Who designed Suriname's national flag?

Jack Pinas designed Suriname's national flag. An art teacher and graphic designer, Pinas won a national design competition held before Suriname became independent from the Netherlands.

The flag was adopted on 25 November 1975, the date Suriname achieved independence, and it was first raised on that Independence Day. Pinas's winning design was later modified in some details, but he is credited as the designer of the current national flag.

The flag has five horizontal bands: green, white, red, white and green. A large yellow five-pointed star sits in the centre of the red band. Green is associated with the fertility and richness of the land, white with freedom and justice, and red with progress and hope. The star represents unity and a bright future.

Noni Lichtveld is linked to Suriname's earlier 1959–1975 flag, which used five differently coloured stars to represent ethnic groups. That historical connection can cause confusion, but Lichtveld did not design the current flag. Whitney Smith designed Guyana's flag, while Raimundo Mendes was associated with Brazil's republican flag.