African Capital Cities
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
50 free African Capital Cities trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Africa has more countries than any other continent, which makes its capitals one of the hardest sets to memorize. Plenty of them surprise even keen travellers: the biggest, best-known city is often not the capital at all, several capitals were built from scratch within living memory, and a few countries share the job between more than one city. This quiz runs in both directions. Some questions name a country and ask for its capital; others name a capital and ask which country it belongs to. Every question carries a clue, such as an old colonial name, a river, a landmark or a founding story, so there is always something to reason from. The opening questions cover the capitals most people have heard of, and later ones reach the small island states and the cities that changed names or roles. It suits students revising a map of Africa, quiz hosts who need a ready-made geography round, and anyone trying to memorize African countries and their capitals. Each answer comes with a short explanation, so a wrong guess still teaches something, and the questions can be printed for use on paper.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which purpose-built city at the geographic centre of Nigeria has been the national capital since 1991?
Abuja
Abuja was built from scratch to take over from Lagos, which had become badly overcrowded. Its best-known landmark is Aso Rock, a 400-metre monolith.
Q 02Which South African city, nicknamed the Jacaranda City, is the executive capital and host to all foreign embassies?
Pretoria
Pretoria is only one of South Africa's three capitals: it houses the government departments, while the legislative and judicial capitals are two other cities.
Q 03Which city in the centre of Tanzania, whose name means 'it has sunk', is the country's official capital?
Dodoma
Dodoma was chosen to centralise the capital, yet Dar es Salaam on the coast remains Tanzania's largest city and commercial hub.
Q 04Which Moroccan city, home to the unfinished Hassan Tower, became the national capital at independence in 1956?
Rabat
Rabat ranks behind Casablanca in size, but it is one of Morocco's four imperial cities and its medina is a World Heritage Site.
Q 05Which African capital, founded in 1822 for free Black Americans, was named in honour of a US president?
Monrovia
Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, was renamed in 1824 for James Monroe, the US president of the day; before that the settlement was called Christopolis.
Q 06Which city, founded as a rail depot on the Uganda Railway, is the capital and largest city of Kenya?
Nairobi
Nairobi takes its name from a Maasai phrase meaning 'place of cool waters', and the young railway town soon replaced the port of Mombasa as the capital.
Q 07Which city, whose name means 'new flower', is Ethiopia's capital and home of the African Union headquarters?
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa stands more than 2,300 metres above sea level, which makes it the highest capital city in Africa.
Q 08Which city, known as Salisbury until it was renamed in 1982, is the capital of Zimbabwe?
Harare
Harare got its present name on the second anniversary of Zimbabwe's independence. It began in 1890 as a fort set up by the Pioneer Column.
Q 09Freetown, founded in 1792 as a settlement for freed slaves, is the capital of which West African country?
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone's capital was settled by more than 1,100 former American slaves, who sailed there from Nova Scotia to escape harsh weather and discrimination.
Q 10Which Egyptian city, nicknamed 'the city of a thousand minarets', is the national capital and largest city?
Cairo
Cairo gets its name from the Arabic al-Qāhirah, 'the Vanquisher', bestowed when the Fatimid dynasty made the city its capital.
Q 11Which city, called Léopoldville until 1966, is the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo?
Kinshasa
Kinshasa began in 1881 as a trading post set up by the explorer Henry Morton Stanley, who named it after his employer, King Leopold II of the Belgians.
Q 12Which city, capital of the British Gold Coast from 1877, is now the capital of Ghana?
Accra
Accra grew out of settlements around three rival European forts: British Fort James, Dutch Fort Crêvecoeur and Danish Fort Christiansborg.
Q 13Which city, sitting at the westernmost point of mainland Africa, is the capital of Senegal?
Dakar
Dakar became the capital of French West Africa in 1902, then briefly led the short-lived Mali Federation before becoming the capital of Senegal.
Q 21Mogadishu, an Indian Ocean port known locally as Hamar, is the capital of which country?
Somalia
Somalia's capital was once the seat of the Sultanate of Mogadishu, a medieval trading power that dominated the region's gold trade.
Q 22Lusaka, which began as a water stop on a railway from the Copperbelt mines, is the capital of which country?
Zambia
Zambia's capital takes its name from a Lenje chief called Lusaaka, and the colonial government moved there from Livingstone to be more central.
Q 23Luanda, founded by a Portuguese explorer in 1576, is the Atlantic seaport capital of which country?
Angola
Angola's capital and its metropolitan area make up the most populous Portuguese-speaking capital in the world, larger than any Lusophone city outside Brazil.
Q 14Which city, the birthplace of president Félix Houphouët-Boigny, became the legal capital of Côte d'Ivoire in 1983?
Yamoussoukro
Yamoussoukro, in the country also known as Ivory Coast, holds the vast Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, while Abidjan keeps several political functions.
Q 15Which city, with ancient Carthage among its suburbs, is the capital of the country holding Africa's northernmost point?
Tunis
Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, has at its core a Medina that is a World Heritage Site, with the modern Ville Nouvelle beginning beyond its Sea Gate to the east.
Q 16Which city, famed for its hillside Casbah, is the capital of the largest country in Africa by area?
Algiers
Algiers, the capital of Algeria, has been a seat of power since 1516, first for an Ottoman regency, then for French colonial rulers and, since 1962, for the independent state.
Q 17Which city, originally built on seven hills close to Lake Victoria, is the capital of Uganda?
Kampala
Kampala took over as capital from Entebbe at independence in 1962. Its name recalls the impala that roamed a royal hunting ground on one of its hills.
Q 18Which city, standing where the Blue Nile meets the White Nile, is the capital of Sudan?
Khartoum
Khartoum calls the meeting point of the two rivers al-Mogran, 'the Confluence'; the White Nile arrives from Lake Victoria and the Blue Nile from Lake Tana.
Q 19Tripoli, whose name comes from the Greek for 'three cities', is the capital of which North African country?
Libya
Libya's capital grew from Oea, the only one of the three ancient cities to survive antiquity; the other two were Sabratha and Leptis Magna.
Q 20Antananarivo, founded in the early 1600s by the Merina king Andrianjaka, is the capital of which country?
Madagascar
Madagascar's capital sits about 1,280 metres up in the centre of the island, making it the highest capital of any island country.
Q 24Which city, founded in 1907 as a German colonial outpost among rolling hills, is the capital of Rwanda?
Kigali
Kigali was picked by the German resident Richard Kandt for its central location and views, but only became the capital at independence in 1962.
Q 25Which city, known as Lourenço Marques until 1976, is the capital of Mozambique?
Maputo
Maputo sits on a large natural bay on the Indian Ocean; its old name honoured a navigator who explored the area in 1544.
Q 26Which city, beside the rapids that divide the upper and middle Niger valleys, is the capital of Mali?
Bamako
Bamako is surrounded on all sides by the Koulikoro Region but belongs to none of Mali's regions: it is run as a separate capital district.
Q 27Which city, founded by German explorers as a trading base for rubber and ivory, is the capital of Cameroon?
Yaoundé
Yaoundé was chosen as the colonial capital under French rule in 1922, although the port of Douala remained the bigger and more important city.
Q 28Which city, named after an Italian-born French explorer, is the capital of the Republic of the Congo?
Brazzaville
Brazzaville served as the capital of Free France during World War II, and it looks across the Congo River at the capital of its far larger neighbour.
Q 29Which city, built at a hot spring and refounded by a German army major in 1890, is the capital of Namibia?
Windhoek
Windhoek was first settled in 1840 by Jonker Afrikaner, captain of the Orlam, who built a stone church there for his community.
Q 30Gaborone, a city planned in the 1960s and named after a Tlokwa chief, is the capital of which country?
Botswana
Botswana picked the site because it belonged to no single indigenous group and was close to fresh water; the capital moved there from Mafeking in 1965.