70 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 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital city of Cameroon?
Yaoundé
It sits about 750 m up in the Centre Region and became the colonial capital under France in 1922.
Q 02Which port city is Cameroon's largest city and economic capital?
Douala
It sits on the Wouri estuary and handles most of the country'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 abundant ghost shrimp Lepidophthalmus turneranus impressed the sailors who arrived in 1472.
Q 04Because it has coast, desert, mountains, rainforest and savanna, Cameroon is often nicknamed what?
Africa in miniature
It has been classed as part of both West Africa and Central Africa, and speaks around 250 native languages.
Q 05Who became president of Cameroon in 1982?
Paul Biya
Born in 1933, he succeeded Ahmadou Ahidjo and by the 2020s was the world's longest consecutively serving non-royal national leader.
Q 06Who was Cameroon's first president, from independence in 1960 until his surprise resignation in 1982?
Ahmadou Ahidjo
Sentenced to death in absentia over an alleged 1984 coup plot, he died in exile in Dakar in 1989.
Q 07Under what name did the German Empire claim Cameroon as a colony in 1884?
Kamerun
Locals resisted in the Bafut and Adamawa Wars, and the colony ran plantations on forced labour.
Q 08After World War I, the German colony was split as League of Nations mandates between which two powers?
France and Britain
The British ran their strip from Nigeria, prompting complaints that it was a neglected 'colony of a colony'.
Q 09In what year did French Cameroun become independent?
1960
It was 1 January; the southern British Cameroons voted to join it in October 1961.
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 two federated states, East and West Cameroon, each had their own legislature and prime minister until then.
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
The star sits on the red middle stripe and varies widely in size.
Q 13Which currency does Cameroon use?
The CFA franc
It is issued by the Bank of Central African States, headquartered in the capital, for six countries.
Q 21Samuel Eto'o won the African Player of the Year award a record how many times?
Four
He is also the Africa Cup of Nations' all-time top scorer with 18 goals and now runs Cameroon's football federation.
Q 22Cameroon won Olympic gold in men's football at which Games?
Sydney 2000
It remains one of six Olympic medals in the country's history, and Eto'o was in the squad.
Q 23Cameroon is the only African country to have beaten which team in tournament play?
Brazil
The 2022 win in Qatar came in the group stage; the earlier one was at the Confederations Cup.
Q 14What are the two official languages of Cameroon?
French and English
Officially about 70% speak French and 30% English, and an urban mix called Camfranglais has grown since the 1970s.
Q 15Under what name have Anglophone separatists sought independence in Cameroon's Northwest and Southwest since 2017?
Ambazonia
The name comes from Ambas Bay; no country has recognised the would-be republic.
Q 16Which body settled the Cameroon-Nigeria dispute over the Bakassi peninsula in 2002?
The International Court of Justice
The court relied on a 1913 Anglo-German agreement; the last of the peninsula was handed over in August 2008.
Q 17Cameroon's men's national football team is nicknamed what?
The Indomitable Lions
They have qualified for the World Cup eight times, more than any other African team.
Q 18Cameroon, the first African quarter-finalist at the 1990 World Cup, lost narrowly to whom?
England
It went to extra time; Cameroon had stunned holders Argentina in the tournament's opening match.
Q 19Which 38-year-old came out of retirement to score four goals for Cameroon at Italia '90?
Roger Milla
He celebrated each goal with a hip-swinging dance at the corner flag and was later named in Pelé's FIFA 100.
Q 20A Cameroonian striker broke his own record as the oldest World Cup goalscorer in 1994 at what age?
42
The goal came against Russia; he had only returned to the national team after a personal plea from the president.
Q 24Which triple jumper won Cameroon Olympic gold at both Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008?
Françoise Mbango Etone
Her 15.39 m in Beijing set an Olympic record; she later switched to competing for France.
Q 25Cameroon-born Joel Embiid was named NBA Most Valuable Player in 2023 while playing centre for which team?
Philadelphia 76ers
He nicknamed himself 'the Process' and was the first foreign player to lead the NBA in scoring.
Q 26Which Cameroonian forward, nicknamed 'Spicy P', won an NBA title with the Toronto Raptors in 2019?
Pascal Siakam
He was the first player to win Most Improved Player and a championship in the same season.
Q 27Which Cameroonian UFC heavyweight champion (2021-23) was famed as its hardest puncher?
Francis Ngannou
He finished seven of his fourteen UFC fights by knockout inside two minutes of round one.
Q 28Manu Dibango's 1972 hit, called the most sampled African song in history, is titled what?
Soul Makossa
The saxophonist fused jazz, funk and Cameroonian rhythms; he died of COVID-19 in March 2020.
Q 29Which Cameroonian dance style began as war music of the Ewondo people around the capital?
Bikutsi
Anne-Marie Nzié shaped it into pop from the 1940s and Les Têtes Brulées took it abroad.
Q 30Makossa, Cameroon's best-known pop genre, takes its name from a dance of which coastal people?
The Duala
It grew out of the kossa dance in the 1950s, though the first recordings only came a decade later.