Until the 1820s, when Ottoman-Egyptian colonization began, the territory of modern Sudan consisted of various kingdoms, sultanates and tribes, such as Kush, Meroe, Nobatia, Makuria, Alodia, the Sultanate of Funj and the Sultanate of Darfur. Flags in the modern sense (standardized state symbols) did not exist due to the absence of a single state. Instead, banners, religious emblems, and colored cloths were used to denote authority, religion, or military affiliation. Official information is limited due to a lack of archaeological and written sources.
In the early 1820s, Muhammad Ali, the Ottoman governor of Egypt, sent troops south to conquer the scattered tribes of the Sudan. By 1824, they had captured Kordofan, Sennar, and the Nile Valley, creating the Turkish-Egyptian Sudan. The red flag of the Ottoman Empire flew over these lands, a solid red cloth with a white crescent moon and five-pointed star glowing in the center. This flag, known as the Ottoman military flag, symbolized the power of the sultan in Istanbul, but for the Sudanese it was a sign of outsiders who brought taxes and forced labor. In 1867, Egypt was granted partial autonomy, and Muhammad Ali introduced his own flag-also red, but with three white crescents, each with a five-pointed star, representing Egypt, Nubia, and Sudan. This flag flew over Khartoum and Dongola, but its meaning remained far from local traditions, reflecting only Cairo's ambitions.
But in 1881, a spark of resistance broke out. Muhammad Ahmad, proclaiming himself a Mahdi, led a revolution against the Turkish-Egyptian oppression. His followers, the Mahdists, expelled the Egyptian garrisons, creating a theocratic state. The Mahdist flags did not have a single design, but the most famous was the black banner presented to Caliph Abdullah ibn Muhammad to recruit soldiers from the Baghdara tribes. This flag, all black, represented religious purity and the struggle for faith, reminding the Sudanese of their strength. Other banners were white with Arabic inscriptions, often the names of God or the Mahdi, framed by red or blue stripes. These banners, which swayed over the battlefields of Kordofan or Omdurman, were the first local symbols to challenge foreigners. By 1885, when the Mahdists conquered Khartoum, black and white banners replaced the red Ottoman banners, but this freedom was short-lived.
In 1898, British-Egyptian troops under Horace Kitchener defeated the Mahdists in the Battle of Omdurman. On January 19, 1899, the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, a joint rule of Britain and Egypt, was officially proclaimed. Sudan lost its own flag, and two foreign flags flew over it. The British Union Jack-a blue cloth with red and white crosses of England, Scotland, and Ireland-symbolized the imperial power of London. The Egyptian flag changed: until 1914, it was a red cloth with one white crescent and a star; from 1914 to 1923, it was red with three crescents and stars; and after 1923, it was green with a white crescent and three stars, representing Egypt, Nubia, and Sudan. In 1900, the Governor of the Sudan received his own flag, the Union Jack, in the center of which was a white disk with the golden inscription “GOVERNOR GENERAL OF THE SUDAN”, framed by a green laurel wreath.
In 1924, the White Flag League, a movement led by Ali Abdel Latif, challenged the colonizers. A white flag with the red letters “SUDAN” flew in the streets of Khartoum and Omdurman. Simple but strong, it became the first true symbol of Sudanese unity. The British harshly suppressed the protests, but this flag was forever imprinted in people's memories, inspiring them to fight. In 1953, when Sudan was already on the verge of independence, the same white flag with “SUDAN” proudly represented the country at the Afro-Asian Conference in Bandung, held on April 18-24, 1955.
On January 1, 1956, Sudan finally became free. Khartoum replaced the British Union Jack and the Egyptian green flag with the first national flag. Three wide stripes-blue, yellow, and green-stretched across the canvas with a 1:2 ratio. This flag, designed by the poet Maki Sufi, was thought out to the smallest detail to unite the colorful people of Sudan. The blue color reminded us of the Nile, a river that connects the north and south like a living artery. Yellow reflected the Sahara Desert in the north and the resilience of the people living in its harsh embrace. The green color spoke of the fertile lands where cotton and sorghum grow, and carried with it the hope of prosperity. The flag was deliberately made neutral, without religious or tribal symbols, so that no one-neither the Muslim north nor the Christian south, nor the many tribes-would feel like an outsider. It was first hoisted over the parliament in Khartoum on December 31, 1955, by the decision of the House of Representatives, which was headed by Mubarak Zarroug. This flag flew as a sign of unity until 1970. But peace was fragile: the civil war between the north and south that broke out in 1955 cast a shadow over the flag. For many in the south, it was still associated with Arab influence.
On May 25, 1969, a military coup led by Haafar Nimeir changed the fate of Sudan. The country became the Democratic Republic of Sudan, and the new government sought to reflect its ideology-Arab nationalism and socialism-in state symbols. A competition for a new flag was announced, and on May 20, 1970, the country received the flag that flies today. This flag, designed by the artist Abdel Rahman Ahmed al-Jali, consisted of three horizontal stripes-red, white, and black-with a green triangle extending from the left edge near the flagpole. The width-to-length ratio remained 1:2, but the design was inspired by the 1952 Egyptian Arab Liberation Flag. Its pan-African colors emphasized Arab identity, which did not always resonate with non-Arab groups, especially in the south. During the Second Civil War (1983-2005), southern rebels, including the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, used their own banners, rejecting the national flag as a symbol of northern domination. After the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, South Sudan gained autonomy and independence in 2011, choosing its own flag with black, red, and green stripes, white inserts, a blue triangle, and a gold star. Meanwhile, the Sudanese flag has remained unchanged, flying over Khartoum even in times of upheaval - the 2018-2019 protests that ousted Omar al-Bashir and the civil war that began in 2023. Interestingly, during the 2018-2019 protests, some demonstrators raised the old blue, yellow, and green flag of 1956, seeing it as a symbol of neutrality and unity lost in the modern design.
