The current flag was adopted on 1 March 1961. The original flag was adopted on 4 April 1959, when Mali joined theMali Federation. This flag was the same, except the golden stripe had a blackkanaga, a shape of a squatter man with arms raised to the sky. The figure was removed due to the opposition, in a country whose population is90% Muslim (95% Sunni 5% Shia), ofIslamic fundamentalists[2] (seeAniconism in Islam, the belief against making pictures of the human figure).[3]
The green stands for fertility of the land, gold stands for purity and mineral wealth, and the red symbolizes the blood shed for independence fromthe invader.[4]
TheFrench tricolor was used as the official flag of French Sudan for most of its history.
1958–1959
2:3
Anew flag was adopted in 1958, when French Sudan gained autonomy within theFrench Community. It consisted of the French tricolor with a blackKanaga centered on the white band.
The flag initially adopted on Malian independence consisted of a vertical tricolor of green, gold, and red with a black Kanaga centered on the gold band.
^The colonial region of French Sudan went through a number of administrative reorganizations between 1880 and 1959, changing names several times throughout the process. See:French Sudan § Administration and jurisdiction
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