Rwanda Flags – Rwandan Sun Flag, Bunting & Hand Flags

The Rwandan flag: sky blue, yellow, green and the sun

Rwanda’s flag has three horizontal bands: a sky-blue band filling the top half, then yellow and green bands of a quarter each, with a golden sun of 24 rays in the upper fly. It was adopted on 25 October 2001, together with a new anthem and coat of arms, replacing the red, yellow and green tricolour with a black R that had been used since independence, as part of a deliberate move to new national symbols of unity and reconciliation. The designer was the artist Alphonse Kirimobenecyo. Blue stands for happiness and peace, yellow for economic development and the wealth of the land, green for prosperity and hope, and the sun for enlightenment and the light that unity brings. Our Rwanda flag keeps the blue band at its full half-depth and the sun towards the fly, and prints a soft sky blue rather than a royal blue.

Independence Day, Liberation Day and Rwandan sport

Independence Day on 1 July recalls independence from Belgian administration in 1962, and Liberation Day on 4 July is the other national holiday, with Heroes’ Day on 1 February. Kwibuka, the commemoration that begins on 7 April each year, is a time of remembrance rather than celebration, and flags are flown at half-mast. Rwanda joined the Commonwealth in 2009 and hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kigali in 2022, so the flag appears at Commonwealth Day services in Britain. In sport it is best known to British fans from the Visit Rwanda sponsorship on Arsenal shirt sleeves; the Amavubi, the national football team, reached the Africa Cup of Nations in 2004; and cycling is huge, with the Tour du Rwanda each spring and the UCI Road World Championships held in Kigali in 2025, the first in Africa. The Rwandan community in Britain is centred on London, Manchester and Leeds, with church choirs, dance troupes and Independence Day gatherings, and the flag is also asked for by charities, schools in link projects and mountain gorilla trekkers.

Sizes, grades and fittings

Choose a 5ft x 3ft for a pole, a church or a stadium; a 3ft x 2ft for a window or a school display; an 8ft x 5ft for a big mast or a backdrop; and a 20x12in for a car or a hand pole. Flagtex, the woven polyester with printed colours, covers indoor and short outdoor use, while DuraFlag, knitted heavyweight polyester with a double-stitched hem, is the long-life grade for a permanent pole. A sewn header with brass eyelets is fitted as standard, or DuraFlag can come with clips or rope and toggle.

Rwanda bunting

Rwanda bunting is a line of rectangular pennants of the sun flag in 3m and 9m lengths. Put 3m over a classroom door, a stall or a dinner table; run 9m along a church hall, a marquee or a community centre for 1 July. The polyester pennants are printed on both faces and weather a short downpour.

Hand flags and table flags

Rwanda hand flags on wooden sticks come in 9x6in and 18x12in for Independence Day, Commonwealth assemblies and cycling races. The Rwanda table flag is a 6x4in desk flag with a base for an office or a charity desk, and the large wooden table flag at 18x12in suits a conference table or a reception. Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania and the DR Congo flags are under world flags.

Rwanda flag FAQs

Popular in this collection

• Rwanda Flag (20x12in to 8x5ft, Flagtex or DuraFlag)from £6.99
• Rwanda Bunting (3m or 9m)from £9.98
• Rwanda Hand Flags (9x6in, 18x12in)from £5.99
• Rwanda Table Flag 6x4in with Basefrom £1.98
• Rwanda Large Wooden Table Flagfrom £3.98