The Mali flag is made up of three vertical stripes. Green, Gold and Red are being used to signify the Pan-African colours.

This current flag was adopted on March 1, 1961; however this was not the original. The original being used from April 4th 1959, when Mali joined the Mali Federation. This flag was exactly the same as the current one except the gold stripe had a human stick figure within it. It was also known as a kanaga, painted black, with its arms raised to the sky.

However, this figure was removed because of the Islamic beliefs at the time. As you are not allowed to make pictures of the human figure within the islamic faith. Especially with almost 90% of the country being Muslim. This original flag was an imitation of the Ghanian flag but followed a separate style used by the French Tricolore.

It was changed to include the Kanaga, human figure. The colours were used to show a unity between Mali and the other African Nations.

After Ghana and Mali separated Mali decided to use this flag until 1st March 1961, when the country decided to drop the Kanaga (human stick figure).