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 (; ,) is the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as the regional state of Oromia. With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 census, it is the largest city in the country and the List of cities in Africa b ...

on 31 January 2010.

History

During the 8th

African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union 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 African Union. The b ...

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 (20 October 2011) was a Libyan military officer, revolutionary, politician and political theorist who ruled Libya from 1969 until Killing of Muammar Gaddafi, his assassination by Libyan Anti-Gaddafi ...

-led

African Union Commission The African Union Commission (AUC) acts as the executive/administrative branch or secretariat of the African Union. It is headed by a chairperson and consists of a number of Commissioners dealing with different areas of policy. The African ...

(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 (, ; 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 selected for the Flag of the ...

, 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 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

background symbolizing the hope of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

and 55

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

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

South Sudan South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the north by Sudan; on the east by Ethiopia; on the south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya; and on the ...

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

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

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 chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

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; , OUA) was an African intergovernmental organization established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 33 signatory governments. Some of the key aims of the OAU were to encourage political and ec ...

, 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 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

(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 textile, fabric (most often rectangular) with distinctive colours and design. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design employed, and fla ...

Flags of international organizations Flags introduced in 2004 Tricolor flags

History

Previous flag (2004–2010)

See also

References