Africa

Flag of Uganda

Uganda is a landlocked East African country known as the 'Pearl of Africa' for its extraordinary natural beauty and biodiversity. The country is home to approximately half of the world's remaining mountain gorillas, and the source of the Nile River is at the northern end of Lake Victoria within Uganda. Kampala, the capital, is a rapidly growing city built across multiple hills and is one of East Africa's most dynamic urban centres.

CapitalKampala
RegionAfrica
Current flag since1962
Main coloursBlack, Yellow, Red, White
Populationabout 48 million
Areaabout 241,000 km²
GeographyLandlocked
Flags in history7

Population and area are rounded.

What the flag of Uganda means

Black stands for the people of Africa, yellow for sunshine, and red for brotherhood. The grey crowned crane, chosen for its gentle nature, had been the badge of Ugandan soldiers under British rule. The flag was adopted at independence in 1962.

How to recognise it

Six horizontal stripes (black-yellow-red repeating) with a white circle containing a grey crowned crane.

Did you know?

Uganda has the world's largest population of mountain gorillas in the wild.

Easily confused with

Uganda's flag is often mixed up with these. Learn to tell them apart:

Kenya

Tanzania

Flag history of Uganda

Every flag that has flown over Uganda, from today back through time.

1962–present

Flag of Uganda

Adopted at independence from Britain in 1962, with six black-yellow-red stripes and a central white disc bearing the grey crowned crane — the national bird, facing the hoist.

1894–1962

Uganda Protectorate

Uganda became a British protectorate in 1894 and flew the Union Jack until independence in 1962. Because it was governed as a protectorate rather than a settler colony, the powerful kingdom of Buganda and other traditional monarchies survived the colonial period — a legacy that shaped, and complicated, the politics of the independent state.

1962–1982

Kingdom of Rwenzururu

A secessionist mountain kingdom of the Bakonzo people in the Rwenzori range on the Uganda–Congo border.

1830–1967

Tooro Kingdom

A western Ugandan kingdom that broke away from Bunyoro; restored as a cultural monarchy in 1993.

1600–1962

Busoga

A confederation of chiefdoms in southeastern Uganda, between Lake Victoria and the Nile.

1480–1967

Ankole

A cattle-herding kingdom of southwestern Uganda, its society famed for the long-horned Ankole cattle.

1300–1896

Bunyoro

Once the most powerful of the Great Lakes kingdoms in western Uganda, gradually eclipsed by Buganda and the British.

Related historical states

Empires, kingdoms and republics that once covered part of Uganda.

Kingdom

Kingdom of Buganda

The vertical blue-yellow-blue bears a shield and crossed spears. Buganda, in present-day Uganda, remains one of Africa's oldest continuous monarchies under the Kabaka.