Flag of Algeria

An overview

The national flag of Algeria is a rectangle of two equal vertical bands — green at the hoist, white at the fly — bearing a red crescent and a red five-pointed star centered on the line between them. The ratio is 2:3, and the star sits entirely on the white band.

The design came out of the nationalist movement of the early 20th century, was carried through the war of independence by the National Liberation Front, and was raised over an independent Algeria on July 3, 1962. Law No. 63-145 of April 25, 1963, fixed its characteristics in an annex of unusual precision: the colors are defined by wavelength and the crescent and star by exact geometry. The Constitution goes further still — Article 5 declares the emblem a conquest of the November 1, 1954 Revolution and immutable.

The flag serves on land and at sea alike, as national flag, civil flag, and ensign; only the National Navy adds a mark of its own, two white crossed anchors in the upper hoist.

The crescent and star

The crescent and five-pointed star are the oldest elements of the design — symbols of Islam long flown across North Africa and by the dynasties that ruled in Algeria. On the flag they are drawn to statute: the crescent’s outer circle is centered on the exact center of the rectangle, its tips open across five-sixths of that circle, and the star is inscribed in a circle one-eighth of the flag’s height, two of its points resting on the vertical dividing line.

The star’s five points are commonly read as the five pillars of Islam. The historian Benjamin Stora has suggested the three colors originally stood for the three countries of the Maghreb and the idea of their union.

Design and official specification

Law No. 63-145 of April 25, 1963 — signed by President Ahmed Ben Bella — declares the national emblem a green and white flag bearing a red star and crescent, and fixes every detail in its annex. The rectangle’s length is one and a half times its height; the field is divided along the short median into a green half against the staff and a white half at the fly.

Official color specification

The law defines the two hues physically rather than by swatch. The green must be an equal composition of yellow and blue with a wavelength of 5,411 ångströms; the red must be a pure, indecomposable primary color, free of blue and yellow, at 6,562 ångströms — both per the Rood contrast diagram named in the annex. The values below are the modern matches commonly cited in standard references.

Symbolism and meaning

Algerian law fixes the flag’s form, not its meaning. The readings below are the traditional ones, repeated across Algerian public life and standard references.

The colors carried these associations in the nationalist movement decades before independence — the flag’s meaning was fixed by history before its form was fixed by law.

How the flag evolved

The Algerian flag was a protest banner before it was a state symbol. Its exact origin is disputed — the record offers a 1934 sewing, May Day marches from 1919, and more than one claimed designer — but its path from the nationalist movement through the war of independence to the law of 1963 is documented step by step.

1. 1830s

   Abdelkader's standard

   

   Tradition credits Emir Abdelkader, leader of the resistance to the French invasion, with a green and white standard that inspired the modern flag. Evidence for the attribution is lacking, but later nationalists invoked him as the flag's forefather.

2. 1926

   The ENA's first emblem

   

   The North African Star (ENA), the nationalist association led by Messali Hadj — with Abdelkader's grandson Khaled among its members — flew a green flag carrying the motto "Algeria our country, Arabic our language and Islam our religion."

3. 1934

   Green, white and red

   

   By most accounts the colors were chosen at an ENA meeting in 1934, and Émilie Busquant, the French wife of Messali Hadj, sewed the first flag. Historians dispute the origin: green-and-white flags with the red crescent and star are also reported in May Day marches as early as 1919, and the designer Chawki Mostefaï is credited by others.

4. 1945

   The May 1945 flag

   

   The flag in its present form was carried at the May 1945 independence demonstrations. At Sétif on May 8 it was borne by Bouzid Saâl, who was shot by police — and that flag became the model the movement carried forward.

5. 1958

   Government in exile

   

   The National Liberation Front (FLN) carried the flag through the war of independence, and the provisional government in exile (GPRA) adopted it in 1958. Hoisted at the Monrovia conference in 1959, it was recognized by several African states before independence.

6. 1962

   Independence

   

   The flag was raised over an independent Algeria on July 3, 1962. Law No. 63-145, signed by President Ahmed Ben Bella on April 25, 1963, fixed its characteristics in an annex — and the design has not changed since.

Who designed the Algerian flag?

No designer is settled. The most cited account, from the historian Benjamin Stora, has the colors chosen at a 1934 meeting of the North African Star movement, with Émilie Busquant — the French labor activist married to the movement’s leader, Messali Hadj — sewing the first flag. Other historians, led by René Gallissot and Anissa Bouayed, trace green-and-white flags with the red crescent and star to Algerian marches as early as May Day 1919, and the physician and militant Chawki Mostefaï is also credited with the design.

What is certain is where the final form was carried: the flag of the May 1945 demonstrations became the flag of the National Liberation Front, of the government in exile, and — unchanged — of the republic.

Legal status and display rules

The flag’s status rests on two texts. Article 5 of the Constitution declares the national emblem and anthem “conquests of the November 1, 1954 Revolution” and immutable — no ordinary law can change the flag. Law No. 63-145 of 1963 defines its form, colors, and geometry.

The flag flies on public and military buildings, on Algeria’s embassies and missions abroad, in school classrooms, and at national commemorations, where it is rendered formal honors. Its protection is penal: Article 160 bis of the Penal Code punishes anyone who deliberately and publicly tears, defaces, or desecrates the flag with 5 to 10 years’ imprisonment.

Things you may not know

The colors are defined in ångströms. The 1963 law specifies the green and red not by swatch but by physics — wavelengths of 5,411 and 6,562 ångströms on the Rood contrast diagram. Few flag laws anywhere read like an optics textbook.

A hand almost made the flag. The Hand of Fatima (khamsah), a silhouetted hand long popular on Algerian banners, appeared with a yellow ring in a green-white-green flag proposed in the 1940s by a rival nationalist party — but it was left off the flag of 1962.

The flag cannot be changed. The Constitution declares the emblem immutable — a status few national flags hold. Amending the design would require touching the constitutional text itself.