Flag of Senegal

What the flag of Senegal looks like

The flag of Senegal has three vertical bands of equal width: green at the hoist, yellow in the middle and red at the fly. A single green five-pointed star sits in the center of the yellow band, with one point upward. The proportions are 2:3. The yellow is also sometimes described as gold.

The design is simple and there is no coat of arms or text. Green, yellow and red are the Pan-African colors, and many African countries use them. What marks the Senegalese flag apart is the green star, which is on the middle band instead of in a separate emblem.

You can see how the flag looks at small sizes in the Senegal flag emoji, where the star is still visible.

Senegal flag meaning and symbolism

Green, yellow and red are the colors of the Pan-African movement, and the Senegalese flag uses them as a sign of unity among African countries.

In Senegal, the colors are usually explained as follows. Green is tied to Islam, which is the religion of most Senegalese, and is also read as hope and fertility. Yellow stands for wealth and the product of work, and also for the arts, literature and intellect. Red recalls blood, so life, and the sacrifice accepted by the nation and its determination to fight underdevelopment. The green star is said to recall the human figure on the flag of the Mali Federation, or the Serer star symbol Yooniir. Various sources give slightly different readings.

History of the Senegal flag

Senegal was part of French West Africa. It became a self-governing republic inside the French Community, and on 4 April 1959 it joined with French Sudan (now Mali) to form the Mali Federation. The federation flew a flag with the same three vertical bands, but with a black human figure known as a kanaga in the center, a stylized human figure.

The federation became independent from France on 20 June 1960. It broke up two months later, in August 1960, when Senegal withdrew. The new Senegalese flag kept the colors and stripes of the federation flag and replaced the kanaga figure with a green five-pointed star. The new flag was adopted on 20 August 1960, and Senegal became a separate republic under President Léopold Sédar Senghor.

The flag has been the same ever since. Mali, which continued on its own, later dropped the kanaga figure from its flag, so its flag has the same three bands but no emblem at all.

Flags that look like Senegal's

Because the Pan-African colors are widely used, several flags look alike. Mali's flag has the same green, yellow and red bands but no star. Guinea uses red, yellow and green in the opposite order. Cameroon has green, red and yellow with a yellow star on the red band. The easiest way to tell Senegal's flag from these is to look for the green star on the yellow band.