Flag of Togo

What the flag of Togo looks like

The flag of Togo has five equal horizontal stripes: green, yellow, green, yellow and green. In the upper left corner, next to the pole, is a red square canton that covers the top three stripes. Inside the canton is a white five-pointed star placed in the center.

The green and yellow stripes combine with red to make the Pan-African colors, which were adopted by several African countries upon independence. A copy of the flag for download is on the Togo flag download page, and you can also see the Togo flag emoji.

Togo flag meaning and symbolism

The meanings usually given are:

• Green for forests, agriculture and hope.
• Yellow for natural resources, faith and maturity.
• Red for the blood shed by those who fought for Togolese independence.
• The white star for peace, intelligence and light.

The five stripes are also said to represent the five regions of Togo: Maritime, Plateaux, Centrale, Kara and Savanes. These meanings are those given by the office of the Togolese president.

History of the Togo flag

In 1884 Germany declared a protectorate over the coast that became Togoland. After the First World War the territory was split into a British mandate in the west and a French mandate in the east, and the French part flew the tricolor of France. The French area became an autonomous republic within the French Union on 24 August 1956 and an independent country on 27 April 1960.

The present flag came with independence. It was designed by Paul Ahyi (1930-2010), a Togolese artist who studied art in France and returned to Togo in 1959. He combined the Pan-African colors in alternating stripes with a red canton and a white star.

The flag has been used in this form ever since independence, and it was adopted on 27 April 1960, the day independence was proclaimed. Before independence, the autonomous republic flew a green flag with the French tricolor in the canton and two yellow stars.

Flags similar to Togo's flag

Togo's flag shares its colors with Benin and Ghana, its neighbors, and the star in a canton recalls Liberia, which has red and white stripes with a blue canton. See the full list on the Africa flags page.