The Secret History Behind Cape Verde's Flag
Cape Verde's flag has one star for each of its ten islands.
The circle of ten yellow five-pointed stars sits on the hoist side, on a flag with blue, white, red, white and blue bands. Blue stands for the ocean and the sky, and the white and red bands for the road to building the country, with white for peace and red for effort.
The current flag was adopted on September 22, 1992, after the country moved to a multi-party democracy. From independence in 1975 until then, Cape Verde had used a flag in the Pan-African colors that was almost identical to that of Guinea-Bissau, because the two countries had planned to unite.
The date printed on every Cape Verde design in our catalog, July 5, 1975, is Independence Day.
Ten stars on the sea, one for every island.
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