Flag of Mali

How to read it

Article 30 of the constitution promulgated on 22 July 2023, after the referendum of 18 June 2023, makes the flag the national emblem: a tricolour of three vertical and equal bands, green, gold and red. Article 25 of the 1992 constitution described it the same way. Both give the motto “Un Peuple – Un But – Une Foi” (one people, one goal, one faith), the motto Senegal also uses. Neither text fixes shades or proportions.

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Mali’s and Senegal’s flags side by side

Senegal’s flag has the same colours in the same order, green, gold and red, in equal vertical bands. The difference is the green five-pointed star in the centre of Senegal’s gold band; Mali’s flag has nothing on it.

The two flags have a common ancestor. In 1959 French Sudan, now Mali, and Senegal joined in the Mali Federation, whose flag, modelled on the French one, was green, yellow and red with a human figure, the kanaga, in the middle. The federation became independent on 20 June 1960 and split into two countries two months later; Senegal kept the tricolour and put a green star where the kanaga had been, Le Petit Journal Dakar writes.

Telling it from Guinea’s and Cameroon’s flags

Guinea’s flag has the same three colours in the opposite order: its constitution lists red, yellow and green. Cameroon’s lists green, red and yellow, with a gold star in the centre, so its middle band is red where Mali’s is gold.