The current flag of Malawi

Malawi

The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...

was adopted on 2010, after the Democratic Progressive Party

Democratic Progressive Party (Malawi)

The Democratic Progressive Party is the ruling political party in Malawi. The party was formed in February 2005 by Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika after a dispute with the United Democratic Front....

-led government had proposed a new flag. The stripes were altered from the previous flag to match the original Pan-African Flag

Pan-African flag

The Pan-African flag, also referred to as the UNIA flag, Afro-American flag or Black Liberation Flag, is a tri-color flag consisting of three equal horizontal bands colored red, black and green. It was originally created as an official banner to represent an international community for all African...

 layout, with the red stripe at the top, the black stripe in middle, and the green stripe at the bottom. The rising sun at the flag's top was replaced with a full, centred white sun representing the economic progress

Economy of Malawi

The economy of Malawi is predominantly agricultural, with about 90% of the population living in rural areas. The landlocked country in south central Africa ranks among the world's least developed countries. Agriculture accounts for 37% of GDP and 85% of export revenues...

 Malawi

Malawi

The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...

 has made since becoming independent. The opposition United Democratic Front

United Democratic Front (Malawi)

The United Democratic Front claims to be a liberal party in Malawi and is mainly strong in the southern region populated by ethnic Yao. Until 2009 the party was a member of Liberal International, which it joined at the latter's Reykjavík Congress in 1994...

 is challenging the legitimacy of flag change in court. The flag was endorsed by the President of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika

Bingu wa Mutharika

Bingu wa Mutharika is a Malawi economist who is President of Malawi. He took office on 24 May 2004 after winning a disputed presidential election...

, who approved the flag change on 29 July 2010. There was much public outcry about whether there was a need to change the flag, but continued despite being unwelcome to much of the public.

1964–2010

The previous flag was adopted on 6 July 1964. The rising sun

Sun

The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...

 represented the dawn of hope and freedom for the continent of Africa (when the flag was created, more countries in Africa were gaining independence

Independence

Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....

 from European imperial rule). The black represented the indigenous people of the continent, the red symbolized the blood of their struggle, and the green represented nature

Nature

Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...

. The flag resembled the Pan-African flag

Pan-African flag

The Pan-African flag, also referred to as the UNIA flag, Afro-American flag or Black Liberation Flag, is a tri-color flag consisting of three equal horizontal bands colored red, black and green. It was originally created as an official banner to represent an international community for all African...

 designed by Marcus Garvey

Marcus Garvey

Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., ONH was a Jamaican publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator who was a staunch proponent of the Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements, to which end he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League...

's Universal Negro Improvement Association

Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League

The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League is a black nationalist fraternal organization founded by Marcus Garvey. The organization enjoyed its greatest strength in the 1990s, prior to Garvey's deportation from the United States of America, after which its...

, with the red and black bands reversed and a red sun in the top. It also resembled the flag

Flag of Biafra

The flag of the now-defunct Republic of Biafra consists of a horizontal tricolor of red, black, and green, charged with a golden rising sun over a golden bar; the sun has eleven rays, representing the eleven provinces of Biafra....

 of the now-defunct Republic of Biafra

Biafra

Biafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was a secessionist state in south-eastern Nigeria that existed from 30 May 1967 to 15 January 1970, taking its name from the Bight of Biafra . The inhabitants were mostly the Igbo people who led the secession due to economic, ethnic, cultural and religious...

.

Flag colours

The colours of the flag are defined using British Standard colours

British Colour Council

The British Colour Council was an industry standards organisation, active from the 1930s to the 1950s, which produced indexes of named colours for use by government, industry, academia, and horticulture.-1930s:...

:

Scheme	Black	Red	Green
British Standard Colours	0-000	0-005	0-010