Last modified: 2025-05-03 by bruce berry
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![[Variant]](../misc/fis_vari.gif){kind=small}
2:3~ image by Zoltan Horvath, 2 Jul 2024
See also:
There are two references, which do not agree with each other, referring to this flag:
Smith (1975) [smi75a]:
"Many Malagasy are descended from settlers who originally came from
South-East Asia, suggesting that its red and white flags (see Indonesia)
influenced similar red and white flags flown by the Hova empire in 19th
century Madagascar. Those Hova flags were the basis for the tricolor adopted
shortly after Madagascar became the Malagasy Republic. Green was added
for the coastal people.
Historically, red is associated with the Volamena and the white with
the Volafotsi, princely families founded by King Andriandahifotsi (1610-1685).
His personal emblem was a red bull and the name of the kingdom was
Menabe,
"Great Red".
DK Ultimate Pocket Book of Flags (1997) [rya97]:
"The red and white are said to symbolize the earlier
Merina Kingdom,
whose flags were all red and white, with the addition of the green for
the Hova, the former peasant class."
Both sources agree on the red and the white, but there is discrepancy
about the origin of the green. Encyclopaedia Universalis (CD-ROM edition,
1998) solves it, the DK Ultimate Pocket version being the correct one.
The history of Madagascar is very complex and I just extract details significant
for the green colour case. Smith was certainly fooled by sources dating from the French colonial
period (1885-1960). At that time, Merina and Hova were used as synonyms.
In fact, the Merina Kingdom (founded in 1787 by unifying several small
princely states of the island), had a very strict social hierarchy, based
on three main classes: the "andriana" (nobility), the "hova" (free commoners,
mostly peasants), and the "andevo" (black slaves). From time to time, the
Prime Minister of the Kingdom had been of Hova origin, and the Hova class was the source of quasi-permanent anti-French agitation. There
had never been any Hova Kingdom or "Hova Empire" as reported by Smith.
I do not know how the "coastal peoples" he mentioned were ranked in the
Merina system (they usually belong to different ethnic groups and still tend
to live in autarky, and I imagine they were of very low rank, if any),
but the green strip cannot be attributed to them (or it was a later "reattribution"
for political reasons). The Menabe kingdom mentioned by Smith was a powerful
state which could unify for several years the small kingdoms in permanent
state of war with each other.
Ivan Sache, 28 Jun 1999
Some time after 24 December 1959, when the "coat of arms" was adopted,
the new flag was devised (that may easily be only in 1960 as suggested
on FOTW), containing in the middle of the white stripes the golden emblem,
above it initials R.M. (for Repoblika Malgasy/Repoublique Malagashe in
Malagashe and French).
Željko Heimer, 28 Jun 1999
The Constitution defines the national flag (Article 4), but doesn’t give
color specification:
http://www.hcc.gov.mg/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/CONSTITUTION-IV.pdf
Zoltan Horvath, 2 July 2024
Madagascar flag colors according to Album 2000 [pay00]:
"Official" Pantone and "approx." CMYK
R: Warm Red c / 0-80-90-0
G: 348c / 100-0-80-25
Santiago Dotor, 9 Feb 2001
The protocol manual for the London 2012 Olympics
(Flags and Anthems Manual, London, 2012 [g9b12])
provides recommendations for national flag designs. Each National Olympic
Committee was sent an image of their flag, including the PMS shades, by the
London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) for their approval.
Once this was obtained, the LOCOG produced a 60 x 90 cm version of the flag for
further approval. So, while these specifications may not be the official,
government, version of each flag, they are certainly what the National Olympic
Committee believed their flag to be.
For Madagascar PMS warm red, 348 green. The vertical flag is simply the
horizontal version turned 90 degrees clockwise.
Ian Sumner,
10 Oct 2012
Other sources for colors:
The Flag Manual - Beijing 2008 gives Pantone color:
PMS 032 (red), and PMS 355 (green).
The Album des Pavillons 2000 [pay00] (Corr. No. 5.)
illustrates the flag, but doesn’t give separate color specification, but these
colors are listed as follows.
Red: Pantone Warm red c, CMYK 0-80-90-0
Green: Pantone 348c, CMYK 100-0-80-25
The Album des Pavillons 2023 illustrates the flag, but
doesn’t give separate color specification, but these colors are listed as
follows.
Red: Pantone Warm red c,
CMYK 0-84-73-0, RGB 249-66-58
Green: Pantone 348c, CMYK 87-24-97-10, RGB 0-126-58
Vexilla Mundi gives colors in Pantone
system: PMS White, PMS 186C (red), and PMS 354C (green).
Wikipedia doesn’t give any color
specifications. The illustration is based on Pantone colors given by the Album des
Pavillons 2000 [pay00] and Flags and Anthems Manual London 2012 [g9b12].
The Italian version gives RGB color values:
White: 255-255-255, Red:
252-61-50, and Green: 0-126-58
Flag Color Codes gives the following color values:
Warm Red: Hex #F9423A, RGB 249-66-58, CMYK 0-83-81-0, Pantone Warm Red, RAL 3024
White: Hex #FFFFFF, RGB 255-255-255, CMYK 0-0-0-0, Pantone N/A, RAL N/A
Green: Hex #00843D, RGB 0-132-61, CMYK 93-0-98-17, Pantone 348, RAL 6024
Zoltan Horvath, 2 Jul 2024
Possible flag of the 1947-1948 uprising
image by Jakub Grombír, 14 Sep 2010
I found some description of the flag which was used during the anti-French
uprising in Madagascar between 1947 and 1948. The Czech book "Nejnovější dějiny Afriky" by Karel Lacina (1987) mentions
that rebels "fought under the traditional red and white flag of Malagasy kings"
- or more correctly the Merino kings because this revolt was led by the
Merino (Hovi) aristocracy and the other people of Madagascar did not participate
- "which was completed with eighteen stars symbolizing eighteen Malagasy
tribes." So it possibly looked like image above.
You can also see a similarity with the flag of the Malaya people of the same
time (because the Malaya and Malagasy are relatives) and flag of the
contemporary Malagasy Socialist Union which has 18 stars surrounding a
silhouette of a map of the Madagascar island.
Jakub Grombír, 14 Sep 2010
For further historical background, go to mg-bg (Ed).