![Mali Federation flag]()
Mali’s current flag has been in use since 1961. It features three equally sized vertical stripes of green, gold, and red (from left to right). Many people compare the flag of Mali with the flags of Senegal and Guinea, as they are all strikingly similar; Guinea’s flag has the same three colored vertical stripes but in reverse order (and the green is a slightly different hue), and Senegal’s flag features the same stripes as Mali in the same order but has the addition of a small green star in the center of the flag. The similarity between these three flags stems from the fact that the three countries were briefly united under the contiguous Mali Federation in 1959 (which became its own nation in 1960, and quickly disbanded into the separate countries about two months later).
Mali essentially kept the flag of the Mali Federation, however, the flag used to feature a black squatter man symbol in the center of the gold vertical stripe
(pictured right)
. In 1961, the symbol was removed due to the country’s largely Muslim population associating the symbol with idolatry.
Red, yellow, and green are pan-African colors and feature on many African flags and often have similar symbolism. In the Mali flag, green represents the fertility of the land, gold represents the mineral wealth of the country (Mali is one of the largest gold producers in Africa, and also has iron ore, lithium, manganese, and uranium), and red represents the Malian blood spilled in the country’s fight for independence from the French.
