Flag of Samoa

What the flag of Samoa looks like

The flag of Samoa has a red field with a width-to-height ratio of 1:2. In the upper left corner, next to the hoist, is a blue canton that takes up about a quarter of the flag. In the canton are five white five-pointed stars arranged as the Southern Cross: four larger stars form the cross and a smaller fifth star sits to the side.

The flag has no coat of arms or text, and its simple layout makes it easy to recognize. Red covers most of the flag, with blue and the white stars concentrated in the corner. The stars appear in the same position in the Samoa flag emoji.

Samoa flag meaning and symbolism

The commonly given meanings are that red stands for courage, blue for freedom and white for purity. The law that defines the flag does not assign official meanings to its colors, so these explanations come from scholars and are traditional rather than set in law.

The five stars represent the Southern Cross, which is visible in the night sky over the South Pacific and appears on several flags in the region. The stars also point to Samoa's position in the southern hemisphere. The flag's colors and field-and-canton layout were borrowed from the flag of New Zealand, which also shows the Southern Cross.

History of the Samoa flag

Before the 20th century, Samoa had its own kingdom and a number of flags used by rival chiefs and by the foreign powers competing for influence on the islands. In 1900 the western islands became German Samoa, and German flags flew until New Zealand troops took the colony in 1914. New Zealand then governed the territory first under a League of Nations mandate and later as a United Nations trust territory, called Western Samoa.

As the islands moved toward self-government after the Second World War, a national flag was needed. The New Zealand government approved a flag on 26 May 1948, designed by the paramount chiefs Malietoa Tanumafili II and Tupua Tamasese Meaʻole, with a blue canton and four stars on a red field. A smaller fifth star was added on 24 February 1949, giving the pattern used now. Samoa became independent on 1 January 1962 and was the first Polynesian nation to do so in the 20th century. The flag was kept unchanged.

The country was known as Western Samoa until 1997, when it dropped the word Western from its official name. The flag did not change. Today it is flown on Independence Day, celebrated on 1 June, and in everyday life.

Samoa and American Samoa flags

Samoa and American Samoa are different places. Samoa is an independent country in the western half of the island group, while American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States in the east. The two have different flags. The flag of American Samoa is blue with a white triangle edged in red, and in the triangle is an American bald eagle holding a war club and a fly whisk.

Both flags use red, white and blue, but the layouts are not similar. People looking for the "Samoan flag" often mean either one, so check which territory you need.