The Zanzibar flag today: blue, black, green and the Tanzanian canton
Header photo: the Zanzibar flag in Stone Town. Raf24, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Zanzibar flag has three horizontal bands, blue, black and green, with the flag of Tanzania in the top left corner. It was set by the Zanzibar Flag Act No. 12 of 2004 and first raised officially in January 2005.
Design
Blue, black and green bands, Tanzania's flag in the top corner
Law
Zanzibar Flag Act No. 12 of 2004
First raised
January 2005, Amaan Stadium
Colours from
The Afro-Shirazi Party flag of 1964
Status
Regional flag. Tanzania's is the national one
Emoji
None. 🇹🇿 is Tanzania
The canton is the whole point of the design. When the bill went through the House of Representatives, Zanzibar's Attorney General said the Tanzanian flag in the corner meant that Zanzibar is part of the Union and nothing else. The island is a semi-autonomous region, not a country, which our page on whether Zanzibar is a country explains in full.
Zanzibar flag meaning: what the colours stand for
The colours are older than the flag. They come from the Afro-Shirazi Party, the party of Abeid Karume that took power in the revolution of January 1964, and they were already on the flag of the short-lived People's Republic of Zanzibar that year.
The reading you will hear on the island, and in most guides, is blue for the Indian Ocean, black for the people, green for the land. It fits, but we found no official text that defines it. Neither the 2004 Act as reported nor the government's statements at the time explain the colours, so treat it as the popular meaning, not the legal one.
The Tanzanian corner has a documented meaning, because Tanzania published one: green for the land and its crops, black for the Swahili people, blue for the ocean and lakes, yellow for mineral wealth.
Zanzibar flag history: every flag since 1856
Six flags in about 150 years, four of them inside 1963 and 1964. The table reads top to bottom, oldest first.
| Flag | Period | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|
 | Sultanate of Zanzibar 1856 to 1963 Plain red, the colour of the Omani dynasty | Plain red, the colour of the Omani dynasty |
 | Independent sultanate 10 Dec 1963 to 12 Jan 1964 Red, green disc, two yellow cloves | Red, green disc, two yellow cloves |
 | Revolution January 1964 Black, yellow and blue stripes, used for days | Black, yellow and blue stripes, used for days |
 | People's Republic of Zanzibar Jan to 26 Apr 1964 Blue, a broad black band, green | Blue, a broad black band, green |
 | United Republic of Tanzania 30 June 1964 to today Green and blue triangles, black diagonal edged in yellow | Green and blue triangles, black diagonal edged in yellow |
| Zanzibar, semi-autonomous region 2005 to today Blue, black and green, Tanzanian flag in the canton | Blue, black and green, Tanzanian flag in the canton |
Sultanate of Zanzibar flag: plain red, 1856 to 1963
When Sultan Said died in 1856, his sons split his empire and Majid kept Zanzibar, with the plain red flag the Omani dynasty had flown since the late 1600s. It stayed red through the British protectorate from 1890. A 1959 description recorded the sultan's standard, ensign and merchant flag as all plain red.
The early years are less tidy. A cigarette card of the 1880s shows a striped flag, while stamps of the 1890s show plain red, so the flag before 1896 is still debated. Commons keeps a striped version with green crescents on yellow bands, shown below, but no source we found proves it flew over Zanzibar.
1896 is the year people search for: in the Anglo-Zanzibar War of 27 August 1896, the shelling stopped when the red flag over the palace was shot down, about 38 minutes in.
The 1963 independence flag with two cloves
Zanzibar became independent from Britain on 10 December 1963, still as a sultanate, and changed its flag for the first time in a century: the red field gained a green disc holding two yellow cloves, the spice that made the islands rich. It flew for barely a month.
Zanzibar revolution flags of 1964
On 12 January 1964the revolution overthrew Sultan Jamshid, and the red flag went with him. A striped black, yellow and blue flag was used for a few days. The People's Republic of Zanzibar then flew the Afro-Shirazi colours, blue, black and green, without the party's yellow hoe and with a broad black band taking half the height, until 26 April.
Wikimedia Commons also holds a flag for a People's Republic of Pemba, red with a green outline of the island, dated 18 January to 7 April 1964. It is poorly documented and you will not see it anywhere on the island today.
1964 to 2004: forty years under the Tanzanian flag
On 26 April 1964 Zanzibar joined Tanganyika in a union, renamed Tanzania that October. The new national flag, adopted on 30 June 1964, merged the two: green and black from Tanganyika, blue from Zanzibar. For the next forty years Zanzibar had a president and a parliament but no flag of its own, until the 2004 Act.
Zanzibar flag vs Tanzania flag: how to tell them apart
The Tanzanian flag is diagonal: a green triangle top left, a blue triangle bottom right, split by a black band edged in yellow. The Zanzibar flag is horizontal, three bands, with that diagonal flag shrunk into its corner. If you see horizontal stripes, it is Zanzibar. A diagonal means Tanzania.
Tanzania's is the national flag, the one on the passport desk at the airport, on embassies and at the Olympics. Zanzibar's is a regional flag. Before 1964, the mainland flew the flag of Tanganyika, green with a black horizontal band edged in gold, which is where the green and black of today's Tanzanian flag come from.
Where you see the Zanzibar flag, and the 2004 Flag Act
The Act was passed on 11 October 2004 and came into force on 12 November 2004. The flag was raised officially at Amaan Stadium in January 2005, during the 41st anniversary of the revolution, with a 21 gun salute. 12 January, Revolution Day, is still the day you see it most.
The law keeps it for local occasions. At the time, the Chief Minister said it would fly at ceremonies where no sovereign state takes part, so it does not replace the Tanzanian flag at state events or abroad. On the island you will see the two flags side by side on government buildings in Stone Town.
Treat the flag with respect
The president of Zanzibar also has his own standard, a green flag with the seal of Zanzibar at its centre, flown where he is present.
The history behind the flags, on foot in Stone Town
A guided walk covers the sultans' palaces, the 1896 seafront and the story of the revolution, where the history of each flag happened. Prices and ratings are as the partner lists them, read on the date shown below the card.
Stone Town: guided history walk
The slave market memorial, the palaces and the Freddie Mercury house.
From$25per person
Check availabilityPrices, ratings and review counts read from GetYourGuide on 27 September 2026, and indicative. These are partner links: the price is the same for you.
Is there a Zanzibar flag emoji?
No. There is no standard emoji for the Zanzibar flag. The closest is the Tanzania flag, 🇹🇿, which every phone displays. Some emoji sites list codes labelled "Flag for Zanzibar North" or "Zanzibar Central/South": these are administrative regions, and most phones show them as a plain black flag.
The red flag 🇹🇴 that turns up in searches is Tonga, not the old sultanate.
Zanzibar flag images: free to download
The flags on this page come from Wikimedia Commons, where they are listed as public domain. You can download them as SVG, scale them to any size and use them without permission. Licences checked on 27 October 2026.
- Current flag of Zanzibar:Flag_of_Zanzibar.svg
- Sultanate of Zanzibar, plain red:Flag_of_Sansibar_(1861-1963).svg
- Sultanate of Zanzibar, striped variant:Flag_of_the_Sultanate_of_Zanzibar.svg
- Independent sultanate, December 1963:Flag_of_Zanzibar_(December_1963-January_1964).svg
- Revolution flag, January 1964:Flag_of_Zanzibar_(January_1964).svg
- People's Republic of Zanzibar, 1964:Flag_of_Zanzibar_(January-April_1964).svg
- Afro-Shirazi Party:Flag_of_Afro-Shirazi_party.svg
- Tanzania:Flag_of_Tanzania.svg
Questions people ask about the Zanzibar flag
What does the Zanzibar flag look like?
Three horizontal bands, blue on top, black in the middle and green at the bottom, with the flag of Tanzania in the top left corner. It has been the flag of Zanzibar since January 2005, under the Zanzibar Flag Act of 2004.
What do the colours of the Zanzibar flag mean?
The reading you will hear in Zanzibar is blue for the Indian Ocean, black for the people and green for the land. The colours come from the Afro-Shirazi Party, which led the 1964 revolution. We found no official text that defines them. The Tanzanian flag in the corner shows that Zanzibar is part of the Union.
What was the old flag of Zanzibar?
Under the sultans, from 1856 to 1963, Zanzibar flew a plain red flag inherited from Oman. At independence on 10 December 1963 it added a green disc with two yellow cloves. After the revolution of January 1964, the People's Republic of Zanzibar used a blue, black and green flag until the union with Tanganyika in April.
Is the Zanzibar flag the same as the Tanzania flag?
No. Tanzania's flag has a green triangle and a blue triangle split by a black diagonal band edged in yellow. Zanzibar's flag has blue, black and green horizontal bands and carries the Tanzanian flag in its corner. Tanzania's is the national flag, Zanzibar's is a regional one.
Is there a Zanzibar flag emoji?
No. There is no standard emoji for the Zanzibar flag. The closest is the Tanzania flag emoji 🇹🇿. The red flag 🇹🇴 that some people confuse with the old sultanate flag is the flag of Tonga.
Is Zanzibar a country?
No. Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous region of Tanzania, which it formed with Tanganyika on 26 April 1964. It has its own president, parliament and flag, but no seat at the United Nations.