Barbados Flag Colors, Meaning & History

Barbados flag
Color Palette
ColorsHEX CodeRGBCMYK
Blue#00267F0, 38, 127100, 70, 0, 50
Yellow#FFC726255, 199, 380, 22, 85, 0
Black#0000000, 0, 00, 0, 0, 100

Barbados is a small island country in the south-eastern Caribbean Sea. is The Barbados flag is made of three vertical stripes. There are two marine blue stripes on the outer sides with a golden stripe in the middle. On the yellow stripe, you see a black broken trident.

Meaning

The blue parts of the Barbados flag represent the sky and the sea, while the yellow stands for the sand. The trident is a mythical symbol of the Greek God of the sea. Being broken represents the freedom of the country, breaking from the historical and constitutional ties of colonization.

History

Barbados was inhabited by Native Americans. In the 17th century, it was occupied by Britain and it became a sugar plantation.  Barbados proclaimed its independence in 1966. Before that, it was part of the West Indies Federation. When looking to replace the old flag that held the image of a shell, depicting the monarch holding a trident in a carriage pulled by two horses, the government announced a competition. The winning design was designed by a secondary art teacher named Grantley Prescod. His entry was approved by the Barbadian government and was first hoisted on November 30, 1966. Until 2021, Barbados’ head of state was still the queen of England. In 2021, Barbados became a republic with an elected president, but the flag remained the same.  Barbados now is a unique country with a mixture of its West –African roots and European colonial history.