The national flag of Mali is a vertical tricolour of green, gold, and red, the pan-African colours.
History The current flag was adopted on 1 March 1961. The original flag was adopted on 4 April 1959, when Mali joined the Mali Federation. This flag was the same, except the golden stripe had a black kanaga, a shape of a squatter man with arms raised to the sky. The figure was removed due to the opposition, in a country whose population is 90% Muslim (95% Sunni 5% Shia), of Islamic fundamentalists (see Aniconism in Islam, the belief against making pictures of the human figure).Guide to the Flags of the World by Mauro Talocci, revised and updated by Whitney Smith (), p. 124.
Symbolism The green stands for fertility of the land, gold stands for purity and mineral wealth, and the red symbolizes the blood shed for independence from the invader.
Colour scheme
Green Gold Red Pantone 2271c 115c 3546c CMYK 91-0-100-0 0-9-100-0 0-86-63-0 RGB 20-181-58 252-209-22 206-17-38 Hexadecimal #14B53A #FCD116 #CE1126
Historical flags Flag Years of use Ratio Government Descriptionc. 1324Mali Empire (possible)The royal standard of Musa I (Mansa Musa) of the Mali Empire was reportedly a yellow rectangle centered on a red field.1880–19582:3French SudanThe French tricolor was used as the official flag of French Sudan for most of its history.1958–19592:3A new flag was adopted in 1958, when French Sudan gained autonomy within the French Community. It consisted of the French tricolor with a black Kanaga centered on the white band.1959–19602:3Mali FederationThe flag initially adopted on Malian independence consisted of a vertical tricolor of green, gold, and red with a black Kanaga centered on the gold band.1960-1961Republic of Mali1961–present2:3The current flag of Mali was adopted on 1 March 1961, removing the Kanaga featured on the previous flag.
Other flags
See also List of Malian flags Coat of arms of Mali Flag of Senegal, a very similar flag Flag of Guinea, a mirrored version of the flag Flag of Bolivia, a rotated version of the flag Pan-African colours Malay tricolour, which share the same three colours as the Mali flag
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