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Flags of Comoros

The islands' earliest known inhabitants, small farming and fishing communities documented only through archaeology at sites like Dembeni on Mayotte, arrived from the East African coast centuries before Islam or any sultanate reached the archipelago. Later settled further by Bantu, Arab, Swahili, and Shirazi Persian voyagers across the Indian Ocean trade routes and organized for centuries into competing island sultanates, then folded into the French colonial empire, the Comoro archipelago won independence in 1975 through a unilateral declaration — one that split the group when the island of Mayotte voted to remain French — and has since become notorious for a very high number of coup attempts against a small and financially strained state.

Five entries trace this lineage, from the earliest archaeologically documented settlement and the sultanates' own banners through French rule to a young republic whose own flag design has shifted more than once as its government did.

Scope of this page: the islands of the Comoro archipelago, c. 6th century CE–present, administered together as one French territory and then one independent state — Ngazidja (Grande Comore), Nzwani (Anjouan), and Mwali (Mohéli) — from precolonial sultanates to present. Mayotte, the archipelago's fourth main island, voted in a 1974 referendum to remain French rather than join independent Comoros and has never been part of the independent state; it is noted here factually but not covered as part of this lineage. The 1975–2001 span, covering a first independence flag, the 1978 Federal Islamic Republic, and the country's exceptionally frequent coups and changes of government, is treated as one honest bridging entry rather than a card for every brief regime, since the crescent-and-stars flag format stayed broadly consistent throughout even as exact star counts and arrangement shifted. The map below traces the three islands of the union together, not as an internal partition.

Three islands, one union

The Comoro archipelago’s own real islands, traced whole — Ngazidja, Mwali, and Nzwani have been administered together, first as one French territory and then one independent state, since the 19th century. Press play, or drag the slider, to watch who held them, era to era.

This is a single-region page, not a partition map. Mayotte, the archipelago’s fourth main island, voted in 1974 to stay French and has never been part of independent Comoros — noted on the map for context, not included in the region below. The three islands shown were never themselves split between rival governments; a 1997 secessionist revolt on Nzwani and Mwali was put down rather than resulting in a lasting partition, so this page tracks who held the union as a whole.

c. 6th – 10th century CE

Real traced islands (Natural Earth 1:50m, via martynafford/natural-earth-geojson) — no internal partition, per the rule box above.

four stripes for four islands, green triangle, crescent and stars — adopted 2001–02

2001 – present

Union of the Comoros

Republic, independentAzali AssoumaniSunni Islam (state religion)

Migration & conquest:Emigration: large diaspora in France, remittance-dependent

Who & why: after a 1997 secessionist crisis on Nzwani and Mwali nearly broke the young state apart entirely, a new 2001 constitution restructures the country as the Union of the Comoros, granting each island significant autonomy under a rotating union presidency — an attempt to defuse the separatism and coup-proneness that had defined the previous quarter-century. The new flag follows in 2001–02. Political instability continues into the 2000s (including a 2008 African Union-backed intervention to unseat a rebel governor of Anjouan) but the state has held together in this form since, with Azali Assoumani, first taking power in a 1999 coup, dominating union politics for most of the period since.

What it represents: four horizontal stripes — yellow, white, red, and blue — for the islands of Ngazidja, Mwali, Nzwani, and Mayotte (the last still claimed despite its 1974 vote to remain French), a green hoist triangle for Islam, and a white crescent with four stars for the same four islands.

Paint guide

Proportions2:3.

LayoutFour equal horizontal stripes (yellow, white, red, blue) with a green hoist triangle bearing a white crescent and four white stars.

Yellow#FECB00

Red#E2231A

Blue-stripe stand-in / dark green#3A7728

Green triangle#158B4A

green field, white crescent and four stars — the independence-era flag, in use with only minor variation 1975–2001

1975 – 2001

Independence, the Federal Islamic Republic, and repeated coups

Republic, unstableAhmed AbdallahSunni Islam (state religion)

Migration & conquest:Emigration: kwassa-kwassa boat migration to Mayotte (1995–)

Who & why: Comoros unilaterally declares independence from France on 6 July 1975 under President Ahmed Abdallah; Mayotte alone, in a separate referendum, votes to remain French, splitting the archipelago — stated here factually and neutrally, as a decision of Mayotte's own voters rather than a contested annexation. Abdallah is quickly overthrown, and the mercenary-installed radical Ali Soilih pursues a brief, chaotic secularizing revolution before mercenaries (led by the French soldier of fortune Bob Denard) restore Abdallah in 1978, who then proclaims the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros with a new constitution. What follows is an extraordinary run of instability even by regional standards: by some counts more than twenty coups or attempted coups between 1975 and the early 2000s, including further Denard-led interventions, Abdallah's own 1989 assassination, and a 1997 secessionist revolt on Nzwani and Mwali against rule from the capital, Moroni. Through nearly all of this the flag keeps its basic form — a green field bearing a white crescent and stars — with only the star count and arrangement shifting as the state's own self-definition (and island count) changed.

What it represents: green and the crescent moon for Islam, the country's state religion, with white stars representing the constituent islands the government of the moment claimed — a design broadly continuous even as the republic's institutions were repeatedly overturned.

Paint guide

ProportionsNo single fixed ratio across this era; shown at 3:2.

LayoutGreen field, white crescent, and (typically) four white stars; exact star count and placement varied by government.

Green#3A7728

the French Tricolor over the Comoro colony

1841 – 1975

French colonial rule

Colonial territoryAndriantsolySunni Islam (retained under indirect rule)

Migration & conquest:Conquered by: France (1841–90s)Emigration: laborers to Madagascar & Réunion

Ruling house:Abdallah dynasty (Anjouan)Sultanate of Bambao

Who & why: France annexes Mayotte in 1841 at the invitation of a local sultan seeking protection, then extends protectorate and later colonial control over the rest of the archipelago through the 1880s–90s. The islands are administered jointly with Madagascar from 1912 until becoming a separate French overseas territory in 1946. A gradual, uneven push for self-government follows after World War II, culminating in the 1975 declaration of independence, though a 1973 agreement with France had already set the terms for a staged transition that the abrupt 1975 declaration cut short.

What it represents: the plain French Tricolor, flown over the territory as over France's other colonial holdings; no distinct territorial flag existed for the Comoros during French rule.

Paint guide

Proportions2:3.

LayoutThree equal vertical bands: blue, white, red.

Blue#002395

Red#ED2939

placeholder maroon field — sultanate era, no unified flag survives

before 1841

Island sultanates

Fragmented sultanatesNo single ruler documentedSunni Islam (sultanate establishment)

Migration & conquest:Immigration: Bantu, Arab & Shirazi Persian settlers

Ruling house:Abdallah dynasty (Anjouan)Sultanate of Bambao

Who & why: for centuries before French rule, the Comoro Islands are settled and shaped by successive waves of Bantu African, Arab, Swahili, and Shirazi Persian migration and trade, producing a distinctively Islamic, Swahili-inflected culture. Each main island typically hosts its own sultanate or set of rival sultanates — Ngazidja alone was often divided among several competing sultans at once — with no single ruler ever unifying the whole archipelago before colonization.

What it represents: individual sultans may have flown their own banners in the wider Islamic and Swahili-coast vexillological tradition, but no single flag unified the islands, and none is securely reconstructable today. Shown here honestly blank rather than invented.

Paint guide

ProportionsN/A — no attested unified flag.

placeholder — earliest settlement known through archaeology, not any banner

c. 6th – 10th century CE

Earliest settlement (pre-Islamic)

Early farming & fishing settlements, no state yetNo named rulers survive in the recordPre-Islamic (specific beliefs undocumented)

Migration & conquest:Settled by: Bantu-speaking migrants from the East African coast

Who & why: centuries before any sultanate, the Comoro Islands' earliest known inhabitants are documented only through archaeology, not written record. Excavations at Dembeni on Mayotte — the type-site for this earliest identified settlement phase — show small farming and fishing communities, plausibly linked to Bantu-speaking migration from the nearby East African coast, established by roughly the 6th to 8th century CE and importing pottery that attests to early Indian Ocean trade contact. The widespread Arab, Swahili, and Shirazi Persian migration and Islamization that define the later sultanate era are a subsequent, separately documented development, arriving from around the 9th–10th century onward.

What it represents: no flag or comparable symbol survives from this period, and none plausibly existed in any modern sense; the settlement is known through excavated pottery, house foundations, and midden deposits rather than any political or written record. Shown here honestly blank rather than invented.

World context: this earliest settlement phase is roughly contemporary with the rise of the first Swahili coast trading towns along East Africa, the Austronesian settlement of nearby Madagascar from Southeast Asia, and the height of the Abbasid Caliphate's Indian Ocean trade network, which carried goods (and, indirectly, people) between the Middle East, East Africa, and as far as Tang dynasty China.

Paint guide

ProportionsN/A — no attested flag or comparable symbol.

Reading the tags

Fragmented sultanates — no single state yet

Colonial territory — governed as part of a foreign empire

Republic, unstable — sovereign but repeatedly overturned by coup

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 Comoros lives in a different project, Record Atlas, which maps which archive actually holds the paper for a given place and era.

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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