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Why some African flags look similar....

The most common colours in west Africa for flags are yellow, red & green. These are derived from the Ethiopian flag. The countries who took the colours of the Ethiopian flag are said to have had admired Ethiopia as the only country in Africa to have never been colonised. No symbolism for the colours is agreed upon.

Imperial flag of Ethiopia.

The red, black & green flags are said to have gotten these colours from the Marcus Garvey Pan-African flag. With Kenya, their Former president Jomo Kenyatta was said to have been an admirer of Marcus Garvey. With the I.Y.I.L.E. flag, it is simply conjured up from the three most common colours of the flags of central-east & south-east Africa, which happen to be green, red & black. The symbolism of the colours may differ from country to country. 
The flag of South Africa is simply the flag of the Netherlands combined with ANC colours which gives the illusion of a hybrid Jamaican & Dutch flag design.

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