Why Do All West African Countries Have Similar Flags?
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- Опубліковано 11 чер 2024
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▶ In this video I talk about the fact that many West African countries have flags with similar colors: Red, Green and Yellow/Gold. I explain how these colors come from the original flag of Ethiopia, most likely due to the fact that this country was not colonized by Europeans in the same way as the rest of the continent, thus becoming an inspiration for other African nations at the time of their independence. Many of them did not choose the colors based on Ethiopia's flag directly, but rather through regional influence of other countries around them that did so, with Ghana being a strong influence in this regard, while Ethiopia remains as the indirect influence. Some of these countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Senegal, São Tomé e Príncipe and Togo. These also share an historical connection, given that many of them were colonized by France, save some exceptions where the colonizer was the United Kingdom or Portugal. We learn how each of the countries adopted the current colours, what the direct influence is, when it happened, what the flags previously used were, as well as the possible connections between them. I also briefly mention the other set of colors that are sometimes known as 'Pan-African' - red, black and green - although these are mostly used by nations in East Africa.
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Intro
00:55 The Pan African Colours
03:03 Ethiopia - The Origin of the Colours
04:42 Shortform
05:46 Benin
06:57 Burkina Faso
07:50 Cameroon
08:41 Central African Republic
09:30 Chad
10:20 Congo
10:55 Ghana
12:43 Guinea
13:02 Guinea-Bissau
13:35 Mali
14:12 Senegal
14:46 São Tomé e Príncipe
15:16 Togo
15:58 Summary
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*Are there any other similar flags from other regions of the world?*
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first, one is french guiana in south america
Maybe you can do crescent and star
Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador all have a yellow-blue-red tricolour, and Bolivia is similar but with green instead of blue
@@oguzhan9346 Both are on my list! The crescent one I believe we immediately have the muslim connection but the stars are an interesting question
@@lanceuppercut_ True!
Lithuania is my favourite west African country 🙂
First reply for video
And bolivia
And Myanmar
And Saint Kitts and Nevis
And Grenada
I'm an Ethiopian. So happy you covered this. One thing I'd like to add is that when you look at a rainbow from afar it looks like it has 3 colors, red, yellow and red. This is very significant as most of the Ethiopian rulers were Orthodox Christian and the rainbow is an important symbol of God's favor.
I'm sorry my country colonised urs
@@legobricksandvideogames NO ONE colonized us!
@@Betty-jp7sw Colonized by IL DUCE's Army.
Thanks for the added information! :)
@@General.Knowledge Somali here, Somalia avoided the usage of the colors because of its long standing feud with Ethiopia over the Ogaden region
Fun fact: Rwanda (Another African country) use to also use the same Pan-African colours on their flag right up until 2001.
It was the guinea flag but with... Let me say this.. AN *_R_*
Great video (as always). Just one thing, at 4:38, "ethiopic language" is actually called Amharic, better to say that I think
Thanks! And thanks for the correction
@@General.Knowledgeand Ethiopia got hundreds of languages
Not really - Amharic is the 2nd largest language of Ethiopia with 29% speaking it as their mother tongue.
Oromo is the most spoken mother tongue, by 33% of the population.
Next is Somali and Tigrinya spoken by 6% each. They (plus Afar) are all official languages of equal status.
I think where you got confused is that Amharic is/used to be the lingua franca and used to be the language of education and therefore it has the most speakers since people learned it as 2nd language.
However this is no longer really the case, since most regions now use their own language in primary education and use English for secondary and tertiary education.
We have different regional languages in Ethiopia, but the national language of Ethiopia is Amharic.
I think the 'Ethiopic' is an other name for the Older language ''Ge'ez'', so in my opinion this is not a problem. Plus, all the Amharic Alphabets(Feedels) come from the Ethiopic(Ge'ez) script !
**
I found this video very informative. Thanks for the deep explanation.
Togo's flag is quite exclusive; the placement of the horizontal green stripes and the square with the star in the centre at the top left are both very unique. However, the flag of the Republic of Congo is much more conventional and has a much nicer, cleaner appearance.
I consider Togo's flag one of the most beautiful of all national flags.
South American Flags. There are the flags of countries liberated by Simon Bolivar, and there are the countries liberated by Jose de San Martin.
Good idea!
@General Knowledge 2:14 Hey there, Mauritania was a French colony and Western Sahara was a Spanish colony. I think there's an error.
I really like the flat of Congo. Very classy!! Great video, and so helpful to help understand the logic of flag choices in this area of Africa. Again, thank you for creating such interesting and helpful videos.
Thanks for watching! :)
Great video.
Thanks!
Wow, this is entertaining and interesting! 👏
nice job
Thanks!
2:14 Maurintania wasn't a spanish colony, but Occidental Sahara was.
In my mind the Pan-African colors are red, yellow, green, and black.... Anyways anyone else notice how most French flags use red, yellow, blue, and white? Not only in France itself but also places like New Orleans, Acadiana, and Acadia.
Are you planning on doing another video on Ecuador, Venezuela, and Columbia's flags?
can you make a video about the Balts? the last remaining ones being Lithuanians and Latvians that still have their own country intact
Love General Knowledge from Vietnam ❤
Hello, very interesting. Why did you not include The Gambia when you did include Chad?
Cape Verde is one of my favorite African countries flags.
It's pretty cool! But to be honest I liked some of their other proposals best
@@General.Knowledge , eu irei conhecê-las também.
FYI, General Knowledge - I'm surprised as a Portugese you did not mention that Cabo Verde changed its name in 2013 and just as Cote d'Ivoire does not want it's name translated. Thank you for your videos 👍🏼
of course you do because your people colonized them.
The map you showed mixed up Mauritania as a Spanish colony and Western Sahara as a French one. It was the other way around.
True! My mistake
Is there going to be another contest to design flags? We want another one and I have some really good ideas.
Maybe! What could the topic be?
@@General.Knowledge like last time? Or flags from races and nations from SCI-FI culture, from games and movies.
Next: Scandinavians/nordic countries flag...?
Short answer: Denmark
Long answer: General Knowledge
ua-cam.com/video/y2A8Vn20Cek/v-deo.html
I already did one a few years ago!
Well that would be a short video
Can you make a video about the countries that divided into two
🎶🎵They never got Ethiopia 🎶🎵🎶
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ልምላሜ ፡ ሐብት ፡
🟨🟨🟨🦁🟨🟨🟨 ተስፋ ፡ እኩልነት ፡
🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥 መስዋዕትነት ፡ ጀግንነት ።
Can you please talk about the old flag of Sudan and Gabon and Rwanda
You are the guy that does the mini brands too??
ETHIOPIA 💪🇪🇹✊IS NOWHERE NEAR WEST AFRICA ❤🎉💪👈🇪🇹🇪🇹🎉🎉🇪🇹👈✊✊✊✊💪💪
Fun fact: The Helvetic Republic, a French puppet state in Switzerland that existed from 1798 to 1803 during the Napoleonic era, had a similar flag: a green - red - yellow horizontal tricolor.
True! Do you know why they chose that flag?
@@General.Knowledge Red and yellow represented Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, the first three cantons of Switzerland. Green symbolised freedom and the revolution (when several subject territories rebelled against the domination of a few cantons - with the help of the French, of course).
If the topic is flags that are similar to each other, then it's only a matter of time until we see a video about all the flags with our well-known Nordic cross both existing, fan-made and possibly coming in the future.
I don’t understand why you count a change from green to blue as still counting but a change from yellow to white as not counting.
Hello there
Do a video covering the African flags that have no red! They're few and far between, but they *are* interesting!
Could you talk about Ukr being west-east divided? for example. election results in 2004 and 2010
Are you of Russian extraction by any chance ? Lol. Im not necessarily disagreeing with your point btw
@@t.c.4321 no comments
Why is Mauritania not included? Its also Red green and yellow
Oh yeah! Totally missed it due to the different pattern, I didn't even associate the colours
Thank you 🙏 green stands for wealth,health…yellow stands for religion,believe…red stands for war defending land…👍🎥👏👏👏
Super interesting as always. What flag was used by the union of Senegal and Gambia when they called themselves Senegambia?
Apparently a very strange looking mix of both countries' flags! A vertical tricolor or green-blue-red (with thin white lines in between each of those). Adding a green star in the center of the central blue band (terrible contrast).
What about Mauritania is a Pan African flag as well look it up also added the red recently
lithuania is definitely a west african country
So is burma and bolivia
@@FF-le3ps what is burma?
2:12 Why does the map have Mauritania as spanish and Sahrawi as french?!?!?!
And also cameroon and togo were much bigger
Chad? Thought theirs looked like Romania?
I remember when there was 1 view
Make a video of why all the western flags are the same.
As a Somali, this angers me to an insane degree
Jesus why? Not deep
Why?
The Kingdom of The Homie is the coolest
We're getting one for every continent 👍
Oceania might be difficult!
Benin could have such an epic and unique flag with that elephant, but sadly no.
Right? Sometimes I feel like countries let go of their historical symbols to appear "modern", but it takes away all character.
Cameroon, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea aren't in west Africa but in central Africa
Flags are Love, Flags are Life
Yes!
@@General.Knowledge Awesome. Thank you.
Modern Ethiopia was before "Abyssania"
Why isn't Mauritania included?
I think the reason why these countries have similar flags is because of their culture.
What? But the cultures are so different from each other
A little back story of the "Pan African" Movement, Pan Africanism wasnt a movement created in africa, it was created in the late 1800s by black americans and carribeans mostly black americans in the united states, the pan africanism colours is mostly used more by the black diaspora.
This referring to the green-black-red scheme right?
@@General.Knowledge Yes Correct. The Black Diaspora advocates for pan africanism, maybe not so much the african continent but in recent days they are advocating for african unity and unity amongst the black diaspora in the western hemisphere especially those of us who are decendents of slaves, but yeah the colors is mostly for unity with continental africans and the diaspora in the americas
RBG= Red Black Green Pan African Flag by Marcus Mosiah Garvey in 1921 UNIA
I don't like to upset anyone, but I think a flag must be unique and simple. You need to look at a flag and say: - ok! It's that one.
I can't take a quick look at these African countries and tell: it's Ghana or it's Cameroon.
The same I say to Central American countries and Middle East countries as well.
If I were an African ruler, I would ask my historians to study the origins of the country to look for other colors and symbols. And also let the citizens to decide.
You left out Mauritania
ok
Bolivian flag came first before Ethiopias flag ,inspired by the end colors of the rainbow
A great majority of African flags that use the red gold green colour scheme are French.
There's definitely more to it than the desire of 'honoring' Ethiopia. I think that was the first trigger for the early choices but then it became much of a regional trend for that area of Africa. With countries wanting to have similar flags to each other due to being neighbours but also sharing historical heritage together - namely that of French colonization.
I think the title should be "history of west African flag". The word "why" in the title is misguiding
You forgot france,an African country but without the pan African colors
Some of the best flags are west African.
I dont think so. In my opinion W.A. flags are very similar,boring and ugly.
I think the colors have a good combo accept c.a.r in my opinion.
Inspired by ethiopia because Ethiopia was only free african country
True dat
Well, not really true if we wanna be technically liberia and ethiopia wore the two non colonized countries in africa
Mauritania wasnt spanish
Only chad countries use these colors
*literally*
burkina faso really wanted to be a german colony
Ahh West Africa or should I say Reggae countries.
Sorry but Chad flag simply isn't Pan African.
The flag of Chad to the Pan-African flag is like the Bulgarian flag to the Pan-Slavic ones: Just switch blue with green
ኢትዮጵያ ለዘላለም ትኑር ኢትዮጵያ
France
East African Flags: Why are they all so similar?
Ghana flag 🇬🇭 is the real pan African.
Red for the blood of those who fought for the freedom
Anyone getting this refrence?
Because they are all Bob Marley
Comori and C.A.R. have very similar flags and you put C.A.R to are panafrican and Comors not panafrican also zimbabve use panafrican colors only with multiple stripes patern,,i only consider to panafrican flags trecolor patern flags ,only togo flag look panafrican even they have multiple stripes, panafrican colors are red,yelow,green,and black,,,paneuropean colors are blue,red,White,,,,,panarab colors are green,black,red,white,,pan east asian and southeastasian colors are blue and red with minor add of yelow and white elements,,panturkic colors are light blue and red ,comunist flags are red and yelow flag with red or yelow star,,islamic flags have cresent and star and green color,,most countries who share similar culture have similar flags,every flag have deep cultural and simbolic conection ,for example flag of montenegro use red field conecting to albanian flag cause most montenegrins are albanians who adopted serbian language, also use golden twoheded bird with open wings conecting montenegro with russian golden bird also with bizantin golden bird also with albanian black bird also with serbian white bird but serbian bird have close wings so montenegrin bird by opening wings flaying towords albania and russia far from serbia also montenegrin bird have shield with veneto lion conecting montenegro with veneto and italy,in past montenegrin bird was white like serbian bird but is changed to gold like russian in past montenegrin flag was treecolor like serbian red blue and white only with lighter blue to shade diference betwen serbian and montenegrin flag,similar to diferent betwen holand and looxemburg, now flag is red like albanians flag,montenegro by changing flag color and bird color worked on deserbification of montenegro,,similar afilations show most flags in world with elements of flag and changing flags,every country when choose flag wants to with flag show political and historic conections with another countries who used similar flag before ,kosovo used same patern like bosnia yelow map with White stars on blue background ,yelow map on blue back ground simbolized european union flag and white stars on blue back ground simbolized american flag element,bosnia and kosovo using that elemente thanking for liberation from serbia to U.S.A and E.U. ,,romania,andora,moldiva,tchad,use french flag with yelow iner showing cultural afilations to france ,,
Cameroon is not west Africa.
Togo is the best🩷
:)
Disliked for going alphabetically. You're supposed to do Ghana after Ethiopia.
Ghana is what influenced the other countries directly not ethiopia. Ghana was influenced by Ethiopia.
First
Ethiopia is the exact opposite.
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 የዳግማዊ ፡ ምኒልክ ፡
🟨🟨🟨ም 🟨🟨🟨 ዘመነ ፡ መንግሥት ፡
🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥 ሰንደቅ ፡ ዓላማ።
All are the same also they have civil unrest ! Unsafe places to travel
First and all, Everything you said about Cameroon 🇨🇲 is 80% wrong. I think you were not genuine about Cameroon or you have knowledge deficiency about Cameroon
I think Togo has one of the better African flags personally
Ethiopia and Cameroon are my favorite to use the pan African flags. Overall though Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda are my favorite African flags.
@@justinarzola4584 Are you Nigerian? I have never heard a non-Nigerian compliment the Nigerian flag.
@@homoeconomicus5711 no.
@@justinarzola4584 As a Nigeria, I appreciate you liking our flag.
Lack of creativity
cope
Ethiopia is nowhere near west Africa.
He said that in the video
pkk
First