The present flag of Eritrea was adopted on December 5, 1995, and uses the fundamental layout of the flag of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front, with the wreath with upright olive branch symbol derived from the 1952 flag.

The flag is dominated by a red triangle extending from the hoist to the fly with complementary green and blue triangles above and below.

What do the colours symbolise?
• Green represents the fertility of the country respectively for agriculture;
• Blue represents the ocean and red for the blood lost in the fight for freedom.

In the red triangle: A yellow wreath symbol with 14 leaves on each side derived from the 1952 flag replaces the yellow star of the EPLF flag.

The use of triangles is also essential, because reading the flag from left to right it is imperative to note that the red shrinks which represents that in the end Eritrea will see peace and blood will no longer be spilled for the nation.

Keywords: Eritrea, flag,

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The colours of African unity – red, green, yellow – are seen on one of the oldest African flags.

These colours were used for the national flag of Ethiopia in 1897; a year after Ethiopia determinedly defended itself from colonial Italy at the Battle of Adwa.

The flag’s tri-colour scheme was there since the early 19th c. and was formerly the official banner of the Ethiopian Empire’s Solomonic dynasty.

The royal flag often featured the symbol of a Lion of Judah, a crowned lion carrying a cross centred in the banner’s yellow mid-section.

 The flag is understood to be a link between:
• the Ethiopian church
• the peoples, and
• the nation were united in the one flag

Whilst red is currently featured at the bottom of the horizontal tricolour this was reversed in the mid 19th century and the emblem was added in 1996.

What the colours symbolise varies depending on point of view. Generally speaking:

• red represents power or African blood spilled in defence of the land
• yellow for peace and harmony between Ethiopia’s various ethnic and religious groups
• green is almost always said to symbolize the land and its fertility

Other African nations, upon their independence from their colonial rulers so often adopted these three colours that they are known as the Pan-African colours.

Earlier to 1996, and to some extent even today, the ‘plain’ flag was commonly seen across the nation and the world.

Formerly, especially during the Derg regime, a number of different emblems were experimented with.

Nevertheless, the basic colour schematic has remained constant. Even the oppressive Derg did not dare to tamper with the colours’ layout. However simply it detached and changed the imperial emblem after Haile Selassie’s overthrow.

An alternative coat of arms featuring a five pointed star and rays over a cogwheel bounded by a wreath of leaves is now the featured emblem.

The star, which is a pentagram, is yellow on a blue disc, which lays on top of the green and red stripes.

The star confirms to Ethiopia’s bright future and possibly echoes the connection with the House of King Solomon, while the yellow rays which it emits are equidistant and are said to represent the equality of all Ethiopians regardless of race, creed, or gender.

Keywords: Ethiopia, flag, Battle of Adwa, Solomonic dynasty,

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