Flag of Ghana
The national flag of Ghana was designed and adopted in 1957 and was flown until 1962, and then reinstated in 1966. It consists of the Pan-African colours of red, yellow, and green, in horizontal stripes, with a black five-pointed star in the centre of the gold stripe. The Ghanaian flag was the second African flag after the flag of the Ethiopian Empire to feature these colours. The flag’s design influenced that of the flag of Guinea-Bissau (1973). It was designed by Theodosia Okoh.
The Ghanaian government flag, adopted in 1957, was flown until 1962. Similarly, when the country formed the Union of African States, the flag of the Union was modelled on Bolivia’s flag, but with two black stars, representing the nations. In May 1959, a third star was added.
In 1962, prior to the dissolution of the Union the following year, Ghana adopted a variant of the 1957 tricolour with white in the place of yellow, after the colours of Kwame Nkrumah’s ruling Convention People’s Party, and similar to the flag of Hungary. The original 1957 flag was reinstated in 1966 following Nkrumah’s overthrow in a coup d’état.
The Ghanaian flag was the second African flag after the flag of the Ethiopian Empire to feature these colours. The black star was adopted from the flag of the Black Star Line, a shipping line incorporated by Marcus Garvey that operated from 1919 to 1922, and gives the Ghana national football team their nickname, the Black Stars. The flag’s design influenced that of the flag of Guinea-Bissau.
The Ashanti Kingdom used a horizontal tricolour of gold, black, green with narrow white bands separating black from gold and green and a Golden Stool on the black band in the middle of flag. Ashanti absolute monarchy throne, the Golden Stool, had been the Ashanti people’s symbol of unity and sunsum (soul). The British Gold Coast was formed after the British government seized privately held lands and invaded local Kingdoms. The flag of the Gold Coast has a blue field with Union Jack at the canton and an elephant standing in front of a palm-tree between green mountains. The initials “G.C.” (for Gold Coast) were below the elephant.
The Gold Coast region declared independence from the United Kingdom on 6 March 1957 and established the nation of Ghana. It adopted a new flag has a horizontal triband of red, gold, and green, charged with a black star in the center. Ghana and Guinea formed the Union of Independent African States in 1959 and in 1960 Mali joined the union that had been renamed the Union of African States. The flag of the Union was modelled on Bolivia’s flag, but with two black stars, representing Ghana and Guinea. In May 1959, a third star was added as Mali joined the Union.
In 1962, prior to the dissolution of the Union the following year, Ghana adopted a variant of the 1957 tricolour with white in the place of yellow, after the colours of Kwame Nkrumah’s ruling Convention People’s Party, and similar to the flag of Hungary. The original 1957 flag was reinstated in 1966 following Nkrumah’s overthrow in a coup d’état. The current flag consists of the Pan-African colours of red, yellow, and green, in horizontal stripes, with a black five-pointed star in the centre of the yellow stripe.