Flag of Cameroon

The republic of Cameroon is a country central-west Africa, bordered west by Nigeria, northeast from Chad and to the east by the Central African Republic. The country is called as “Africa in miniature” because of its geological and cultural features. The natural features include beaches, deserts, rainforests, savannas and mountains. The country has over 200 different linguistic groups. Cameroon is also known for its native music particularly the makossa and bikutsi. In addition, the successful national football team is a feat of Cameroon.

The national flag of Cameroon has been in use since May 20, 1975 after Cameroon became a unified state. The design is a vertical tricolor of green and red alongside yellow with a defaced five-pointed star in the center. There are many varieties regarding the star’s size though the frequently used size is a star contained with the inside stripes.

The color combination uses the traditional Pan-African colors. In addition, Cameroon is the second state to use the combination. The three-color combination is adapted from the flag of France. The center stripe represents unity, the color red represents unity and the star is known as “the star of unity”. The yellow stands for the sun and the northern part of the country, the savannas. The color green represents the southern forest parts of Cameroon. The old flag of Cameroon, used from 1961 to 1975, had a similar color scheme however; it uses two gold stars in the upper half of the green which is darker than the third stripe if compared.

The flag was adopted after the British South Cameroon’s joining of the state of Cameroon. The original flag was made to law by Law 46 of October 26, 1957. It was the simple tricolor. The new constitution on the other hand confirmed it on February 21, 1960.