Malawi’s first national flag was hoisted at independence, on July 6, 1964. The design of the flag, three equal horizontal stripes of black, red, and green, corresponded to the flag used by the Malawi Congress Party, then the dominant political force in the country. 

The stripes on the flag symbolized respectively the African people of the country, the blood of martyrs for independence, and the ever-green nature of Malawi. The country’s name means “flaming waters,” referring to the setting sun on Lake Nyasa (known in Malawi as Lake Malawi), and a red half-sun was added to the top stripe of the national flag to distinguish it from the party flag.