The flags of Africa
Fifty-four flags, two dominant palettes, and a geography you can read in the colours: an Arab north, a pan-African rest.
It is the continent with the most countries — 54 of the world's 195, more than a quarter — and yet one of the most legible, because its flags fall into two great families separated by the Sahara.
Red, yellow and green
These are the colours of Ethiopia, the only African country never durably colonised. At independence, in the 1950s and 1960s, some thirty states adopted them as a sign of African continuity: Ghana, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Cameroon, Benin, Togo, Congo, Zimbabwe.
That is the trap: when half a continent shares three colours, the arrangement and the central symbol give the answer. Vertical or horizontal bands, a black star for Ghana, a green star for Senegal, an AK-47 for Mozambique — the only national flag in the world depicting a modern firearm.
The pan-Arab north
North of the Sahara the palette changes: red, white, black and green, the pan-Arab colours from the flag of the 1916 Arab Revolt. Egypt, Sudan, Libya, but also Tunisia and Algeria with their crescent and star, and Morocco with its green pentagram on red.
The one-of-a-kind flags
A few flags resemble nothing else and are therefore the easiest to remember: the six colours of South Africa and its horizontal Y, the diamond of Eswatini with its shield, the spear of Kenya, the rising sun of Malawi, and the stylised zebra of Botswana — blue for water, black and white for racial harmony.
All 54 flags
| Flag | Country | Capital |
|---|---|---|
 | South Africa | Pretoria |
 | Algeria | Algiers |
 | Angola | Luanda |
 | Benin | Porto-Novo |
 | Botswana | Gaborone |
 | Burkina Faso | Ouagadougou |
 | Burundi | Gitega |
 | Cameroon | Yaoundé |
 | Comoros | Moroni |
 | Republic of the Congo | Brazzaville |
 | DR Congo | Kinshasa |
 | Ivory Coast | Yamoussoukro |
 | Djibouti | Djibouti |
 | Egypt | Cairo |
 | Eritrea | Asmara |
 | Ethiopia | Addis Ababa |
 | Gabon | Libreville |
 | Gambia | Banjul |
 | Ghana | Accra |
 | Guinea | Conakry |
 | Equatorial Guinea | Ciudad de la Paz |
 | Guinea-Bissau | Bissau |
 | Mauritius | Port Louis |
 | Cape Verde | Praia |
 | Kenya | Nairobi |
 | Lesotho | Maseru |
 | Liberia | Monrovia |
 | Libya | Tripoli |
 | Madagascar | Antananarivo |
 | Malawi | Lilongwe |
 | Mali | Bamako |
 | Morocco | Rabat |
 | Mauritania | Nouakchott |
 | Mozambique | Maputo |
 | Namibia | Windhoek |
 | Niger | Niamey |
 | Nigeria | Abuja |
 | Uganda | Kampala |
 | Central African Republic | Bangui |
 | Rwanda | Kigali |
 | São Tomé and Príncipe | São Tomé |
 | Senegal | Dakar |
 | Seychelles | Victoria |
 | Sierra Leone | Freetown |
 | Somalia | Mogadishu |
 | Sudan | Khartoum |
 | South Sudan | Juba |
 | Eswatini | Mbabane |
 | Tanzania | Dodoma |
 | Chad | N'Djamena |
 | Togo | Lomé |
 | Tunisia | Tunis |
 | Zambia | Lusaka |
 | Zimbabwe | Harare |
Frequently asked
Why are so many African flags red, yellow and green?
Which African flag shows a weapon?
How many countries are there in Africa?
Do you recognise these flags?
GeoG's Flags mode plays continent by continent: run Africa on its own, or all 195 flags of the world.
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