Two stars appear on the national flag of São Tomé and Príncipe.
The stars are five-pointed and black, positioned on the central yellow band of the flag. They represent the country’s two main islands, São Tomé and Príncipe, although some interpretations associate them with the African population of the islands.
The flag uses Pan-African colors: green, yellow, and red. A red triangle occupies the hoist, while green bands sit above and below the wider yellow center. The design was adopted on 12 July 1975, when São Tomé and Príncipe became independent from Portugal.
A common mix-up is confusing the two stars with the single black star found on the flags of several other former Portuguese colonies, including Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. On this flag, the number is specifically two—one for each island.