Why Do West African Countries Have Such Similar Flags?

Learn more than ever from important non-fiction books at https://shortform.com/GENERALKNOWLEDGE and receive 5-days of unlimited access and an additional 25% discount on the annual subscription ▶ In this video I talk about the fact that many West African countries have flags with similar colors: Red, Green and Yellow/Gold. I explain how these colors come from the original flag of Ethiopia, most likely due to the fact that this country was not colonized by Europeans in the same way as the rest of the continent, thus becoming an inspiration for other African nations at the time of their independence. Many of them did not choose the colors based on Ethiopia's flag directly, but rather through regional influence of other countries around them that did so, with Ghana being a strong influence in this regard, while Ethiopia remains as the indirect influence. Some of these countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Senegal, São Tomé e Príncipe and Togo. These also share an historical connection, given that many of them were colonized by France, save some exceptions where the colonizer was the United Kingdom or Portugal. We learn how each of the countries adopted the current colours, what the direct influence is, when it happened, what the flags previously used were, as well as the possible connections between them. I also briefly mention the other set of colors that are sometimes known as 'Pan-African' - red, black and green - although these are mostly used by nations in East Africa. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Intro 00:55 The Pan African Colours 03:03 Ethiopia - The Origin of the Colours 04:42 Shortform 05:46 Benin 06:57 Burkina Faso 07:50 Cameroon 08:41 Central African Republic 09:30 Chad 10:20 Congo 10:55 Ghana 12:43 Guinea 13:02 Guinea-Bissau 13:35 Mali 14:12 Senegal