At least thirteen national or state flags show a weapon, and a fourteenth, Barbados, shows a broken trident. Four flags of UN member states carry a firearm: Mozambique (an AK-47 with a bayonet), Guatemala (crossed Remington rifles), Haiti (cannons in its coat of arms) and Bolivia (cannons and rifles on its state flag). Swords and daggers appear on the flags of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iran and Sri Lanka, spears on those of Kenya, Eswatini and the Dominican Republic, and a machete on Angola’s. Venezuela’s state flag carries the widest mix: a sword, a sabre, lances, a machete and a bow and arrow. Eight of the fourteen show their weapons inside a coat of arms or national emblem rather than directly on the flag’s background.
The table below lists every flag in the group, the weapon it shows and when its current design was adopted. After it, the flags are grouped by weapon and region.
Fourteen Flags With Blades, Guns or Spears
| Country | Weapon shown | Where it appears | Current flag since |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mozambique | AK-47 with bayonet, crossed with a hoe | Red triangle at the hoist | 1 May 1983 |
| Guatemala | Two Remington Rolling Block rifles, two swords | Coat of arms, centre | Colours restored 17 August 1871 |
| Haiti | Cannons, cannonballs | Coat of arms on a white panel | Design of 1806, readopted 2012 |
| Bolivia | Cannons, rifles, an axe | Coat of arms (state and war flag only) | 31 October 1851 |
| Saudi Arabia | Sword | Below the shahada | 15 March 1973 |
| Oman | Khanjar dagger over two crossed swords | National emblem in the canton | 17 December 1970 |
| Iran | Sword | Central emblem | July 1980 |
| Sri Lanka | Kastane sword | Held by the lion | 1948; redesigned 1972 |
| Angola | Machete | Central emblem with half-cogwheel and star | 11 November 1975 |
| Kenya | Maasai shield, two spears | Centre | 12 December 1963 |
| Eswatini | Nguni shield, two assegais, staff | Centre | 6 October 1968 |
| Dominican Republic | Spears | Coat of arms (not on the civil flag) | First hoisted 28 February 1844 |
| Venezuela | Sword, sabre, lances, machete, bow and arrow | Coat of arms (state flag only) | 2006 |
| Barbados | Broken trident head | Centre | 30 November 1966 |
Firearms in Southern Africa and the Americas: Mozambique, Guatemala, Haiti and Bolivia
Mozambique’s is the only national flag with a modern firearm. Its red triangle carries a yellow star, an open book, a hoe and an AK-47 with a fixed bayonet. The constitution does not name the rifle, but it is generally understood to be a Kalashnikov. The book, hoe and gun stand for education, production and defence, and the red stands for resistance to colonial rule. The design, adopted on 1 May 1983, comes from the first flag of FRELIMO, the movement that fought Portuguese rule and has governed since independence on 25 June 1975.
The rifle has been challenged. As part of a peace process with RENAMO, the former rebel movement that fought FRELIMO in a sixteen-year civil war, the government held a competition in 2005 for a new flag and emblem. It drew 169 entries, but the Assembly of the Republic voted 155 to 79 against any change, with FRELIMO deputies opposing and RENAMO deputies in favour. Our flag of Mozambique guide covers the colours in detail.
Guatemala’s firearms sit in the coat of arms on the white central stripe: two crossed Remington Rolling Block rifles, meaning the country’s readiness to defend itself, and two crossed swords for honour. They frame a resplendent quetzal and a scroll dated 15 September 1821, the day Central America declared independence from Spain. The blue and white colours were restored on 17 August 1871 after a pro-Spanish government had added red and yellow in 1851.
Haiti’s weapons are also in its coat of arms, set on a white panel between blue and red bands. Six Haitian flags are draped behind a royal palm and cannons on a green lawn, with a drum, bugles, cannonballs and ship anchors in front and the motto “L’Union fait la force” below. The first Haitian flag was adopted on 18 May 1803 at the Congress of Arcahaie, and the present arrangement was first used under President Alexandre Pétion in 1806. Haiti’s civil flag leaves the arms off.
Bolivia follows the same rule. Its civil flag is a plain red, yellow and green tricolour, adopted on 31 October 1851, but the state and war flag carries the national arms. On each side of the oval are three flags, a cannon and two rifles, with an axe on one side and a liberty cap on the other, below an Andean condor.
Swords and Daggers From Arabia to Iran: Saudi Arabia, Oman and Iran
Saudi Arabia’s flag shows the shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith, in white Thuluth script on green, with a white sword beneath it. The sword stands for safety and justice. The current design has been in use since 15 March 1973, and its proportions are precise: on a flag 48 units long, the sword is 18 units long. The shahada has to read correctly from both sides, so the flag is made double-sided, with the sword pointing left on both faces, in the direction the script reads. Since the shahada is held to be holy, the flag is never lowered to half-mast. More on its history is in our flag of Saudi Arabia guide.
Oman’s national emblem, in the red canton of its flag, is a sheathed khanjar, a traditional curved dagger, fastened over two crossed swords. It began in the 18th century as the royal crest of the Al Bu Said dynasty. Until 1970 the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman used a plain red flag; after Sultan Qaboos bin Said took power that year, white and green bands and the emblem were added by royal decree on 17 December 1970. The proportions changed to 1:2 in 1995 and to 4:7 in 2004.
Iran’s flag, adopted in July 1980 after the Islamic Revolution, has a red emblem in its white band made of four crescents and a sword, arranged to form the word Allah. The phrase Allahu Akbar is written 22 times in Kufic script along the edges of the green and red bands, a reference to 22 Bahman, the date of the revolution’s victory in the Iranian calendar.
Spears and Shields of East and Southern Africa: Kenya and Eswatini
Kenya’s black, red and green flag, adopted on 12 December 1963, has a red, white and black Maasai shield over two crossed spears at its centre. Its ancestor was the Kenya African Union flag of 1951–52, which showed a shield crossed with a spear and an arrow; the later KANU party flag swapped those for a rooster holding a battle axe. A committee under Jomo Kenyatta then settled on the tricolour with a Maasai shield and crossed spears, so that the national flag would not belong to any one party.
Eswatini’s flag, adopted on 6 October 1968, a month after independence, was designed by King Sobhuza II from a military flag he gave the Swazi Pioneer Corps in 1941. On its red band lies an ox-hide shield of the Emabutfo regiment, with two assegais and a staff hung with tassels of widowbird and lourie feathers, which only the king may use. The shield and spears symbolise protection from the country’s enemies. Shields without weapons appear on other flags too, collected in our guide to flags with shields.
Machetes and a Lion’s Sword: Angola and Sri Lanka
Angola’s red and black flag, adopted at independence on 11 November 1975, carries a yellow machete crossed by half a cogwheel under a star. The machete stands for peasants, farming and the armed struggle of the thirteen-year war of independence against Portugal; the cogwheel stands for industrial workers. The American flag scholar Whitney Smith pointed out the emblem’s likeness to the Soviet hammer and sickle.
Sri Lanka’s Lion Flag shows a golden lion holding a kastane, a traditional Sinhalese sword, in its right forepaw. A mural in Cave 2 at Dambulla shows King Dutugemunu, on his campaign of 162 BC, under a banner of a lion carrying a sword. The flag of the Kingdom of Kandy used the same lion until the Kandyan Convention of 1815 brought British rule. Ceylon adopted the lion flag in 1948. When it was redesigned in 1972, four spearheads in its corners were replaced with four bo leaves, a case of a country removing a weapon from its flag.
Spears and Lances on Caribbean and South American Arms, Plus Barbados’s Trident
The Dominican Republic’s coat of arms, at the centre of its state flag, shows a Bible open at John 8:32 with a cross above it, set among spears and national flags. The flag itself was designed by Juan Pablo Duarte and first hoisted on 28 February 1844, and the civil version leaves out the arms.
Venezuela’s arms, shown in the upper hoist corner of its state flag, have the largest collection. The yellow quarter shows a sword, a sabre and three lances tied with two flags by a laurel branch, as a symbol of victory in war. Changes approved by the National Assembly in March 2006 added a machete, for the peasant fighters of the independence wars, and a bow and arrow honouring the indigenous peoples who resisted conquest.
Barbados is the borderline case. Its flag, adopted on 30 November 1966 and designed by the art teacher Grantley Prescod, whose entry won an open contest that drew 1,029 designs, shows the head of a trident on its gold band. The trident comes from the one held by Britannia in the colonial coat of arms, and it is broken to show the break with colonial rule. Whether a trident counts as a weapon or a fishing spear is a matter of taste, which is why it sits at the bottom of the list.