In January, one of the overseas territories of France, Martinique in the Caribbean Sea, adopted a new official flag - red-green-black.

These are the colors of the nationalist movement on the island, taken from the Pan-African flag.

The nationalist flag was among the options, but it did not win the vote.

Nationalist flag of Martinique

Now the flag was chosen from 18 possible options, and they wanted to replace the old one with snakes for a long time, because it reminded of the island's colonial past.

The blue-white flag with snakes was used from August 4, 1766, but met with resistance from the local population, as it was on ships that transported slaves.

In October 2018, following the decree

of Emmanuel Macron,

Martinique stopped using this flag.

Old flag of Martinique

The new flag has two equal red and black parts, as well as a small green diagonal stripe.

In the center of the flag is a black image of a hummingbird.

The wings of the bird on the island's new emblem form a stylized map of Martinique.

Emblem of Martinique

The population of Martinique is about 365 thousand people.

The euro is used here, and there are two official languages ​​- French and Martinique Creole.