The current flag of the African Union was adopted at its 14th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, which took place in

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...

on 31 January 2010.

History

During the 8th

African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the Africa ...

Summit which took place in

on 29 and 30 January 2007, the Heads of State and Government decided to launch a competition for the selection of a new flag for the Union. They prescribed a green background for the flag symbolising hope of Africa and stars to represent Member States. Pursuant to this decision, the

Muammar Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...

-led

African Union Commission The Commission of the African Union acts as the executive/administrative branch or secretariat of the African Union (and is somewhat analogous to the European Commission). It consists of a number of Commissioners dealing with different areas of ...

(AUC) organised a competition for the selection of a new flag for the African Union. The AUC received a total of 106 entries proposed by citizens of 19 African countries and two from the Diaspora. The proposals were then examined by a panel of experts put in place by the African Union Commission and selected from the five African regions for short listing according to the main directions given by the Heads of State and Government. The winning design was created by

Yadesa Bojia Yadesa Bojia ( om, Yaaddeessaa Booji'aa; born July 9, 1970 in Ambo, Ethiopia) is a Seattle-based Ethiopian graphic designer and artist. Bojia has exhibited regionally since 2006. In 2010, he rose to international acclaim when his design was selec ...

, an Ethiopian-born American artist and graphic designer. The flag contains a

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

background symbolizing the hope of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and 55

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

stars to represent the Member States. When first adopted, there were 53 stars. However,

South Sudan South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the C ...

became the 54th member state on 27 July 2011, and

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

rejoined in January 2017, bringing the total to 55.

Previous flag (2004–2010)

The previous flag of the African Union was used from 2004 to 2010 and was composed of a broad

horizontal stripe at the top followed by a narrow band of

. Below is a broad

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

stripe bearing the then

emblem of the African Union The emblem of the African Union features a golden, boundary-less map of Africa inside two concentric circles, with stylised Palm tree, palm leaves shooting up on either side of the outer circle. Although when the AU was formed, a competition was ...

at its center followed by a narrow gold band and broad green stripe at the bottom. The AU was formed in 2002, without an official flag. In 2003, a competition was announced for designing a new emblem and flag. However, the Assembly of the African Union decided at the Addis Ababa session of 2004 to retain the emblem and flag of its predecessor, the

Organisation of African Unity The Organisation of African Unity (OAU; french: Organisation de l'unité africaine, OUA) was an intergovernmental organization established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 32 signatory governments. One of the main heads for OAU's ...

, and adopt them as the new AU flag and emblem. That flag was used from 1970 to 2002 as the OAU's flag. The color symbolism of the old flag is as follows: *The color

symbolizes African hopes and aspiration to unity. *The color

stands for African wealth and bright future. *The color

represents the purity of Africa's desire to have genuine friends throughout the world. *The color

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

(of the rings n the center stand for African solidarity and the blood shed for the liberation of Africa.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:African Union, Flag of the

Flag A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular or quadrilateral) with a distinctive design and colours. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design empl ...

Flags of international organizations Flags introduced in 2004

History

Previous flag (2004–2010)

See also

References