Every fact about the flag, each with what it means.
Proportions
2:33 wide for every 2 high. 989 flags in the catalogue share it.
Properties
Normal flagFIAV symbol: the form of the flag.
Use
CivilFIAV symbol: who may fly the flag.
Adopted
199730 August 1997 · 29 years ago
Colours
blue
green
yellow
red
Reference shades: the official one may vary slightly.
Take a closer look
The three stripes
1
The letter yaz
2
The blue stripe
3
The yellow stripe
How it is described
The flag in the words of vexillology and heraldry.
Vexillological description
It is a rectangular field (the cloth) with a 2:3 ratio with three equal horizontal stripes and a red letter in the centre.
Stripes
blue on top, green in the middle and yellow below.
Letter
the ⵣ (yaz) of the Tifinagh alphabet, in red. It is large and takes up part of the three stripes: a vertical line crossed by two arcs, one open upwards and the other downwards.
Variants
at demonstrations you can see versions with the colours in another order or with the letter drawn in another way.
What it carries
Each element and how many of the 1,390 flags in the catalogue carry it. In yellow, the rarest.
The idea came out of the 1970s at the Berber Academy (Agraw Imazighen)
1997
On 30 August 1997 the associations gathered there adopted it as the flag of all Amazigh
The full story
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
The Amazigh flag belongs to no country. It is the flag of a people: the Amazigh, also called Berbers, who live scattered across North Africa, from Morocco to Egypt, and all over the world as emigrants. Their red letter can be seen at demonstrations, in stadiums and at festivals.
How it came about
The idea came out of the 1970s at the Berber Academy (Agraw Imazighen), a cultural association founded in Paris in 1966 by the Algerian Mohand Arab Bessaoud. For years it circulated among activists without anyone approving it.
The decisive step came at the first World Amazigh Congress, held in Tafira, on the island of Gran Canaria. On 30 August 1997 the associations gathered there adopted it as the flag of all Amazigh. The Canary Islands were no ordinary place: their first inhabitants, the Guanches, were also of Amazigh origin.
How it has changed
The design has not changed since 1997, although different versions coexist in the street.
Other flags and proposals
There is no body that fixes the exact design, so variants and some alternative projects have appeared.
Propuesta · 1997
With seven stars
Ouramdane Khacer says he was the one who presented the design to the 1997 congress. His first version carried an arc of seven green stars on the blue stripe, for the seven Canary Islands, which did not make it into the final design.
No oficial
Other colour orders
At demonstrations there have been flags with vertical stripes or in another order, such as green, yellow and blue, and others with the letter in black or drawn more squarely.
What it means
Each colour stands for a landscape of the Tamazgha, the name the Amazigh give to their territory. There are small differences depending on the source.
Blue
the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, and also the sky.
Green
the mountains and the farmland.
Yellow
the sand of the Sahara desert.
Yaz (ⵣ)
the z letter of the word ‘amazigh’, which means ‘free man’.
Red
the colour of life and, according to some sources, that of the blood of those who fought for their people.
Fun facts
A flag born in Spain
The congress that adopted it was held in Tafira, in Gran Canaria. That is why 30 August is celebrated every year as Amazigh Flag Day.
Dated in the year 2947
The World Amazigh Congress gives the date of adoption according to its own calendar: the 18th of month 8 of the year 2947. That calendar starts counting in 950 BC.
Banned in Algeria in 2019
During the Hirak protests, the head of the Algerian army, Ahmed Gaïd Salah, warned on 19 June 2019 that the country only has one flag. Dozens of demonstrators were arrested for carrying the Amazigh flag.
Its letter is on the signs of Morocco
The yaz is from Tifinagh, the alphabet of the Amazigh themselves. Since Morocco made the Amazigh language official in 2011, that alphabet appears next to Arabic on the signs of most public buildings.
Location
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