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Flags of Madagascar

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Flags of Madagascar

Madagascar's own story starts differently from anywhere else in this hub: its first settlers arrived by sea from the Indonesian archipelago, not from mainland Africa, making the Malagasy people and language genuinely Austronesian in origin even as later Bantu-African and Arab Indian Ocean influence blended in. Out of that mix, the Merina Kingdom, based in the central highlands, unified most of the island by the 1820s — a real, substantial precolonial state with its own royal line, abolished only when France invaded in the 1890s.

Madagascar's flag, adopted just ahead of full independence in 1960, keeps the old Merina Kingdom's own red and white in a field alongside a newer green.

Scope of this page: the island of Madagascar, c. 500–present, four political entities. Part of a larger atlas — see the map and linked pages at the bottom.

One island, four eras

Madagascar's own real coastline, traced whole — an island with no land borders at all. Press play, or drag the slider, to watch who held it, era to era.

This is another one-piece page. Even the precolonial era shown here as "fragmented" was never a fixed set of separately-governed zones with lasting borders of their own — the island's numerous peoples and kingdoms shifted too fluidly for an honest internal partition. What changes is only who, if anyone, held the whole island at once.
c. 500
MOZAMBIQUE MADAGASCAR
Early settlement & pre-unification kingdoms

Real traced coastline, no internal partition — see the rule box above for why.

How we know this. 4 of 4 eras on this page carry an evidence panel (2 attested, 1 placeholder image, 1 not yet checked). Only the ones marked attested are confirmed by the sources named under them; where sources disagree or a claim could not be confirmed, the panel says so.
white hoist band, red over green horizontal bands
1958 – present

Malagasy Republic / Republic of Madagascar

Republic, independentPhilibert TsirananaSecular (no state religion)
Migration & conquest:Emigration: to France (1960–)

Who & why: Madagascar becomes an autonomous republic within the French Community in 1958, adopting its own flag ahead of full sovereignty, and gains full independence as the Malagasy Republic on 26 June 1960 under President Philibert Tsiranana. The country has continued as a republic since, through several changes of constitution and government (including a Marxist-leaning period in the 1970s-80s and a return to multiparty democracy from the 1990s), under the same national flag throughout.

What it represents: the flag of the Malagasy Republic: Wikipedia says the design was chosen on 15 October 1958 and officially adopted on 21 October 1958 (Flags of the World's colonial page gives 16 October), with a white vertical band at the hoist and red over green horizontal bands. Wikipedia says the colours originally had no meaning and that at adoption they were explained as white for purity, red for sovereignty and green for hope; Flags of the World cites a source saying the red and white recall the Merina Kingdom's flags and the green the Hova class, and notes that an attribution of the green to coastal peoples is doubtful.

Attestedhow we know this

Wikipedia: the design was chosen by a technical commission on 15 October 1958 and officially adopted on 21 October 1958, a week after the Malagasy Republic was proclaimed; it describes a white vertical band at the hoist and red over green horizontal bands. FOTW's colonial page says Madagascar adopted a flag on 16 October 1958 similar to the current one, and FOTW's Madagascar page says the coat of arms was adopted on 24 December 1959 and the flag with the arms came later (possibly 1960).

Not established: The sources give 21 October (Wikipedia) and 16 October (FOTW) for the 1958 adoption and FOTW's own Madagascar page has a 1959-60 flag with the arms; the page's account of the colours is contradicted: Wikipedia says the colours originally had no meaning and were explained in 1958 as white purity, red sovereignty, green hope, and FOTW notes that sources disagree on the green (Hova, not coastal peoples).

Paint guide
Proportions2:3.
LayoutVertical white band at the hoist; red (top) and green (bottom) horizontal bands filling the remainder.
White#F4EFE1
Red#A4302A
Green#1E7A4A
French tricolor with a colonial badge (schematic)
1896 – 1958

French Madagascar

Colonial ruleJoseph GallieniSecular (French colonial policy)
Migration & conquest:Conquered by: FranceImmigration: Gujarati Indian (Karana) traders
Ruling house:House of AndrianaMaroseraña dynasty

Who & why: France invades Madagascar in 1895, defeating Merina forces at the capital, Antananarivo, and formally annexes the kingdom as a colony in 1896-97, exiling the last monarch, Queen Ranavalona III, to Algeria. French rule governs the whole island directly for the first time in its history, suppressing periodic revolts (including a serious 1947-48 uprising, met with harsh reprisals) before granting growing autonomy in the 1950s, culminating in self-governing republic status within the French Community from 1958.

What it represents: the sources read do not describe a flag for the French colonial period; the French tricolour and badge are unconfirmed by Wikipedia and Flags of the World.

Not yet checked against sourceshow we know this

FOTW's protectorate page: the French protectorate ended on 29 September 1896 when General Galliéni had the royal eagle on the Queen's palace taken down and replaced by the French national flag, saluted with 21 guns (La Gazette de la Grande Ile, 2005). FOTW's French colonial page says the Tricolore was the rule in French colonies and that Madagascar adopted its own flag only on 16 October 1958.

Not established: Only FOTW (one publisher, in two pages) describes the 1896 hoisting and the colonial flag rule; Wikipedia's flag article does not cover the colonial period. No source read shows a Madagascar badge or governor's flag, so the page's 'colonial badge' is unsupported. A second publisher or a French/Malagasy reference on the 1896 flag-raising was not found. FOTW notes three flag patterns in white, blue and red used in the 1947 revolt.

Paint guide
Proportions2:3, standard French tricolor.
LayoutBlue-white-red vertical bands with a colonial badge, simplified here.
Blue#1A3A6B
White#F4EFE1
Red#CF142B
white field bordered in red, red royal disc with a white star (reconstructed Merina emblem)
c. 1810 – 1896

Kingdom of Madagascar (Merina Kingdom, island-wide)

Kingdom / Sultanate, independentRadama ITraditional Malagasy religion (fombandrazana)
Migration & conquest:Emigration: enslaved Malagasy to Mauritius & Réunion
Ruling house:House of AndrianaMaroseraña dynasty

Who & why: King Radama I, succeeding his father Andrianampoinimerina, completes the Merina Kingdom's conquest and unification of most of Madagascar by the 1820s, establishing what is generally called the Kingdom of Madagascar, with its capital at Antananarivo. A line of queens and kings rules through the 19th century, including the long and often isolationist reign of Queen Ranavalona I (1828-1861) and, at the century's end, Queen Ranavalona III, deposed when France invades in 1895 and annexes the kingdom outright in 1896-97.

What it represents: Wikipedia says that in 1810 Radama adopted a white-and-red bicolour, combining his father's two standards; Flags of the World says the kingdom's flags were all red and white. The red disc with a white star drawn here is not described by either source.

Attestedhow we know this

Wikipedia: in 1810 Radama adopted a white-and-red bicolour combining his father's two standards, and rulers put their name in red lettering on a white or white-and-red flag. FOTW (citing DK, 1997): the Merina Kingdom's flags were all red and white, with no dates or designs.

Not established: Neither source describes a red disc with a white star or a red border; that emblem is the page's own reconstruction. FOTW gives no dates.

Paint guide
ProportionsNo fixed civil ratio recorded; shown as a reconstructed royal emblem.
LayoutWhite field, red border, red royal disc with a white star, simplified here.
White#F4EFE1
Red#A4302A
NO FLAG DOCUMENTED
placeholder maroon field — early Austronesian-descended settlement and pre-Merina kingdoms, no flag survives
c. 500 – c. 1810

Early Malagasy settlement & pre-unification kingdoms

Fragmented / pre-stateNo single ruler documentedTraditional ancestral belief (varied, no state religion)
Migration & conquest:Immigration: Austronesian settlers from IndonesiaImmigration: Bantu-African & Arab/Indian Ocean settlers
Ruling house:House of AndrianaMaroseraña dynasty

Who & why: Madagascar's first settlers arrive by outrigger canoe from the Indonesian archipelago roughly 1,500-2,000 years ago, an unusually distant seaborne migration that makes the Malagasy people and language genuinely Austronesian in origin, unlike any other population on the African continent; later waves of Bantu-African and Arab/Indian Ocean trading contact blend into this base over the following centuries. Numerous distinct peoples and kingdoms — Merina, Betsimisaraka, Sakalava, and others — develop across the island with no single central authority until the Merina Kingdom's rise from the late 18th century.

What it represents: no securely documented unified flag survives from this era for any Malagasy people or kingdom. Shown here honestly blank rather than invented.

Placeholder imagehow we know this

This page's own caption calls the image a placeholder: «placeholder maroon field — early Austronesian-descended settlement and pre-Merina kingdoms, no flag survives».

Not established: Whether a flag, banner or standard existed in this period was not checked. The colour shown is not evidence of one.

Paint guide
ProportionsN/A — no attested flag.

Reading the tags

Fragmented / pre-state — no single ruling authority
Kingdom / Sultanate, independent — sovereign under its own crown
Colonial rule — colony under a European power
Republic, independent — modern sovereign republic
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 Madagascar 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 Madagascar →

More of the atlas

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

Flags Atlas indexSearch every country and hub East Africa hubEleven countries, one region
Compiled from Wikipedia, Flags of the World (fotw.info / crwflags.com), and Britannica. Colors are close historical approximations for painting reference; pre-19th-century swatches are informed reconstructions, not official specifications. Map is schematic and not surveyed.