The national flag of Ivory Coast (french: drapeau de la Côte d'Ivoire) is a tricolor flag consisting of equal bands of orange ( hoist side), white, and green. The proportions of the flag are 2:3. It is the national emblem of the

Republic of Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre i ...

as affirmed in Article 29 of the

Constitution of Ivory Coast The Constitution of Ivory Coast was approved by referendum on October 30, 2016 and officially adopted on November 8, 2016. Ivory Coast has had three constitutions in its history. Previous Constitutions 1960 Constitution On October 31, 1960, t ...

in 1960.

Design and symbolism

In 1959, when the Ivorian Legislative Assembly adopted the flag, Minister of State stated: When presenting the colors of the flag to the 1960 constitutional assembly, commissioner Mamadou Coulibaly said: wrote in 1964, "The flag unites the colors of the three great landscapes of the Ivory Coast: green forest, white lagoon and orange savanna."

Adoption

The 1958 referendum replaced the

French Fourth Republic The French Fourth Republic (french: Quatrième république française) was the republican government of France from 27 October 1946 to 4 October 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution. It was in many ways a revival of the Third Re ...

with the Fifth Republic and at the same time replaced the

French Union The French Union () was a political entity created by the French Fourth Republic to replace the old French colonial empire system, colloquially known as the " French Empire" (). It was the formal end of the "indigenous" () status of French subj ...

with the French Community, under which most colonies became "autonomous states", including Ivory Coast on 4 December 1958. The new status allowed the adoption of a distinctive flag for the first time, in place of the

French flag The national flag of France (french: link=no, drapeau français) is a tricolour featuring three vertical bands coloured blue ( hoist side), white, and red. It is known to English speakers as the ''Tricolour'' (), although the flag of Ireland ...

. The French commissioner suggested a red-white-and-blue flag with stars, but Ivorians wanted a greater departure from the flag of the former colonial power. The orange-white-and-green flag was adopted by law number 59-240, passed by the Ivorian Legislative Assembly on 3 December 1959, just before the first anniversary of the country's autonomy. Head of government

Félix Houphouët-Boigny Félix Houphouët-Boigny (; 18 October 1905 – 7 December 1993), affectionately called Papa Houphouët or Le Vieux ("The Old One"), was the first president of Ivory Coast, serving from 1960 until his death in 1993. A tribal chief, he wo ...

declared full independence from France on 7 August 1960, and the Legislative Assembly sat as a

constituent assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

to draft a new constitution. Augustin Loubao proposed changing the orange stripe to red, to symbolize a willingness to shed blood to defend the new republic. Other legislators expressed strong opposition to any change, and the existing flag was retained in Article 1 of the constitution adopted on 3 December 1960. It was retained as Article 29 of the 2000 constitution and Article 48 of the 2016 constitution.

Colors

The three bands of the Ivorian tricolor must have the same width, and the mast is always placed on the orange band side. Although all laws define the colors of the flag, they do not specify the shade, so the bright orange and green colors can be replaced with slightly darker tones depending on the location and circumstances. The LAlbum des pavillons nationaux et des marques distinctives (The Album of National Pavilions and Distinguishing Trademarks)'', the

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

edition of the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service of the Navy, indicates that the official colors of the Ivorian flag are orange 151 C and green 347 C. CMYK values for the flag are based on Ivorian government usage. These are a little darker than the

Pantone Pantone LLC (stylized as PANTONE) is a limited liability company headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey. The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, notably graphi ...

colors which are used by the similar flag of Ireland.

Similar flags

The

Irish flag The national flag of Ireland ( ga, bratach na hÉireann), frequently referred to in Ireland as 'the tricolour' () and elsewhere as the Irish tricolour is a vertical tricolour of green (at the hoist), white and orange. The proportions of t ...

has a similar color layout to the Ivorian one, but with the green on the hoist side and wider proportions (1:2 rather than 2:3). When

Murielle Ahouré Murielle Ahouré (born 23 August 1987) is an Ivorian sprinter who competes in the 60 meters, 100 m and 200 m. She was a double silver medalist at the 2013 world championships in Moscow. She came second in both the 100 and 200 meters at this ...

celebrated winning the 2018 world indoor 60-meter dash, for lack of an Ivorian flag to wave, she borrowed an Irish flag from a spectator and reversed it. Due to this similarity, in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, Ulster loyalists have sometimes desecrated the Ivorian flag, mistaking it for the Irish one. In some cases, Ivorian flags displayed in Northern Ireland have signs explicitly labelling them as such nearby to avoid having them desecrated by Ulster loyalists mistaking them for Irish ones. The flag of Niger, also adopted in 1959 when Niger and Ivory Coast were both members of the Conseil de l'Entente, is a horizontal tricolor of orange, white and green; as with the Ivorian flag, the orange and green are sometimes said to represent the arid north and the more fertile south respectively.

References

External links