Saltires, Black Triangles, Unusual Shapes Quiz

Answer: Zero

Between 1979 and 2011, Libya had an all-green flag. Mauritania had an all-green flag with a yellow crescent and star design until 2017. Since 2017, Jamaica has been the only national flag with no red, white, or blue. However, its three colours of green, yellow/gold, and black are the fourth, fifth, and sixth most popular colors on flags.

When Jamaica became independent of the UK in 1962, it held a national competition to design a flag. No one won this contest, so a bipartisan government committee was formed, and a horizontal tricolour of three equal bands of green, yellow, and black was proposed. However, this was considered too close to the flag of the newly independent Tanganyika (later, in 1964, Tanzania), which had a flag of a green field with a gold-edged black horizontal band in the centre. The Jamaican proposal was then changed to a gold saltire (diagonal cross) with black and green alternating triangles.

The "Ministry Paper No. 28 - Jamaican National Flag" (1962) stated "Gold recalls the shining sun, black reflects hardships, and green represents the land" This was amended in 1966 to "black representing the strength and creativity of the people which has allowed them to overcome difficulties, gold for the wealth of the country and the golden sunshine, and green for the lush vegetation of the island, as well as hope."

Answer: It was the same national flag as the 1951-1969 flag

After WWII, Italy relinquished all territorial claims on Libya, which facilitated an independent Kingdom of Libya in 1951. The monarch, King Idris Al Senussi, approved the new flag (pictured). Red represented the blood, shed in the struggle for Libyan independence; black symbolised the dark years under Italian occupation; and green represented agriculture and future prosperity. The three colours also represented the three traditional regions of Libya: Red - Fezzan; Black - Cyrenaica; and Green - Tripolitania. The star and the crescent were Islamic symbols.

In 1969, Muammar Gaddafi led a coup d'état and, as a republic, installed a series of national flags until the plain green flag (representing Islam and Gaddafi's political philosophy, known as the Green Book) was installed in 1979. When the regime fell in 2011, the 1951 flag was reinstated as the national flag.

Answer: Two red stripes were added top and bottom to the existing flag

In 1958, Mauritania underwent a two-year transition from being a French colony to an independent sovereign country which was achieved in November 1960. In 1958, a national flag was adopted showing a green field with a yellow crescent and star. Both the field and the symbols represented Islam. When independence was achieved, the current flag was officially adopted as the national flag.

In 2017, a national referendum was held proposing to change the flag by adding two red stripes, each being 1/5 of the total height of the flag. There was overwhelming support, with 87% of people voting for the amendment. The modified flag was officially adopted on 25 October 2017. The red stripes represent the country's struggle for independence. As such, the flag now had Pan-African colours (see Q7).

Answer: Brazil

All of the countries named have flags with green fields (backgrounds); Saudi Arabia has an all-green flag decorated with a white sword and script; Bangladesh has a central red disc on a green field; and Pakistan has a white vertical stripe near the hoist and a white star and crescent on the green field.

Brazil's flag is unique. It has a green field, with a yellow rhombus (sometimes referred to as a lozenge - a heraldic term) that occupies 28% of the field, nearly touching the centre top and bottom and the midpoints of the hoist and fly. After the Brazilian Declaration of Independence in 1822, the Emperor of Brazil was Pedro I. His royal standard was revised to become the flag of the Empire of Brazil. The new flag highlighted the imperial coat of arms within a yellow rhombus on a green field. The green and yellow colors represented the dynastic houses of Pedro I and his consort, Maria Leopoldina of Austria, respectively. When Brazil became a republic in 1889, a green and gold stars and stripes flag was launched, but it was vetoed in favour of continuity of the green field with yellow, but instead of the coat of arms, this component was replaced by a blue celestial globe and the "Ordem e Progresso" motto around the 'equator' of the globe. Stars were added, one for each federal district - 21 initially, incrementing to 27 in 1994.

Brazil is the only country with a national flag with a lozenge. Some refer to the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines' flag as a flag with lozenges because it has three green diamonds in its central band. However, in its official description, these shapes are specifically referred to as diamonds.

The image depicts the Hercílio Luz Bridge in Florianopolis. It is the longest suspension bridge in Brazil.

Answer: Middle East and Africa

Pan-African countries refer to two sets of colours:
Green, yellow, and red, which were the colours of the Ethiopian flag (pictured) at the time when this country defeated the Italian army at the Battle of Adwa in 1896, ending the Italian protectorate and any threat of colonisation. Ethiopia and Liberia were the only two African countries that were never colonised. As such, African countries that achieved independence from European powers in the 1960's, adopted Ethiopian colours in their own new national flags. These countries included Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Sao Tome and Principe, and Togo. Ghana and Guinea were the first to achieve independence in 1957 and 1958, respectively

Red, green, and black were introduced as Pan-African colours by Marcus Garvey, founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League in 1920. These colours have been incorporated into some national flags, but these colors have a broader meaning, including Pan-Africanism as an entity, plus they have also been used to represent black nationalism. African countries that incorporated these colours into their national flags include Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, South Sudan, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. (Some of these countries have used additional colours in their national flags.)

Non-African nations such as Jamaica, Grenada, Guyana, and Saint Kitts and Nevis have historical connections to Africa, and therefore Pan-African colours have been used, in part, by these countries. Lithuania's flag of green, red, and gold has no connection to Pan-African countries' flags.

The Pan-Arab colors are black, white, green, and red. In the 14th century, Arab poet, Safi al-Din al-Hilli wrote a verse about Arab colours: "White are our acts, black our battles, green our fields, and red our swords" While these colours have been retained as representative of the Arab world, they have been given a more modern interpretation: Black presents the Abbasid and Rashidun caliphates; white represents the Umayyad caliphate; green the Fatimid caliphate or Islam, and red the Hashemite dynasty and the (1962) Arab Revolt.

Flags that use Pan-Arab colours (alone) include: Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Syria, and the UAE. Palestine and Western Sahara have flags with these colours, but they are not recognised by the United Nations.

In the 1950s, the Arab Liberation flag (a tricolor of black, white, and red - no green) was inspired by the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. These colours influenced the flags of Egypt and Yemen.

Answer: Zambia

Albania, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, and Zambia all have eagles on their national flag, and a dozen more have eagles on their coat of arms. (Some experts describe the Zimbabwe flag with an eagle, but this is not official: it is a Great Zimbabwe Bird, or Hungwe. It is believed that the stone carving that inspired the emblem was an African fish eagle or a bateleur eagle.) Only two flags have a green color and an eagle. Zambia and Mexico, though the green in Mexico's flag is a tricolour along with white and red.

The national flag of Zambia was adopted after independence was achieved on 24 October 1964. The flag has a green field with an orange-coloured African fish eagle flying above a rectangular block of three vertical stripes, of red, black, and orange.

The placement of the eagle and stripes at the flag's fly is peculiar, as most emblems and devices on flags are placed either centrally or at the hoist.

Green stands for the nation's agriculture and flora; red for the nation's struggle for freedom; black for the "Zambian people and all black Africans"; and orange for the land's copper, its main resource, natural resources, and mineral wealth. The eagle flying above the coloured stripes represents "freedom and the people's ability to rise above the nation's issues".

Answer: Domenica

Dominica's flag is dominated by its green field, but it is the only national flag whose symbolism is built around a parrot - the Imperial Amazon (also called the Sisserou). The parrot is endemic and endangered.

The green field represents the island's lush vegetation, with a specific mention of the rainforest, the only national flag where green is so attributed. The Cross represents Christianity and the Trinity, but also the island's three main rivers and the natives. The ten stars are the islands' ten parishes, and the red disc stands for justice (an unusual colour for justice - usually it is represented by blue or white in a few cases)

And then there is the parrot - the only national flag that features a parrot and one mainly purple - a rare colour in vexillology. This is also the only national flag that features an endangered species as its central emblem. The bird also faces left, which is extremely rare in vexillology.

This combination of endemic wildlife, religious symbolism, geographic symbolism, and unique colour choices makes Dominica's symbolism the most unusual of any green flag.

Answer: Burundi

The flag of the United Kingdom, the Union Flag, features two saltires (the Cross of St Andrew representing Scotland and the Cross of St Patrick representing Northern Ireland), along with the traditional Cross of St George representing England.

The only two other countries with saltires are Jamaica and Burundi, both flags having significant green colouring.

The basic design of the Burundi national flag was designed in 1962 after its independence from Belgium. The core of the flag is a white saltire, which divides the field into alternating red and green trapesiums (not quite like the green and black rectangles of the Jamaican flag). The centre of the saltire is a white disc. In 1967, three red six-pointed stars were added. Since then, the only change has been a slight change in the height-to-length ratio.

The saltire represents peace; the green represents Burundi's hopes and future development; the red represents the struggle attaining independence. The three stars represent the three ethnic groups of the country: the Hutu, the Twa, and the Tutsi. They also represent the three elements of the national motto: "Unity, Work and Progress".

Answer: Eritrea

How many flags have a scalene triangle, let alone two? And then there is the third, larger, red triangle, which is an isosceles triangle. This is a new flag from a new country that became independent from Ethiopia in 1993 (which landlocked Ethiopia in the process). These components of the flag are based on the banner of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), though the EPLF's yellow star was swapped for the current olive branch emblem. This emblem came from the blue and green flag of Eritrea when it sought independence from Ethiopia between 1961 and 1991. The emblem on the blue and green flag was a green emblem that evoked the UN symbol, an element originally granted by the United Nations when Eritrea was a UN Trust Territory in the 1950s, to signify the territory's autonomous status. The emblem was modified on the Eritrean national flag by retaining the gold colour of the 'former' EPLF's flag, and the number of leaves was changed to 30 to indicate the 30-year struggle for independence.

The red colour of the flag is a memorial for the lives lost in the struggle for independence; green represents agriculture, and blue, the Red Sea. These meanings are quite different from those of its neighbours; they represent Eritrea's own revolutionary narrative rather than broad African symbolism, perhaps because Eritrea gained independence from an African neighbour in the 90s rather than from a European master in the 60s.

Answer: Nigeria

There are only three current national flags that use just green and white as their only colours: Nigeria, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. Niger, Algeria, and Sierra Leone all have green and white flags, but each has one additional colour: Orange red, and blue, respectively.

So, to recap this quiz to date, we have seen that green flags have some peculiar features, with Jamaica, with its no red, white, or blue saltire, being the archetype. However, the green colour in national flags can be attributed to one of three predictable categories: Islamic symbolism (Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania); Nature/agriculture (Bangladesh, Domenica, Zambia); and Pan-African colours (Ghana, Ethiopia, Guinea).

Enter Nigeria, a marginally Islamic majority country surrounded by countries with Pan-African countries where the green components of their flags relate to agriculture or natural resources (except Chad's, which has no green component).

Nigeria's flag is a minimalist, European-style tricolour is uncommon in Africa (only Guinea, Mali, and Ivory Coast are the only others). The green on the Nigerian flag symbolises peace; the white symbolises peace. Simple but different: It is one of the few green-dominant flags with no religious symbolism. Another unique green flag.