The Gambia
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50 free The Gambia trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Gambia is one of the most unusual countries on the map of Africa: a narrow strip of land that follows a single waterway inland from the Atlantic, with a history and culture far bigger than its outline suggests. This quiz gathers the fun facts people most often go looking for. It covers how the borders came to be, the way Gambians vote, the colonial forts and the road to independence, plus national dishes, traditional music, football and the animals visitors come to see. It suits curious travellers, students working on a country project and quiz fans who want more than capital cities. Every question comes with a short explanation, so you pick up the story behind each answer as you play.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Gambian voters have long chosen a president by dropping which object into a drum bearing their candidate's picture?
A marble
A marble goes into the chosen candidate's drum and a bell confirms each vote, a system introduced in the 1960s.
Q 02The Gambia, a ribbon of land following a single river, holds which record among the countries of mainland Africa?
Smallest by area
Smallest by area on the African mainland, The Gambia covers about 11,300 square kilometres and has an Atlantic shoreline of only 80 kilometres.
Q 03The Gambia is one of only two countries whose official short name begins with 'The'; which is the other?
The Bahamas
The Bahamas is the only other country that officially keeps the definite article in its short English name, a detail Gambian leaders asked Britain to preserve before independence.
Q 04Which bestselling 1976 novel follows Kunta Kinte, a young man captured in The Gambia and sold into slavery in America?
Roots
Roots, by Alex Haley, made the Gambian village of Juffureh, named in the book as Kunta Kinte's birthplace, a major tourist destination.
Q 05Domoda, widely regarded as The Gambia's national dish, is a stew thickened with a paste made from what?
Peanuts
Peanuts, known locally as groundnuts, give domoda its thick sauce, and the same crop was long The Gambia's main export earner.
Q 06At the sacred Kachikally pool in the Gambian town of Bakau, visitors can walk up to and touch which animals?
Crocodiles
Crocodiles roam freely at Kachikally, one of three sacred pools in The Gambia where people come to pray for fertility.
Q 07Which island city at the mouth of the Gambia River serves as the capital of The Gambia?
Banjul
Banjul sits on St Mary's Island and is linked to the mainland by bridges, with ferries crossing to the river's far bank.
Q 08The Gambia's only international airport was for years a designated emergency landing site for which kind of craft?
Space Shuttles
Space Shuttles on low-inclination launches could have diverted to the Gambian runway, which NASA upgraded with landing aids and kept on standby until 2002.
Q 09In 1964 The Gambia asked to keep 'The' in its name partly to avoid confusion with which African country?
Zambia
Zambia had just become independent under its new name, so the Gambian prime minister wrote to Britain's place-names committee asking that the article stay.
Q 10Which combat sport, shared with neighbouring Senegal, is regarded as the national sport of The Gambia?
Wrestling
Wrestling is The Gambia's traditional national sport, and three of the six athletes the country sent to the 1988 Seoul Olympics were wrestlers.
Q 11Which nickname does The Gambia's official tourism board use to market the country to holidaymakers?
The Smiling Coast
The Smiling Coast of Africa is the full slogan, which the Gambia Tourism Board uses to greet visitors on its official travel website.
Q 12Until 1973 The Gambia's capital carried which name, honouring a British colonial secretary of the 1810s?
Bathurst
Bathurst honoured Henry Bathurst, the 3rd Earl, who ran Britain's War and Colonies office when the settlement was founded as a garrison post in 1816.
Q 13Kunta Kinteh Island in the Gambia River carried which English prince's first name until it was renamed in 2011?
James
Q 21The Gambia's long, narrow borders were fixed in 1889 by an agreement between Britain and which other colonial power?
France
France kept the land all around, which is why English-speaking Gambia is a sliver inside French-speaking Senegal.
Q 22An island in the Gambia River was leased in 1651 by the Duchy of Courland, which lay in which present-day country?
Latvia
Latvia was home to the wealthy Baltic duchy, which held its Gambian outpost for less than a decade before England took it over.
Q 23Which Scottish explorer set out from the Gambia River in 1795 on a quest to trace the course of the Niger?
Mungo Park
Mungo Park sailed 200 miles up the Gambia to a British trading station, then struck out into the interior with two local guides.
James Island honoured the Duke of York, the future King James II, and its fort is now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Q 14The Wassu site in The Gambia, on UNESCO's World Heritage List since 2006, preserves which kind of ancient monument?
Stone circles
Stone circles at Wassu are part of a band of over 1,000 such monuments, the largest concentration seen anywhere in the world.
Q 15Which currency, divided into 100 bututs, has The Gambia used since it gave up its own pound in 1971?
Dalasi
Dalasi notes and coins replaced the Gambian pound at five to one, so each new unit was worth four old shillings.
Q 16Dawda Jawara, who led The Gambia to independence in 1965, had trained in Glasgow for which profession?
Veterinarian
Veterinarian Dawda Jawara came home to work as a government veterinary officer, then entered politics and led the country for three decades.
Q 17Which 29-year-old army lieutenant seized power in The Gambia in a 1994 coup and went on to rule for 22 years?
Yahya Jammeh
Yahya Jammeh took over without bloodshed in July 1994, lost an election in December 2016 and left the country the following month.
Q 18Which winner of The Gambia's 2016 election was sworn in at an embassy abroad while his defeated rival clung to office?
Adama Barrow
Adama Barrow, a property developer who once worked in security at an Argos store in London, took the oath at the Gambian embassy in Dakar.
Q 19Which international body did The Gambia quit in 2013, calling it a neo-colonial institution, before rejoining in 2018?
The Commonwealth
The Commonwealth lost The Gambia after 48 years of membership, and a new government began the process of returning within weeks of taking office in 2017.
Q 20Who remained The Gambia's head of state for five years after independence in 1965, until the constitution was rewritten?
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II reigned as Queen of The Gambia until 1970, when a second referendum succeeded where the first had fallen short of a two-thirds majority.
Q 24In 1943 Franklin D. Roosevelt slept a night in The Gambia on his way to which wartime Allied conference?
Casablanca
Casablanca was his destination, and the night in the Gambian capital made Roosevelt the first US president to visit Africa while in office.
Q 25A 1981 coup attempt in The Gambia began while President Dawda Jawara was in London as a guest at which event?
A royal wedding
A royal wedding, that of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, had drawn Jawara away when rebels calling themselves the National Revolutionary Council struck.
Q 26Gambian lawyer Fatou Bensouda spent nine years, from 2012 to 2021, as chief prosecutor of which body?
International Criminal Court
International Criminal Court prosecutor was a promotion for Bensouda, who had been its deputy prosecutor since 2004 and earlier served as Gambian justice minister.
Q 27Gambian musician Sona Jobarteh plays which 21-string instrument, traditionally handed down from father to son?
Kora
Kora playing was a male preserve until Jobarteh became the first woman from one of West Africa's five principal kora families to play it professionally.
Q 28Which nickname belongs to The Gambia's national football team, quarter-finalists at their first Africa Cup of Nations?
The Scorpions
The Scorpions arrived as the lowest-ranked side at the 2021 tournament, yet beat Tunisia in the group stage and went out only to hosts Cameroon.
Q 29Which animals stand on either side of the shield, holding an axe and a hoe, on The Gambia's coat of arms?
Lions
Lions recall The Gambia's years under the British crown, while the axe and hoe stand for the farming that feeds the country.
Q 30On The Gambia's flag the blue band stands for the river and the green for forest; what does the red band evoke?
The sun
The sun is what the red band evokes, a nod to how close The Gambia lies to the Equator, and the same colour also stands for the savanna.