flag of Malawi

On June 30, 1964, just prior to independence, the British territory of Nyasaland, renamed Malawi at independence, was granted a coat of arms, which replaced a flag badge of earlier British colonial origin. The new design showed a leopard and a lion with a shield between them. On the shield was portrayed a stylized river, a lion, and a rising yellow sun. The national motto, “Unity and Freedom,” appeared below the arms, and at the top was a yellow disk surmounted by a bald eagle.

Malawi’s first national flag was hoisted at independence, on July 6, 1964. The design of the flag, three equal horizontal stripes of black, red, and green, corresponded to the flag used by the Malawi Congress Party, then the dominant political force in the country. The stripes on the flag symbolized respectively the African people of the country, the blood of martyrs for independence, and the ever-green nature of Malawi. The country’s name means “flaming waters,” referring to the setting sun on Lake Nyasa (known in Malawi as Lake Malawi), and a red half-sun was added to the top stripe of the national flag to distinguish it from the party flag.

The government of Pres. Bingu wa Mutharika proposed modifying the national flag, and the new design was adopted on July 29, 2010, and first hoisted on August 7. The stripes in the flag were reordered to red-black-green, and the rising half-sun was removed. In its place appeared a full white sun, with 45 rays radiating from it, centred in the flag. The rationale given for the change was that, whereas the half-sun symbolized the new emerging country, the full sun signified Malawi’s maturity as a nation.

The new flag, however, was disliked by a large segment of the Malawi populace, who preferred the original 1964 flag. Mutharika died in April 2012, and his successor, Joyce Banda, vowed to restore the old flag. The Malawi parliament voted to reinstate it as the national flag on May 28, and it came back into use.