Flag of Guinea-Bissau

How to read it

Article 22 of the Constitution of Guinea-Bissau (1984, revised 1996) names the flag, the coat of arms and the national anthem as the national symbols. It describes the flag as three rectangular stripes: red upright, and yellow and green lying across the upper and lower parts of the rest, with a black five-pointed star on the red. The first constitution, approved by the National People’s Assembly at Boé on 24 September 1973, describes the same flag in Article 2 and adds that the three bands have the same area. The presidency says the flag was adopted in 1973, when independence was proclaimed. The coat of arms repeats the black star above a yellow shell, between two palm leaves joined by a ribbon with the motto “Unity, Struggle, Progress”.

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Telling it from Ghana’s flag

Ghana’s flag has the same colours and the same black star, in three horizontal stripes of red, gold and green with the star in the middle of the gold. On Guinea-Bissau’s flag the red is a band down the side by the pole and carries the star, and the yellow and green are stripes beside it. Ghana’s mission to the United Nations says Ghana’s design influenced Guinea-Bissau’s, and the presidency in Bissau calls the star part of the traditional Pan-African symbolism, often called the black star of Africa.