Months before the unveiling of Jamaica as a freshly minted independent nation, the country had completed the design for its new flag. Fifty-nine years later, the Jamaican flag still holds the position of being very unique. There are not many flags that do not boast one of the colours red, white, or blue. But the powerful symbols of the people, the beauty of the land, and the ever-present sunshine are also key to the flags enduring image of hope for a great nation.

Published Friday, June 22, 1962

COMMITTEE PRODUCES UNIQUE DESIGN FOR NATIONAL EMBLEM

THIS IS JAMAICA'S FLAG

No other country’s ensign like it

WILL BE UNFURLED AT INDEPENDENCE

THE SEARCH FOR a National Flag of Jamaica has ended Wednesday night (June 20, 1962), at the close of a dramatic and sometimes emotional two hour debate Members of the House of Representatives stood and shouted “Aye”, in a decision that made the Black, Green and Gold banner Jamaica’s own.

This then is the Flag that will be unfurled at the National Stadium at midnight on August 5 to herald the birth of a new nation on August 6. This is the banner that will billow in the breeze when Her Royal Highness the Princess Margaret performs the ceremony that will highlight Jamaica’s Independence Celebrations.

The simple design, of crossed diagonals in Gold and triangles in Black and Green is unique, the Hon. Donald Sangster, Minister of Finance, told the House. There is no other National Flag like it anywhere in the world.

It was the resemblance of the original design to the flag of Tanganyika that caused the House to have second thoughts on the matter. The first design, details of which were outlined in a Ministry Paper tabled in the House on June 6, carried the same colours, but in horizontal bars. Tanganyika has the same colours and an almost similar arrangement.

It was the effort of a bipartisan committee of the House and as the Ministry Paper stated, the decision was reached on the basis of substantial compromise.

Too Close

But the resemblance was a little too close to Tanganyika’s flag and so the men behind the design were asked to think again and they have come up with something that will stand out as it flutters as it eventually will, among the more that 100 banners flying from their flagpoles outside the headquarters of the United nations.

It will bring, too, a lump to the throats of patriotic Jamaicans as they see it flying from their flagpoles at the dawn of Independence on August 6; school children, to whom it will be distributed in thousands, will wave it and cheer and love it as the symbol of their country’s nationhood.

The colours have their symbols as the original Ministry Paper emphasized;

Black: Hardships overcome and to be faced,

Gold: Natural wealth and beauty of sunlight,

Green: Hope and agriculture resources.

The symbolism can also be rendered Hardship there are but the land is green and the sun shineth.

As the Hon. Edward Seaga, Minister of Development and Welfare, said in the debate, “I consider the design unusual, the pattern beautiful, and the symbolism perfect. On the sixth day of August I shall stand and salute the flag”.

The House agreed that all Jamaica will do so with him.

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