60 free Comoros trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Comoros trivia quiz covers the whole archipelago: the three islands of Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli (and the fourth, Mayotte, that stayed French), the Karthala volcano, the coelacanth rediscovered off its coast, the ylang-ylang plantations that supply most of the world's perfume industry, and a post-independence history of more than twenty coups, mercenaries and secessions. The early questions suit anyone who has looked at a map of the Mozambique Channel; the later ones will test people who know their Fomboni Accords from their Federal Islamic Republic, and who Bahia Bakari is. Every question is multiple choice with a short explanation after you answer. Every answer has been checked against a primary source, and each question links to the page that confirms it.
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Q 01What is the capital and largest city of the Comoros?
Moroni
It sits on the west coast of Grande Comore, and its name means 'at the river' in the local Shingazidja language.
Q 02In which year did the Comoros proclaim independence from France?
1975
The Comorian parliament declared independence unilaterally on 6 July; France did not recognise the new state until 31 December.
Q 03Alongside Comorian and French, which language is official in the Comoros?
Arabic
It is the language of Quranic teaching, and more Comorians are literate in the Arabic script than in the Latin one.
Q 04The Comoros is the only member of which organisation to lie entirely in the Southern Hemisphere?
Arab League
It is also a member of the African Union, the Francophonie, the OIC and the Indian Ocean Commission.
Q 05The Comoros is Africa's third-smallest country by area, behind São Tomé and Príncipe and which other?
Seychelles
At 1,659 square kilometres the whole country is smaller than Greater London, yet it is one of the most densely populated on Earth.
Q 06The name 'Comoros' comes from Jazr al-Qumr, a phrase meaning what?
Islands of the Moon
Jazr al-Qumr may originally have referred to a vaguer southern region where Arab sailors saw the Magellanic Clouds.
Q 07The Comoros sits at the northern end of which body of water?
Mozambique Channel
The islands lie between the coast of Mozambique and Tanzania and the northern tip of Madagascar, and have no land borders.
Q 08Which island of the Comoro archipelago voted against independence and is still administered by France?
Mayotte
It became a full French overseas department in 2011, though the Comoros still claims it with backing from the African Union and UN.
Q 09Which active shield volcano is the highest point of the Comoros?
Mount Karthala
It is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, having erupted more than 20 times since the 19th century.
Q 10How tall is the highest point of the Comoros?
2,361 m
Its 3 km by 4 km summit caldera has been shaped by frequent eruptions, though the island has largely escaped broad destruction.
Q 11Since independence, roughly how many coups or attempted coups has the Comoros experienced?
More than 20
Several heads of state were assassinated along the way, and the 1999 takeover by Azali Assoumani was counted as the 18th.
Q 12The Comoros is the world's largest producer of which perfume-industry plant?
Ylang-ylang
The essential oil is distilled from the flowers of Cananga odorata, a tree that was introduced to the islands under French rule.
Q 13Roughly what share of the world's supply of the perfume plant Cananga odorata comes from the Comoros?
80%
Vanilla, cinnamon and cloves round out an export economy that is hostage to world commodity prices.
Q 21How many horizontal stripes does the Comorian flag have?
Four
One stripe per island, including the French-run one the country still claims, plus a green triangle bearing a crescent and stars.
Q 22The green triangle, crescent and stars on the Comorian flag symbolise what?
Islam
The crescent-and-four-stars motif has been used in various forms since the independence movement of 1975.
Q 23Which is the largest island in the Comoros?
Grande Comore
Known locally as Ngazidja, it covers 1,024 square kilometres and, being the youngest island, has rocky soil and few good harbours.
Q 14Which 'living fossil' fish, thought extinct for 66 million years, was found off the Comoros in December 1952?
Coelacanth
The species had first turned up in 1938 off South Africa; 84 specimens were caught and recorded between 1938 and 1975.
Q 15The Comoros national football team is nicknamed after which animal?
The Coelacanths
Les Coelacantes only became a FIFA member in 2005 and reached their first Africa Cup of Nations in 2021.
Q 16At the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, the Comoros pulled off a shock 3-2 group win over which nation?
Ghana
Ahmed Mogni scored twice, and the BBC called it one of the biggest shocks in Nations Cup history.
Q 17Who proclaimed Comorian independence in 1975 and became the country's first president?
Ahmed Abdallah
He lasted less than a month before being ousted in a coup, then returned in 1978 and ruled until his assassination in 1989.
Q 18Which French mercenary, the 'Viceroy of the Comoros', joined four coup attempts there?
Bob Denard
He ran the presidential guard with South African money and was finally forced to surrender to French paratroopers in 1995.
Q 19Which Comorian president, a socialist revolutionary, renounced Islam and became an atheist?
Ali Soilih
He was toppled by a French-backed coup on 13 May 1978 and killed a few weeks later.
Q 20The December 2001 accords signed by all three islands' leaders renamed the country what?
Union of the Comoros
The deal made each island highly autonomous, with its own president, and rotated the Union presidency between the islands.
Q 24By what name was the island of Anjouan known to English speakers until the early twentieth century?
Johanna
It served as a way station for English merchants bound for India and for American whalers before the Suez Canal opened.
Q 25Which town is the capital of the smallest of the three main islands?
Fomboni
The island seceded from the Comoros in August 1997, a week after Anjouan, and rejoined in 1998.
Q 26Up to roughly how much can an ada, or grand marriage, cost on the largest island?
€50,000
The two-week celebration marks a man's passage to elder status; many couples save for a lifetime and their adult children attend.
Q 27Twarab, the Comoros' most influential music genre, was imported from where in the early 1900s?
Zanzibar
It remains the soundtrack of grand-marriage celebrations across the islands.
Q 28Livingstone's fruit bat, the largest and rarest bat in the Comoros, has a wingspan of up to how much?
1.4 m
It weighs up to 800 grams, lives only on two of the islands, and unlike most bats it can soar on daytime thermals.
Q 29How old was Bahia Bakari, the sole survivor of the 2009 Yemenia Flight 626 crash off the Comoros?
12
She was found clinging to wreckage in the Indian Ocean; 152 others died in the country's deadliest aviation disaster.
Q 30Yemenia Flight 626, which crashed on approach to the Comoros in 2009, had departed from which city?
Sanaa
The Airbus A310 stalled during a go-around after the crew, overloaded and undertrained, let the automation drop the thrust to idle.