Flag of Ghana

What the flag of Ghana looks like

The flag of Ghana is a horizontal tricolor. From top to bottom, the stripes are red, gold (yellow) and green, all of equal height, and the proportions are 2:3. In the center of the gold stripe is a large black five-pointed star, with one point facing upward.

The red-gold-green colors are the Pan-African colors of the Ethiopian flag. Ghana's was the second African flag after Ethiopia's to use them, with the order inverted, and red is on top. The black star is the only emblem on the flag, and it is often called the Black Star of Ghana, and gives the national football team its nickname, the Black Stars. The flag is shown in small form on the Ghana flag emoji page.

Ghana flag meaning and symbolism

Each part of the Ghana flag has a meaning. Red stands for the blood of those who died in the struggle for independence. Gold represents the mineral wealth of the country, which was known as the Gold Coast during colonial times. Green stands for the forests and natural wealth. The black star is a symbol of the emancipation of Africa and unity against colonialism.

The black star was adopted from the flag of the Black Star Line, a shipping line incorporated by Marcus Garvey that operated from 1919 to 1922. It became known as the Black Star of Africa.

The red, gold and green are called the Pan-African colors, and they were first used on the Ethiopian flag. Ghana was one of the first countries to adopt them after Ethiopia.

History of the Ghana flag

Before independence, the area was the British colony of the Gold Coast, which flew the British Blue Ensign with a colonial badge. When it became independent on 6 March 1957, it took the name Ghana, after the medieval Ghana Empire of West Africa, replacing the name Gold Coast. The new flag replaced the Gold Coast's Blue Ensign.

The flag was designed in 1957 by Theodosia Okoh, a Ghanaian artist and teacher.

After the January 1964 constitutional referendum, Ghana adopted a variant with white in place of gold, after the colors of Kwame Nkrumah's Convention People's Party, which made it similar to the flag of Hungary. The original 1957 flag was reinstated in February 1966 after Nkrumah was overthrown, and has been used since.

Flags that look like the Ghana flag

Many flags use the same palette. Senegal has green, yellow and red in vertical stripes with a green star, and Bolivia has red, yellow and green horizontal stripes with no star but a coat of arms. Cameroon's flag is vertical green, red and yellow with a yellow star in the red stripe. Ghana's flag can be told apart by its black star and by the order of its stripes, with red on top.