Cameroon Trivia
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68 free Cameroon trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Cameroon is called "Africa in miniature" because it packs the whole continent into one country: Atlantic beaches, rainforest, the Sahel, an active volcano and roughly 250 languages. It was named after shrimp by Portuguese sailors, colonised by Germany, split between France and Britain, and has been run by the same president since 1982. Its footballers were the first Africans to reach a World Cup quarter-final, and its musicians gave the world the most sampled African song in history. This quiz covers geography (Mount Cameroon, Lake Nyos, the Sanaga, Rhumsiki), history (Kamerun, the mandates, Ahidjo and Biya, Bakassi, the Anglophone crisis), symbols (the flag, the CFA franc, the anthem), culture (makossa and bikutsi, ndole, the Bamum script, Ngondo) and sport (Milla, Eto'o, Embiid, Siakam, Ngannou, the Race of Hope). Questions run from easy to expert. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and other reference pages before publishing.
30 of 68 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital city of Cameroon?
Yaoundé
Yaoundé, about 750 m up in the Centre Region, became the capital of French Cameroun in 1922 and kept the role at independence.
Q 02Which port city is regarded as Cameroon's economic capital?
Douala
Douala sits on the Wouri estuary, and its port handles most of Cameroon's exports of oil, cocoa, coffee and timber.
Q 03Cameroon's name comes from the Portuguese Rio dos Camarões, meaning river of what?
Shrimp
The Portuguese named the Wouri estuary for its swarms of ghost shrimp, Lepidophthalmus turneranus, which periodically fill the river in huge numbers.
Q 04Because it has coast, desert, mountains, rainforest and savanna, Cameroon is often nicknamed what?
Africa in miniature
The nickname Africa in miniature captures that variety; Cameroon straddles West and Central Africa and its people speak around 250 native languages.
Q 05Who became president of Cameroon in 1982?
Paul Biya
Paul Biya, born in 1933 and prime minister from 1975, took over the presidency on 6 November 1982 when his predecessor resigned.
Q 06Who was Cameroon's first president, serving from independence until his surprise resignation in 1982?
Ahmadou Ahidjo
Ahmadou Ahidjo led Cameroon from independence, resigned in November 1982, was later sentenced to death in absentia over a coup plot, and died in exile in Dakar in 1989.
Q 07In which year did the last German garrison in Kamerun surrender to Allied forces?
1916
The Kamerun campaign ended in February 1916 when the last German post, the mountain fort at Mora, surrendered to the Allies.
Q 08After World War I, the German colony was split as League of Nations mandates between which two powers?
France and Britain
France took the larger eastern share and Britain two strips administered from Nigeria, so the mandates went to France and Britain; the British zone was derided as a 'colony of a colony'.
Q 09In what year did French Cameroun become independent?
1960
French Cameroun became independent on 1 January 1960; the Southern Cameroons from the British side joined it on 1 October 1961 after a plebiscite.
Q 10Cameroon's public holiday on 20 May, National Day, marks a 1972 referendum that did what?
Abolished the federal system for a unitary state
The 20 May 1972 vote abolished the federal system for a unitary state, the United Republic of Cameroon; East and West Cameroon had each kept a legislature and prime minister.
Q 11How many stars appear on Cameroon's tricolour flag?
One
Two stars stood for the federated states until 1975, when a single central star replaced them as a symbol of unity.
Q 12Cameroon's flag was first adopted in 1957 as a vertical tricolour of which three colours?
Green, red and yellow
Green, red and yellow were adopted in 1957 as pan-African colours, with green for the southern forests, red for unity and yellow for the northern savanna and sun.
Q 13Which currency does Cameroon use?
The CFA franc
The CFA franc used in Cameroon is the Central African version, issued by the Bank of Central African States from its headquarters in the capital and pegged to the euro.
Q 21Samuel Eto'o won the African Player of the Year award a record how many times?
Four
Samuel Eto'o won it four times, in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2010, a tally later equalled by Yaya Touré; he also scored 18 Africa Cup of Nations goals.
Q 22Cameroon won Olympic gold in men's football at which Games?
Sydney 2000
Cameroon took the Sydney 2000 gold by beating Spain on penalties after a 2–2 draw, with Samuel Eto'o and Patrick Mboma in the squad.
Q 23Which triple jumper won Cameroon Olympic gold at both Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008?
Françoise Mbango Etone
Françoise Mbango Etone's 15.39 m in Beijing set an Olympic record that stood until 2021; she later switched to competing for France.
Q 14What are the two official languages of Cameroon?
French and English
French and English are both official, a legacy of the French and British mandates; only the Northwest and Southwest regions are mainly anglophone.
Q 15Under what name have Anglophone separatists sought independence in Cameroon's Northwest and Southwest since 2017?
Ambazonia
Ambazonia takes its name from Ambas Bay near Limbe; separatists declared the republic on 1 October 2017, the anniversary of the 1961 reunification.
Q 16Which body settled the Cameroon-Nigeria dispute over the Bakassi peninsula in 2002?
The International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice ruled for Cameroon on 10 October 2002, relying on a 1913 Anglo-German agreement; Nigeria completed the handover in August 2008.
Q 17Cameroon's men's national football team is nicknamed what?
The Indomitable Lions
The Indomitable Lions won the Africa Cup of Nations five times between 1984 and 2017 and reached the 1990 World Cup quarter-finals.
Q 18Cameroon, the first African quarter-finalist at the 1990 World Cup, lost narrowly to whom?
England
England won 3–2 after extra time, with two Gary Lineker penalties; Cameroon had stunned holders Argentina 1–0 in the tournament's opening match.
Q 19Which veteran striker came out of retirement to star for Cameroon at Italia '90?
Roger Milla
Roger Milla celebrated each goal with a hip-swinging dance at the corner flag and in 2004 was named in Pelé's FIFA 100 list of living greats.
Q 20A Cameroonian striker broke his own record as the oldest World Cup goalscorer in 1994 at what age?
42
The striker was 42 when he scored against Russia on 28 June 1994, beating the age record he had set at Italia '90 in 1990.
Q 24Cameroon-born Joel Embiid was named NBA Most Valuable Player in 2023 while playing centre for which team?
Philadelphia 76ers
Joel Embiid, the Philadelphia 76ers centre, won the 2022–23 MVP after averaging a league-best 33.1 points, his second straight scoring title.
Q 25Which Cameroonian forward, nicknamed 'Spicy P', won an NBA title with the Toronto Raptors in 2019?
Pascal Siakam
Pascal Siakam started every game of Toronto's 2019 title run, averaging nearly 20 points in the Finals against Golden State, the season he was also named Most Improved Player.
Q 26Which Cameroonian UFC heavyweight champion (2021-23) was famed as its hardest puncher?
Francis Ngannou
Francis Ngannou, champion from March 2021 until leaving the UFC in January 2023, knocked out Alistair Overeem and Cain Velasquez inside the first two minutes.
Q 27Manu Dibango's 1972 hit, called the most sampled African song in history, is titled what?
Soul Makossa
Soul Makossa, recorded in 1972, was borrowed by Michael Jackson for the chant in 'Wanna Be Startin' Somethin''; Manu Dibango died of COVID-19 in March 2020.
Q 28Which Cameroonian dance style began as war music of the Ewondo people around the capital?
Bikutsi
Bikutsi, whose name means roughly 'beat the earth', grew from Beti and Ewondo gatherings; Anne-Marie Nzié took it into pop and Les Têtes Brulées carried it abroad in the 1980s.
Q 29Makossa, Cameroon's best-known pop genre, takes its name from a dance of which coastal people?
The Duala
The Duala people's kossa dance gave makossa its name; the style took shape in the 1950s around the port city and reached record in the 1960s with Eboa Lotin and Manu Dibango.
Q 30Sultan Ibrahim Njoya of the Bamum kingdom is remembered for inventing what in 1896?
A writing script for his language
Njoya devised a writing script for his language, Bamum, around 1896; it evolved from pictographs to a syllabary of about 80 signs by 1910, and he also created an artificial language, Shümom.