Flag of The Gambia

The Gambia’s flag has horizontal red, blue, and green bands, with a narrow white stripe on each side of the blue. Read from top to bottom, the sequence is red, white, blue, white, green. It has no coat of arms, star, lettering, or other central emblem.

The correct order is red, white, blue, white, and green from top to bottom. Red and green have equal heights, while blue is narrower. Each white stripe is one quarter of the blue stripe’s height. The same order remains visible when the correctly oriented flag is viewed from behind.

The flag uses red, white, blue, and green. The downloadable reference uses red #CE1126, white #FFFFFF, blue #0C1C8C, and green #3A7728. These are the actual values in this artwork, not numerical color codes prescribed by the Constitution. Physical production still requires suitable color references, materials, and proofs.

The independence-era government explanation associates red with the sun, blue with the River Gambia, green with agricultural resources, and white with unity and peace. Later descriptions also associate red with the savanna and green with forests. These interpretations explain the colors; they do not change the prescribed stripe arrangement.

Red forms the upper six units of the flag’s eighteen-unit height. The government’s independence-era explanation connects it with the sun, while later accounts also mention the savanna. Red is therefore a geographic and environmental symbol in these explanations, rather than an officially documented reference to bloodshed in the flag’s original description.

Blue represents the River Gambia, the waterway around which the country extends. It occupies four of the flag’s eighteen vertical units and is separated from red and green by white stripes. The position is symbolic: the blue band does not trace the river’s actual bends, width, or course on a map.

The green lower band represents agricultural resources in the government’s independence-era account. Later descriptions also connect green with the country’s forests. It has the same height as the red upper band: six units out of eighteen. The stripe symbolizes national resources without measuring cultivated land or forest cover as a percentage.

The white stripes represent unity and peace. One separates red from blue, and the other separates blue from green. Each is one unit high in the standard eighteen-unit construction. They are intentional parts of the national design, so they should remain visible in small illustrations, stitched flags, and printed reproductions.

The Constitution gives an outer rectangle twenty-seven units across and eighteen units down, equivalent to 3:2 width to height. The standard stripe construction is 6:1:4:1:6 from top to bottom. This is also described as a 2:3 flag when the convention lists height before length, rather than width before height.

No. Red and green each occupy one third of the height, but blue occupies only two ninths. The middle third comprises the blue band together with both white separators: one plus four plus one units. Making red, blue, and green equally wide and then adding white would produce the wrong construction.

Start with a rectangle twenty-seven units wide and eighteen high. Divide its height into six red units, one white, four blue, one white, and six green. A 2700-by-1800-pixel version therefore uses stripe heights of 600, 100, 400, 100, and 600 pixels. Each stripe extends across the full width.

The present national flag was selected during preparations for independence and introduced on February 18, 1965. It replaced colonial symbolism with a plain arrangement associated with the country’s sun, river, agriculture, unity, and peace. The design continued after The Gambia became a republic in 1970 and during the Senegambia Confederation.

A late colonial Blue Ensign combined a dark blue field, a Union Flag in the upper hoist, and a circular colonial badge showing an elephant, palm, and red G. The historical illustration supplied here is a modern reconstruction of that ensign, not an original textile or the current national flag.

February 18, 1965, the date of independence from the United Kingdom, is the national flag’s adoption date. Selection and public presentation of the design had taken place during 1964. Distinguishing those stages explains why earlier drawings or announcements exist without making the national independence anniversary a different date.

Archival artwork and the government’s independence leaflet show a 2:1 width-to-height rectangle. The current constitutional format is 3:2, which looks less elongated. The comparison on this page illustrates those documented shapes using the same modern palette. It does not establish an exact changeover date or reproduce an original historical textile.

Section 3 of the 1997 Constitution identifies the national flag by reference to Schedule 1. That schedule specifies a rectangle twenty-seven units across and eighteen down and lists the horizontal colors. The failed 2024 constitutional replacement proposal did not enact a new Constitution; the 1997 framework remained in force.

Louis Lucien Thomasi, an accountant, designed The Gambia’s national flag through the independence preparations’ public competition. Shorter accounts often call him Louis Thomasi. Archival research by Jos Poels identifies his fuller name. The designer, the committee selecting the entry, and the authorities approving national use had different roles in the process.

A maker can sew separate colored panels or print the complete design onto suitable fabric. The finished visible stripes must preserve the red–white–blue–white–green order and the 6:1:4:1:6 heights. Hems, seams, reinforcement, and attachments need separate allowances. The reviewed national description does not mandate one textile, stitch, or printing process.

The Gambia celebrates Independence Day on February 18, marking independence in 1965 and the introduction of the national flag. Government information identifies this annual observance, and a presidential declaration made February 18, 2025, a public holiday for the sixtieth anniversary. A particular ceremony’s location and timetable depend on its announced program.

The reviewed official sources establish February 18 as Independence Day, associated with the national flag’s introduction in 1965. They did not establish a separate annual national Flag Day. This page therefore uses Independence Day in its navigation and distinguishes a verified observance from an unsupported date borrowed from another country.

The Gambia became a republic on April 24, 1970, and retained its national flag. The independence date remains February 18, 1965. These anniversaries concern different constitutional milestones. Showing April 24 in a historical timeline does not, by itself, establish a currently declared public holiday or a separate official Flag Day.

The Gambia retained its national flag during the Senegambia Confederation with Senegal, which lasted from 1982 to 1989. Senegal’s flag remained a distinct design with vertical green, yellow, and red bands and a central green star. Political association between the countries did not turn their two national flags into interchangeable symbols.

No. The plain national flag consists of its five horizontal stripes and has no coat of arms or inscription. The anthem, For The Gambia Our Homeland, is a separate national symbol. Displaying a flag beside arms, an official seal, or a musical performance does not add those elements to its design.

For an ordinary horizontal display, keep red at the top and green at the bottom, with both white separators visible. Use a clean, securely attached flag whose proportions are correct. Additional arrangements for a government building, school, diplomatic event, or military ceremony should follow that institution’s applicable instructions and event plan.

The reverse retains the same top-to-bottom colors because the design has only full-width horizontal stripes. The attachment edge appears on the opposite side when viewed from behind. A flag with green at the top is upside down, not simply reversed. Vertical banners require a separately considered mounting arrangement and orientation.

Use the host institution’s protocol and the event’s agreed arrangement. A diplomatic meeting, international sports ceremony, and military formation can follow different plans. The national flag’s design does not establish a universal viewer-left or viewer-right position. Pole heights, sight lines, mounting security, and unobstructed display are useful practical checks.

The reviewed sources do not establish one mandatory raising or lowering hour for every Gambian household and institution. A national anniversary gives a date, while an event program supplies ceremony times. Follow the relevant organizer’s directions for the actual setting instead of treating a foreign country’s flag code as Gambian law.

Official mourning instructions can require flags to be lowered. After Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara’s death, a seven-day national mourning period ran from August 27 through September 2, 2019, with flags at all state institutions lowered to half-mast. That documented instruction does not establish a permanent mast-height formula or a current mourning order.

A direction to lower flags at state institutions does not by itself settle who is entitled to a flag-draped coffin or how a funeral flag should be handled. Those are separate ceremonial questions. The responsible institution and funeral organizer should establish eligibility, placement, handling, and the flag’s disposition for the particular service.

Section 3 and Schedule 1 define the national flag; those provisions do not themselves supply a fixed criminal penalty for every misuse. Any claim about an offense needs the applicable law and context. This article does not import another country’s Flag Act, invent a Gambian fine, or decide liability in an individual case.

Public-domain artwork addresses copyright in the supplied drawing. It does not establish government endorsement or settle every trademark application. WIPO distinguishes state-symbol protection under Article 6ter from copyright in artwork. Commercial use should be assessed in its actual context, especially when a product or brand might imply official approval or affiliation.

Use the maker’s care instructions, inspect seams and attachments, and replace cloth that no longer presents the design clearly. Dry a flag before storage and protect historically important textiles from unsuitable cleaning. The reviewed sources do not establish a compulsory household folding pattern, burning ceremony, or fixed cutting method for retirement.

The Gambia has a narrower blue band between two white separators, with red above and green below. Sierra Leone has three equal green, white, and blue bands. Hungary has red, white, and green without blue. Senegal uses vertical bands and a star. Checking stripe order and separators is more reliable than recalling colors alone.

The flag emoji is 🇬🇲. Its underlying sequence combines regional indicator G, U+1F1EC, with regional indicator M, U+1F1F2, corresponding to GM. Appearance depends on the device, font, and application. Some systems show the letters instead of a flag; for consistent printable artwork, use the supplied SVG or PNG.

The gallery supplies the plain national SVG, construction and layout guides, a colonial reconstruction, historical comparisons, size examples, orientation views, an anniversary calendar, a mourning diagram, and comparisons with other flags. A large national PNG is also available. Each download is hosted on this website and identified by its purpose.

No. The colonial ensign is a modern vector reconstruction, and the early-proportions comparison is an explanatory drawing using documented shapes. Neither is an original cloth, archival photograph, or historical color master. The gallery labels these distinctions so a clear educational illustration is not mistaken for a documentary record.

Keep both white separators and make blue narrower than red and green. Do not add a star, arms, or lettering to the national flag. Preserve the 3:2 outer rectangle and the 6:1:4:1:6 stripe heights. Finally, distinguish the current design from a colonial ensign, an early elongated illustration, or a decorative banner.

The country’s official usage includes the definite article, so this page uses The Gambia for the national name and Gambian as the adjective. Its flag belongs to the West African republic whose capital is Banjul. The River Gambia is both a central geographic feature and the meaning associated with the blue stripe.