Cote d'Ivoire

Côte d'Ivoire, Ivory Coast

Last modified: 2002-07-27 by rob raeside
Keywords: cote d'ivoire | ivory coast | tricolour: orange white green | elephant |
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2:3~    by António Martins

• Description of the flag
• Meaning of the flag
• Use of the flag
• Coat of arms
• Aircraft marking

See also:

• Niger

Description of the flag

Orange, white and green vertical tricolour. The construction details provided by the figure in Album des Pavillons (2000) explain that the stripes are of equal width. Pantone approximation is given as orange Pantone 151c, green Pantone 347c.
Zeljko Heimer, 1 June 2001

Meaning of the flag

Other sources have reported that orange represents the savannahs in the north of the land, and green the woods in the south. White is a symbol of unity. This symbolism is the same as for the orange-white-green flag of Niger, and the vertical positions are influenced by the French tricolor. Officially adopted on 3 December 1959. Proportions 2:3.
Zeljko Heimer

Use of the flag

From the National Presidency web site:

• on all official buildings
• on the desk of all State employees (public and semi-public administrations), as a table flag, horizontal or vertical ["fanion ou oriflamme"]
• in the courtyard of all schools, colleges and universities, barracks, military and paramilitary institutions
• in the right corner in front of the vehicles used by the President of the Republic and his representatives (prefets, sous-prefets, ambassadors).

Salute to the colours should occur regularly in schools and colleges and during official ceremonies.

Ivan Sache, 30 November 2000

[Note the shield should be all green - seems the graphic artist here was playing with the software!]

The current coat of arms of Ivory Coast has an elephant on green shield, however the 1960-1964 shield was blue. I have not seen the old coat of arms.
Nick Kariyasu, 17 May 1998

The elephant is the largest and strongest animal in the local fauna and gave its name to the country; it is considered as the national emblematic animal. The arms featuring the elephant, two palm trees and a rising sun, should be placed on all official documents. 

[The elephant was also the emblem of "Rassemblement Démocratique Africain", party of the late president Houphouet-Boigny at the time of independence, according to DK Pocket Book (1997). Smith (1975) says the party name was "Parti Démocratique de Cote d'Ivoire". These are probably two successive names for the same party.]

The arms are represented in Smith with a green shield and all the rest in yellow (scroll, palm trees, rising sun). Smith and DK Pocket Book both say the shield was initially blue, but altered to green in 1964 to match better the national flag colours. The website shows the scroll in the national colours - Republique on an orange background, de Cote on a white one, and d'Ivoire on a green one, a golden sun with black and white rays, green palm trees with black and white stipes [palm trees are botanically not trees but herbs, so they have stipes instead of trunks] and a shield of indistinct colour (orange-greenish).
Ivan Sache, 30 November 2000

According to Cote d'Ivoire Embassy in Tokyo they confirm they modified the coat of arms and changed the colour in shield 
from green to orange fading to green and in scroll from green to orange, white and green. They gave me the government website which shows the current coat of arms image. I am asking them when they changed colours and bit design.
Nozomi Kariyasu, 17 January 2002

The embassy has informed me this change happened sometime between November 2000 and January 2001.
Nozomi Kariyasu, 20 February 2002

Aircraft Marking

From Album des Pavillons (2000): Roundel of green-white-orange concentric disks with diameters approximately 50:35:14 respectively. Note to the figure explains that the national flag is painted on the fin.