The color scheme uses the traditional Pan-African colors (Cameroon was the second state to adopt them). The center stripe is thought to stand for unity: red is the color of unity, and the star is referred to as “the star of unity”. The yellow stands for the sun, and also the savannas in the northern part of the country, while the green is for the forests in the southern part of Cameroon.
The previous flag of Cameroon, used from 1961 to 1975, had a similar color scheme, but with two gold (darker than the third stripe by comparison) stars in the upper half of the green. It was adopted after British Southern Cameroons joined the state of Cameroon.
