| Use: | 111111 |
| Proportion: | 2:3 |
| Design: | A white-edged red diagonal band radiating from the lower hoist-side corner. The upper triangle is blue, charged with a gold sun with 12 triangular rays and the lower triangle is green. |
| Designer: | Theo Jankowski Don Stevenson Ortrud Clay |
| Use2: | Naval jack |
| Design2: | A white field with the national flag in the canton. |
The flag of Namibia consists of a red bend edged in two white bands with a blue upper triangle charged with an 12-ray yellow sun and green lower triangle.
The flag was adopted on 21 March 1990 upon independence from South Africa. During apartheid rule, it used the South African orange-white-blue tricolor.
The National Symbols Sub-Committee received 870 entries for the national flag. Six designs were short-listed; this was reduced to three, those of three Namibians – Theo Jankowski of Rehoboth, Don Stevenson of Windhoek and Ortrud Clay of Lüderitz. These three designs were combined to form the Namibia national flag, adopted unanimously on 2 February 1990 by the Constituent Assembly. The three designers were publicly acknowledged by judge Hans Berker, the chairman of the subcommittee, at the unveiling ceremony on 9 March 1990.[1]
However, two other claims were made – South African Frederick Brownell claimed that he had designed the flag in his role as South African State Herald.[2] The other claimant was Briton Roy Allen, who claimed that the flag design was the result of a competition run by Hannes Smith of the Windhoek Observer, and that he had won.[3]
It is one of the few national flags incorporating a diagonal line, with other examples including the DR Congo, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, and Brunei.
The colours of the Namibian flag are described in the Government Gazette.[4] This document also details construction of the Presidential flag. The tone or specific shade for white has not been specified.
| Color model | Blue | Yellow gold | Green | Red | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pantone | 294 C | 116 C | 347 C | 186 C | |
| Coates SP | 5 809 | 1 802 | 65 | 35 | |
| RGB[5] | 0, 47, 108 (#002F6C) | 255, 205, 0 (#FFCD00) | 0, 154, 68 (#009A44) | 200, 16, 46 (#C8102E) |
The chairman explained the symbolism of the flag's colours as follows:
The flag has a white-edged red diagonal band radiating diagonally from the lower hoist-side corner. The upper triangle is blue with a gold sun with 12 triangular rays and the lower triangle is green.
Per bend sinister Azure and Vert, a bend sinister Gules fimbriated Argent and in dexter chief a Sun with twelve straight rays Or charged with an annulet Azure.
Some of the bantustans established by South Africa during its period of administering South West Africa had adopted their own distinctive flags whilst others used the flag of South Africa.