the gold came back after he was overthrown in 1966. Crampton dates the change to January 1964 and the restoration to 28 February 1966, by the National Liberation Council; the white made the national flag match the red, white and green of Nkrumah’s Convention People’s Party. Ghana’s UN mission and the Daily Graphic give 1962 for the change.

What flag is red, yellow and green?

Ghana’s has the three colours in horizontal stripes, red at the top, with a black star on the gold. Bolivia’s constitution names a red, yellow and green tricolour among the symbols of the state, and Lithuania’s gives its flag’s colours as yellow, green and red. Guinea-Bissau’s flag has Ghana’s colours and black star arranged differently: the red is a band down the side by the pole, carrying the star, with yellow above green beside it. Ghana’s UN mission says Ghana’s design influenced it.