The flag of Somalia is a light blue field with a single white star at the center. It was adopted on October 12, 1954, six years before the country became independent.
A flag adopted before the country existed
When the flag was chosen, the territory was still administered by Italy under a United Nations trusteeship. Mohammed Awale Liban designed it during that transitional period, when the nationalist movement pressing for an end to colonial rule needed something to organize itself around.
In 1960 Italian Somaliland and British Somaliland merged to form the Somali Republic, and the new state took the flag with it. It has survived every subsequent change of government, through civil conflict and long stretches of political instability.
Blue from the UN, five points for five regions
The blue is borrowed from the United Nations flag, an acknowledgement of the UN's part in the handover. Liban meant it as thanks, and it is unusual for a national flag to point outward like that.
The white star is called the Star of Unity. Its five points stand for the five regions traditionally inhabited by Somalis: Djibouti, the Somali Region of Ethiopia, the North Eastern Province of Kenya, and the former British and Italian Somalilands. That count is a political claim as much as a geographic one. Pan-Somalism, the argument that all Somali-speaking territories belonged in one state, shaped the design, and three of the five points fall outside Somalia's borders.
Flying it
The flag is flown on government buildings, on national holidays, and at diplomatic missions and international forums, including the United Nations. Protocol covers proper display, and alterations to the design are discouraged.
At home the flag has an unusual job for a national symbol: it is one of the few things that stands above clan affiliation. It appears at cultural events and festivals, and it is referenced often in Somali music and poetry.