Flag of Ivory Coast

What the flag of Ivory Coast looks like

The flag of Ivory Coast (officially Côte d'Ivoire) has three vertical bands of equal width: orange at the hoist, white in the middle and green at the fly. The proportions are 2:3. There is no emblem or text on it.

It is a plain tricolor, a format shared with the French flag. The Ivory Coast flag emoji, 🇨🇮, shows the same three stripes.

Ivory Coast flag meaning and symbolism

The colors are linked to the country's land and people. Orange represents the land, the struggle and the blood of Ivorians. White represents peace and order. Green represents hope and a better future.

This is the explanation given by Minister of State Jean Delafosse when the flag was adopted in 1959, and the president's office repeats it. A different explanation, given to the constituent assembly in 1960, links the colors to the savannas and forests, but this reading is considered unofficial. The vertical bands are also said to stand for Ivorian youth working toward a better future, under the national motto "Unity, Discipline and Work".

History of the Ivory Coast flag

Ivory Coast was part of French West Africa and used the French tricolor under colonial rule. In 1958 it became a self-governing republic within the French Community, and the current flag was adopted on 3 December 1959, while the country was still within the community. Full independence came on 7 August 1960, with Félix Houphouët-Boigny as the first president, and the flag was kept unchanged.

Ivorians wanted a clear departure from the French flag, so the French commissioner's suggestion of a red, white and blue tricolor with stars was not used. In 1960 a legislator proposed changing the orange band to red, but the proposal was opposed and the flag was kept. It is now defined in Article 48 of the 2016 constitution. The flag has not changed since 1959.

The country is called Côte d'Ivoire, French for Coast of Ivory, a name that comes from the ivory trade on the coast in earlier centuries. In 1986 the government asked that the French name be used in all languages, though Ivory Coast remains common in English.

Ivory Coast flag vs Ireland flag

The Ivorian flag is often confused with the flag of Ireland, which is green, white and orange. The order is reversed: Ivory Coast has orange at the hoist and green at the fly, and Ireland has green at the hoist and orange at the fly. The other difference is the proportions, 2:3 for Ivory Coast and 1:2 for Ireland.

The two flags were adopted independently. The Irish tricolor was first flown in 1848 and stands for the union of Catholic (green) and Protestant (orange) traditions, and it became the official flag in the 1937 constitution. The Ivorian flag came later, in 1959, with a different meaning. A third flag, Niger, has orange, white and green in horizontal stripes with an orange circle.