🇨🇲 The colours of Cameroon

Cameroon's flag combines green, red, and yellow, colours shared by many African nations. Red in the centre, with a yellow star, stands for unity. Green symbolises the forests of the south, while yellow represents the sun and the northern savannas.

Where no official value is given, the swatch shows the colour family, not the exact shade.

• The flag uses the pan-African colours: green, red, and yellow.
• Red and the central star both symbolise unity.
• Green stands for southern forests; yellow for the northern savannas and the sun.
• The flag's current form was adopted in 1975.
• Earlier versions had two gold stars for the two regions of the federation.

The colours of the flag of Cameroon

The flag of Cameroon features three vertical bands: green on the left, red in the centre, and yellow on the right. A yellow five-pointed star sits in the middle of the red band. Each colour has a specific meaning: green is for the southern forests, red is linked to unity, and yellow stands for both the sun and the northern savannas. The star is also described as the 'star of unity.' These meanings are widely recognised and form part of the flag's official symbolism.

How the colours were chosen of Cameroon

Cameroon first adopted a plain tricolour of green, red, and yellow in 1957. When British Southern Cameroons joined the Republic of Cameroon in 1961, two gold stars were added to the green band to represent the two regions of the new federation. In 1975, after Cameroon became a unitary state, the flag changed to its current form: a single yellow star on the red band, emphasising unity.

Official shades and rules of Cameroon

The flag always displays a yellow star within the central red stripe, but the star's size can vary. The three vertical stripes are always green, red, and yellow, following the order from the flagpole outward. There are no official shade codes or proportions given in the sources.