Family research · Phase 23 of the world atlas

Flags of the Central African Republic

From the independent Gbaya, Banda, Zande, and Sara societies of the upper Ubangi basin, through French conquest and the brutal rubber-concession years of "Ubangi-Shari," to a 1958 flag designed by the territory's founding father that has now outlasted him, an empire, and half a dozen coups — three flags for a country whose current banner is older than its own independence.

Unusually for this atlas, the Central African Republic's national flag itself has not changed since it was adopted in 1958, two years before independence — not for the transition to a republic, not for Jean-Bédel Bokassa's self-declared empire, and not for any of the coups since. Where the flag stayed constant, this page tracks the underlying political system instead.

Scope of this page: the territory of present-day Central African Republic, precolonial societies to present, three political-flag eras. The 1976–79 "Central African Empire" under self-crowned Emperor Bokassa I is treated within the modern-republic entry below rather than as its own flag card, because the empire flew the same national flag as the republic before and after it — only the head of state's title and regalia changed. A map of the country's own real border appears below.

One Ubangi border, three eras

The Central African Republic's own real border, traced whole — a landlocked territory governed as a single unit from the French Ubangi-Shari administration onward, with no internal partition to show.

No internal partition exists here to show. Even Jean-Bédel Bokassa's self-declared empire governed the exact same territory, under the exact same flag, as the republic before and after it — there is no separate internal region this atlas can honestly carve out. What changes here is only who held sovereignty over the whole territory at once.

before 1894

Real traced border (simplified); no internal partition shown — see the rule box above for why.

blue-white-green-yellow stripes, red pale, gold star — unchanged since 1958

1958 – present

Central African Republic (self-government, independence, empire, and republic)

Republic, independentBarthélemy BogandaSecular (no state religion)

Migration & conquest:Emigration: refugees fleeing the 2013 sectarian crisis

Ruling house:Bandia dynasty

Who & why: Barthélemy Boganda, founder of the independence movement, wins self-government within the French Community in 1958 and designs the flag himself before dying in a plane crash in March 1959, just short of the independence he had campaigned for; his cousin David Dacko carries the territory to full independence on 13 August 1960. Dacko is overthrown in 1966 by army chief Jean-Bédel Bokassa, who rules with escalating brutality and, in December 1976, crowns himself Emperor Bokassa I of a renamed "Central African Empire" in a lavish, internationally mocked ceremony — state factually, the empire's actual governance changed little besides the title. France backs a 1979 coup that restores Dacko and the republic. Decades of further coups, a 2003–present civil conflict, and a 2013 sectarian crisis follow, but the republic form and this same flag persist throughout.

What it represents: Boganda intended the flag to fuse Europe and Africa — the blue, white, and red of France alongside the green, yellow, and red pan-African colors — with the red vertical stripe symbolizing the blood uniting both continents, and a single gold star for hope and independence.

Paint guide

Proportions3:5.

LayoutFour equal horizontal stripes (blue, white, green, yellow) overlaid by a centered vertical red stripe; a gold five-pointed star in the upper-hoist blue stripe.

Blue#003EA6

Green#289728

Yellow / star#FCD116

Red#D21034

the French Tricolor over Ubangi-Shari

1894 – 1958

Ubangi-Shari (French Equatorial Africa)

Colonial territoryVictor LiotardRoman Catholic (favored, not established)

Migration & conquest:Conquered by: France (early 1890s)

Ruling house:Sultanate of Dar al-KutiBandia dynasty

Who & why: France claims the upper Ubangi and Shari river basins in the early 1890s, formalizing "Ubangi-Shari" as a distinct territory by 1894 and folding it into the federation of French Equatorial Africa in 1910. Colonial rule is administered largely through brutal concessionary rubber and ivory companies in the 1900s–20s, provoking major uprisings including the Kongo-Wara "war of the hoe handle" rebellion of 1928–31. The territory gains a local assembly after World War II and, under Boganda's leadership, wins internal self-government in December 1958 as the short-lived Central African Republic within the French Community, one step short of full independence.

What it represents: the plain French Tricolor, flown over the territory as over the rest of French Equatorial Africa; no distinct territorial flag existed during this period.

Paint guide

Proportions2:3.

LayoutThree equal vertical bands: blue, white, red.

Blue#002395

Red#ED2939

placeholder maroon field — precolonial era, no unified flag survives

before 1894

Precolonial Ubangi basin societies

Fragmented societiesNo single ruler documentedTraditional/ancestral religion

Migration & conquest:Emigration: enslaved people taken north via Dar al-Kuti raiding

Ruling house:Sultanate of Dar al-KutiBandia dynasty

Who & why: before French conquest, the territory of present-day Central African Republic is home to numerous independent peoples — Gbaya, Banda, Zande, Sara, and others — with no single overarching state. The northeast falls partly within the orbit of the Islamic sultanate of Dar al-Kuti, a slave-raiding vassal of Wadai, from the 1830s onward, while other regions remain organized around smaller chiefdoms and lineage groups.

What it represents: no single flag unified this territory before colonization; individual sultanates and chiefdoms may have used their own banners, but none is securely attributable to the region as a whole. Shown here honestly blank rather than invented.

Paint guide

ProportionsN/A — no attested unified flag.

Reading the tags

Fragmented societies — no single state yet

Colonial territory — governed as part of a foreign empire

Republic, independent — sovereign under its own government

Leader — the named ruler most associated with the era's start

State religion — the official/established faith, not the population's

Find the records

Family history research for Central African Republic lives in a different project, Record Atlas, which maps which archive actually holds the paper for a given place and era.

Search Record Atlas for Central African Republic →

More of the atlas

This page is one lineage in a larger set. See the hub and the other countries here:

Flags Atlas indexSearch every country and hub Central Africa & Indian Ocean hubSeven countries, no clean regional identity