The Secret History Behind Jamaica's Flag

Jamaica's flag came out of a contest that had no winner.

A competition was announced on September 30, 1961, ahead of the expected independence. 368 designs were accepted, and a shortlist of 12 was sent to a bipartisan committee of the House of Representatives. The competition failed to produce a winner, and the committee came up with the design that became the flag.

It was first drawn with horizontal stripes, but that looked too similar to the flag of Tanganyika, so the gold saltire was used instead. The 1962 government paper explained the colors as "hardships there are but the land is green and the sun shineth": black for the challenges, green for the land and gold for the sun.

The date printed on every Jamaica design in our catalog, August 6, 1962, is the day the flag was adopted and Jamaica became independent.

A flag with no winner, and a whole island in three colors.

See the Jamaica Reggae Spirit Tee → · Browse the Caribbean collection → — or explore the story behind any other country's flag on our free Flag Story Cards page.