The Secret History Behind Burkina Faso's Flag
Burkina Faso's flag was adopted the same day the country was given a new name.
On August 4, 1984, Thomas Sankara renamed the country, formerly Upper Volta, as Burkina Faso, which means "land of upright people" or "land of incorruptible people", and a new flag was adopted. It has two horizontal bands, red on top and green below, with a yellow five-pointed star in the center.
The colors are Pan-African. Red is also said to stand for the revolution and green for the abundance of agricultural and natural riches, and the yellow star is the guiding light of the revolution.
The flag of Upper Volta had three horizontal bands of black, white and red, for the three branches of the Volta River: the Black, White and Red Volta.
The date printed on every Burkina Faso design in our catalog, August 5, 1960, is the day the country, then called Upper Volta, became independent from France.
A new name, a new flag and one star.
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