Flag of Martinique
A red triangle at the hoist, with two equal horizontal bands of green over black. This is the territorial flag; the French tricolour is also flown with official standing.
What the flag means
Red, green and black are the pan-African colours. Rodolphe Desiré, who proposed black in place of gold, said the inspiration was the flag of Marcus Garvey's UNIA.
History
Guy Cabort-Masson and Alex Ferdinand designed the flag in 1968 and brought it to Martinique in secret in 1971. In a public vote in January 2023 a hummingbird design won, but its designer withdrew it after the bird was found to match a stock image. The Assembly of Martinique then adopted the runner-up, this flag, on 2 February 2023 by 44 votes with one abstention.
An edict of 4 August 1766 created the older snake flag, a white cross on blue with a fer-de-lance in each quarter. The gendarmerie stopped using it in October 2018.
Earlier flags of Martinique
- 2019–2021Ipséité flag, annulled by an administrative court in November 2021
Sources
- Wikipedia: Flag of Martinique
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Read how we research flags in our editorial policy, or report a mistake.
