Equatorial Guinea’s flag has six stars in the arc above its shield. The six six-pointed yellow stars represent the country’s mainland territory, Río Muni, together with its five principal offshore islands.
The stars appear above a silver shield bearing a silk-cotton tree, or ceiba. According to the traditional account, the tree recalls a place where a treaty between Spain and a local ruler marked the beginning of Spanish colonial rule. Beneath the shield is the motto “Unidad, Paz, Justicia” (“Unity, Peace, Justice”).
The flag was first adopted at independence on 12 October 1968. During Francisco Macías Nguema’s dictatorship, the emblem was changed, but the earlier design was restored after his overthrow on 3 August 1979. That restoration date is also associated with the current flag’s adoption.
A common mistake is to count the points on the stars rather than the stars themselves: each star has six points, but there are six stars. The six also reflects the mainland-plus-islands geography, not a six-pointed political subdivision system.