Flag of Madagascar

How to read it

Article 4 of the Constitution of Madagascar (2010) makes the tricolour of white, red and green the national emblem and describes it: three rectangular bands of equal size, the first vertical and white on the side of the pole, the other two horizontal, red above and green below. The flag was adopted on 21 October 1958, two years before independence from France, after a competition won by Ranaivoson Andrianome, according to Store norske leksikon, which gives its proportions as 2:3.

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What the colours stand for

The meanings have shifted. When the flag was first hoisted, Store norske leksikon says, white stood for purity, red for freedom and green for hope; a later president read the red as national unity, the green as hope and the white as freedom, security and purity. Lex gives purity, sovereignty and hope.

Both encyclopedias trace the red and white to the island’s old kingdoms. Norway’s Store norske leksikon says they were the colours of the Merina kingdom, which united the whole island from 1787 to 1897, and both say the green was added for the peoples of the coast.

Telling it from Benin’s flag

Benin’s flag has the same layout: a broad vertical band by the pole and two equal horizontal stripes beside it. In Benin’s the band is green, with yellow above red; in Madagascar’s the band is white, with red above green.