Jamaican Flag

The flag of Jamaica was officially adopted on August 6, 1962, the same day as Jamaican Independence Day. The country became independent from the British-influenced Federation of the West Indies. The Jamaican flag divides the flag into four portions and does so through a golden “X”: two of green (top and bottom) and two black (hoist side and outer side).

Like many other countries, the design adopted was the result of a national competition. Originally the flag was designed with horizontal stripes, but this was considered too similar to other country flags. As a result the golden “X” was included.

The colors, black, green, and gold are Pan-African colors. Symbolically, the three colors represented "hardships there are but the land is green and the sun shineth": gold represents the sun, black represents hardships, and green evokes images of the land. The associated symbolism was changed. Black represents overcoming difficult odds through strength and creativity, yellow represented sunshine and green represented island vegetation.