The Secret History Behind Benin's Flag
Benin's flag spent fifteen years replaced by a very different one, and came back.
It was adopted on November 16, 1959, when the country was still called Dahomey, to replace the French tricolor. It has a vertical green band at the hoist and two horizontal bands, yellow on top and red below, on the fly side.
In 1975, when the People's Republic of Benin was established, the flag became a green field with a red star. When multi-party democracy was restored in 1990, the original design was brought back on August 1, 1990.
The colors are the Pan-African ones: green stands for hope, yellow for wealth and red for courage.
The date printed on every Benin design in our catalog, August 1, 1960, is Independence Day.
A tricolor that was put away and came back.
Looking for a gift with a story? See our heritage gift guide, or read the story behind any other country's flag on our free Flag Stories page.