| Republic of Mali | |
| Proportion: | 2:3 |
| Design: | A vertical tricolour of green, gold and red. |
| Use: | 111000 |
| Adoption: | 4 April 1959 |
The national flag of Mali (French: drapeau national du Mali) is a tricolour with three equal vertical stripes. From the hoist (the place where the flagpole meets the flag) the colours are green, gold, and red, the pan-African colours. The flag of Mali is almost identical to the flag of Guinea, with the exception that the colours are in reverse order.
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[1] (see Aniconism in Islam, the belief against making pictures of the human figure).[2]
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 French.[3]
| Green | Yellow | 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 | |
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| Flag | Years of use | Ratio | Government | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| c. 1324 | Mali Empire (possible) | A reconstruction of the banner used by Musa I on the hajj, a possible historical flag of the Mali Empire. It consisted of a yellow rectangle centered on a red field. | ||
| 1880–1958 | 2:3 | French Sudan | The French tricolor was used as the official flag of French Sudan for most of its history. | |
| 1958–1959 | 2:3 | A 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. | ||
| 1959–1960 | 2:3 | Mali Federation | The 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. | |
| 1960-1961 | Republic of Mali | |||
| 1961–present | 2:3 | The current flag of Mali was adopted on 1 March 1961, removing the Kanaga featured on the previous flag. | ||