Flag: Gambia Emoji

The flag of The Gambia. Three horizontal bands (red, blue, green) separated by thin white stripes. Ratio 2:3. Adopted February 18, 1965, the day the country became independent from the United Kingdom. Designed by Louis Thomasi, a Gambian accountant and civil servant.

What's unusual is how literal the flag is. Red stands for the savannah sun over the interior, white for unity and peace, blue for the Gambia River that runs the entire 480 km length of the country, and green for the riverside farmland and forest. It's essentially a horizontal cross-section of the Gambian country. There's no coat of arms, no pan-African reference, no star. One of the few African flags to reject the Ethiopian palette.

The Gambia is the smallest country in mainland Africa, a narrow strip roughly 480 km long and 50 km wide, surrounded entirely by Senegal except for its Atlantic coast. It's about the size of Jamaica, with a population of 2.7 million. Tourism marketing calls it the "Smiling Coast of Africa," and the coast's wide Atlantic beaches have been a British winter-escape staple since the 1970s.

🇬🇲 connects to a disproportionately large piece of African-American history: Kunta Kinte, Alex Haley's ancestor in Roots (1976 book, 1977 TV miniseries), was traced to the village of Juffure on the north bank of the Gambia River. After the miniseries aired, Juffure became a diaspora pilgrimage site; Kunta Kinteh Island (formerly James Island) is now UNESCO-listed.

Emoji 2.0 (2015), regional indicator pair U+1F1ECU+1F1EC + U+1F1F2U+1F1F2 (G + M). Platforms without flag support fall back to GMGM.

Kunta Kinte diaspora tourism. Juffure and Kunta Kinteh Island are the main heritage destinations for African-American visitors to The Gambia. The 1977 miniseries Roots drew estimated 130 million US viewers), and it continues to drive roots-tourism today. 🇬🇲 shows up in diaspora heritage posts from the US, Caribbean, and Brazil.

The 2016-2017 transition moment. Yahya Jammeh ruled The Gambia from 1994 (coup) to 2017. After losing the December 2016 election to Adama Barrow, he initially refused to step down. ECOWAS troops entered The Gambia in January 2017; Jammeh flew into exile in Equatorial Guinea on January 21. The peaceful transition, rare in West Africa, produced one of the biggest sustained 🇬🇲 waves of the decade on international news feeds.

Scorpions football. The Gambia national football team, the Scorpions, made their first-ever AFCON at AFCON 2021 (played 2022), reaching the quarterfinals and beating Guinea 1-0 with a Musa Barrow goal. 🇬🇲 trended across African football feeds for the entire tournament.

Smiling Coast tourism. Bakau, Kololi, and the resort strip south of Banjul have been a winter British tourism market since the 1960s. Scandinavian retirees and EU package tourists keep The Gambia's tourism industry alive through the dry season (November to April). The 'Smiling Coast' tagline shows up frequently in tourism posts.

Diaspora. ~170,000 Gambians live abroad, heavily concentrated in the US, UK, Spain, Germany, and Sweden. Gambia House in the Bronx is NYC's Gambian cultural hub. The UK community is older (dating to 1970s labor migration). Gambian restaurants and shops in Brixton, Tottenham, and Newham serve the diaspora.

• 🏙️
  Capital: Banjul (13.45°N, 16.58°W), one of Africa's smallest capitals
• 👥
  Population: ~2.7 million (2025)
• 🗺️
  Area: 11,300 km² (smallest mainland African country)
• 💵
  Currency: Gambian dalasi (GMD, D); divided into 100 bututs
• 🗣️
  Languages: English (official); Mandinka (largest native), Wolof (lingua franca), Fula, Jola, Serer
• 🕌
  Religions: ~96% Muslim, ~4% Christian
• 📞
  Calling code: +220
• ⏰
  Time zone: GMT (UTC+0), no DST
• 🌐
  Internet TLD: .gm

Foods that show up next to 🇬🇲

Landmarks and cultural sites

The Gambia River. The country's entire geography, history, and economy revolves around the Gambia River, which flows 1,120 km from the Fouta Djallon highlands in Guinea to the Atlantic at Banjul. The Gambia is essentially the river's navigable downstream reach plus about 25 km of bank on each side.

Senegambia and the Kingdoms. Before European contact, the river valley held multiple Mandinka, Wolof, Fula, and Serer kingdoms. The Mali Empire (Mansa Musa's state) controlled the upper river as a tributary territory in the 14th century; the Songhai Empire took its turn in the 15th. Portuguese explorers arrived in 1456 and named the river after Kunta Kinte's home village's nearby watchtower.

British and French rivalry. The river became a Portuguese, then Dutch, then French, then British trading zone. In 1765 Britain formed the Gambia Province as the first African colony of the British crown. For much of the 19th century Britain and France negotiated whether The Gambia should be swapped for French territory elsewhere; the eventual 1889 deal gave France the surrounding Senegal but left Britain with the narrow river strip. That's why The Gambia today is surrounded by Francophone Senegal.

Independence, 1965. The Gambia became independent on February 18, 1965 under Dawda Jawara, the country's first Prime Minister and later President. The Thomasi flag flew for the first time that morning. In 1982, Jawara briefly federated with Senegal as Senegambia; the confederation dissolved in 1989.

Jammeh era (1994-2017). Yahya Jammeh seized power in a July 1994 bloodless coup and ruled for 22 years. Human-rights records deteriorated sharply after 2000. He lost the December 2016 election to Adama Barrow, refused to step down, and was removed after ECOWAS troops (primarily Senegalese and Nigerian) entered the country on January 20, 2017. Jammeh flew into exile on January 21.

The democratic moment. Barrow's peaceful succession, the first in Gambian history, became a point of pride across West Africa. Jammeh's Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission held hearings from 2019 to 2021. As of 2026, the Gambia is under its second democratic term.

• 🎉
  February 18: Independence Day: The biggest civic day. Commemorates The Gambia's [1965 independence from the UK](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_(Gambia)). Presidential parade at Independence Stadium in Bakau; diaspora celebrations in London and the Bronx.
• 🌙
  Koriteh (Eid al-Fitr): End of Ramadan. Family feasts, new clothes for children, and mosque gatherings. The year's biggest holiday in ~96% Muslim Gambia.
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  Tobaski (Eid al-Adha): Feast of the Sacrifice. Every Gambian family that can afford one buys a ram for Tobaski; ram prices spike weeks ahead.
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  Gamou (Mawlid): The Prophet's birthday. Major gatherings in the Niani and Upper River regions.
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  Annual International Roots Festival: A heritage-tourism event (usually held in May) bringing African-American, Caribbean, and Brazilian visitors to Juffure and Kunta Kinteh Island. Ceremonial drumming, slave-trade memorials, and griot performances.

• •The Gambia is the smallest mainland African country by area (11,300 km²), about the size of Jamaica. It's a narrow river strip entirely surrounded by Senegal except for its 80 km Atlantic coast.
• •Kunta Kinte, the ancestor traced in Alex Haley's Roots (1976 book, 1977 miniseries watched by ~130M Americans), was a real Mandinka man from the Gambian village of Juffure. He was captured by slavers in 1767 and taken to Maryland.
• •The Gambia's flag is one of few African flags that ignored the Ethiopian pan-African red-gold-green palette. Designer Louis Thomasi chose red (savannah sun), blue (Gambia River), and green (farmland) as a literal country cross-section.
• •In January 2017, ECOWAS troops entered The Gambia to enforce Yahya Jammeh's election loss. Jammeh flew into exile in Equatorial Guinea on January 21 without a fight. One of Africa's rare peaceful transitions of power in the 2010s.
• •Kunta Kinteh Island (formerly James Island) is UNESCO-listed as a key site of the Atlantic slave trade. It's been a pilgrimage site for African-American heritage tourists since the 1977 Roots miniseries.
• •The Gambia made its first-ever AFCON appearance at AFCON 2021 (played 2022 in Cameroon) and reached the quarterfinals. The Scorpions beat Mauritania, Tunisia, and Guinea before losing to eventual runners-up Cameroon.
• •Kachikally Crocodile Pool in Bakau contains about 80 Nile crocodiles that are considered sacred. Visitors are allowed to touch them; they're used to humans and famously docile. Pilgrims believe the water can cure infertility.
• •The Gambia was the first British-administered African colony, established in 1765. The eventual 1889 Anglo-French boundary deal gave France most of Senegambia but left Britain the narrow river strip that became modern Gambia.

• •🇬🇲 is a regional indicator sequence: U+1F1ECU+1F1EC (G) + U+1F1F2U+1F1F2 (M). ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code: GMGM.
• •Unsupported platforms render it as the letters GMGM. Common in older Windows chat clients.
• •Shortcode: :flag_gm::flag_gm: or :gambia::gambia: on most messaging platforms.

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