Flag of Jamaica

Meaning and history of the flag of Jamaica

Jamaica's flag has a distinctive design built around a diagonal gold cross, or saltire, dividing the flag into four triangles: the top and bottom triangles are green, and the left and right triangles are black. The gold represents the country's natural wealth and sunshine, the green symbolizes hope and its lush tropical vegetation, and the black reflects hardships overcome and the strength of the Jamaican people.

The flag was adopted on August 6, 1962, the day Jamaica gained independence from the United Kingdom. It emerged from a national design competition, though the original proposal with horizontal stripes was revised for being too similar to the flag of Tanganyika, present-day Tanzania. The motto associated with the flag is: 'Hardships there are but the land is green and the sun shineth.'

Jamaica has one of the most singular flags in the world: it is the only national flag that contains none of the colors red, white, or blue. This makes it instantly recognizable and entirely unique among sovereign nations' flags. The diagonal gold cross set against green and black has also made it one of the flags most closely associated with Caribbean culture and the Rastafari movement, even though the flag's colors are not directly tied to that movement.

You can view the flag of Jamaica in high resolution above and download it in several sizes for personal, educational or reference use. To explore more, visit the full Jamaica profile, its map, or the current local time in Kingston.