50 free Republic of the Congo trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Republic of the Congo trivia quiz is about Congo-Brazzaville, the smaller of the two Congos, and only the smaller one: its capital facing Kinshasa across the river, the Italian-born explorer who founded it, its stint as the capital of Free France, its years as Africa's first Marxist-Leninist people's republic, and its oil, its swamp-forest gorillas and its impeccably dressed sapeurs. The early questions cover the map and the flag; the later ones get into Tio kings, the Congo-Ocean Railway, Marien Ngouabi and the 1972 Africa Cup of Nations. Every question is multiple choice with a short explanation after you answer. If you want the Democratic Republic of the Congo, that is a separate quiz. Every answer has been checked against a primary source, and each question links to the page that confirms it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital and largest city of the Republic of the Congo?
Brazzaville
It is home to more than a third of the national population and was named a UNESCO City of Music in 2013.
Q 02The Congolese capital sits directly across the Congo River from which other national capital?
Kinshasa
It is the only place on Earth where two national capitals grew up on opposite banks of a river within sight of each other.
Q 03The Republic of the Congo gained full independence from which colonial power in 1960?
France
Independence day was 15 August 1960; the neighbouring Congo across the river had been Belgian.
Q 04By what nickname is the country commonly distinguished from its larger neighbour across the river?
Congo-Brazzaville
The larger, formerly Belgian country across the river is Congo-Kinshasa, or the DR Congo.
Q 05Which country does NOT share a land border with the Republic of the Congo?
Nigeria
Its neighbours are Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the DR Congo and Angola's Cabinda exclave, plus an Atlantic coastline.
Q 06The country's capital is named after an explorer born in which city?
Rome
Pietro Savorgnan di Brazzà was the seventh of thirteen children of an Italian nobleman and only became a French citizen in 1874.
Q 07The capital's name, via the explorer's family village of Brazzacco, unintentionally means what?
City of the armed wing
Brazzacco's name derives from the Latin bracchium; a nearby-sounding coincidence given the city's later military history.
Q 08Which Tio king signed the 1880 treaty with de Brazza putting land north of the Congo under France?
Iloo I
After his death his widow, Queen Ngalifourou, upheld the treaty and became an ally of the colonisers.
Q 09During World War II, the Congolese capital served as the symbolic capital of what?
Free France
It played that role from 1940, and the 1944 Brazzaville Conference went on to reshape French colonial policy.
Q 10In 1969 the country became the first in Africa to declare itself what?
A Marxist-Leninist state
The People's Republic of the Congo lasted until 1992, complete with a Soviet-style red flag.
Q 11Who returned to the presidency of the Republic of the Congo after the 1997 civil war?
Denis Sassou Nguesso
He had already ruled from 1979 to 1992, and returned after a civil war in which Angolan forces helped install him; he has held office continuously since 1997.
Q 12The daughter of Congo's long-serving president married which neighbouring head of state in 1989?
Omar Bongo of Gabon
Edith Lucie Bongo became first lady of Gabon; her son-in-law's father-in-law relationship tied the two oil states together for two decades.
Q 13Who was the first President of the Republic of the Congo, from independence in 1960?
Fulbert Youlou
Q 21The Congo-Ocean Railway links the capital with the coast over roughly what distance?
500 km
It bypasses the rapids of the lower Congo; a luxury train, La Gazelle, was scheduled to take 14 to 16 hours for the trip.
Q 22The Congo-Ocean Railway, built after World War I, cost at least how many lives?
14,000
It was built with forced labour recruited from as far away as present-day Chad and the Central African Republic.
Q 23The Congo River is the second-longest in Africa and holds which world record?
Deepest ever recorded
Depths of around 220 metres have been measured, and it is the only major river to cross the equator twice.
The former priest and avid anti-communist was ousted after a three-day uprising in 1963.
Q 14President Marien Ngouabi, who proclaimed the People's Republic, met what fate in March 1977?
He was assassinated
An 11-member military committee took over, and two years later Denis Sassou Nguesso rose to the presidency for the first time.
Q 15The private militia that fought for Sassou Nguesso in the 1997 civil war was known by what name?
Cobras
The four-month war wrecked much of the capital and killed tens of thousands of civilians before Angola invaded to install him.
Q 16Which country's army invaded the Congo in October 1997 to install Sassou Nguesso in power?
Angola
The elected president Pascal Lissouba's government fell and Sassou declared himself president.
Q 17The Congolese flag is a yellow diagonal band separating triangles of which two colours?
Green and red
It was adopted in 1959, replaced by a Soviet-style red flag under the People's Republic, and restored in 1991.
Q 18The People's Republic of the Congo's flag emblem showed a star over a hammer and what tool?
Hoe
The design was inspired by the Soviet flag but swapped the sickle for an agricultural tool more familiar in Central Africa.
Q 19What is the second-largest city and main economic centre of the Republic of the Congo?
Pointe-Noire
It sits on the Atlantic near the Angolan border, and its name, 'Black Point', came from Portuguese sailors who saw dark rocks there in 1484.
Q 20The name of the country's main port, given by Portuguese navigators in 1484, refers to what?
Black rocks on a headland
The site was then a fishing village called Ndji-Ndji under the Kingdom of Loango.
Q 24The Congo River is the only major river in the world to do what?
Cross the equator twice
It is also the world's third-largest river by discharge, behind only the Amazon and the Ganges-Brahmaputra.
Q 25The word 'Congo' derives from the Bantu Kingdom of Kongo, whose people's name is said to mean what?
Hunters
The kingdom occupied the river's mouth when the Portuguese first arrived in 1483 or 1484.
Q 26Which Portuguese explorer reached the mouth of the Congo in 1484?
Diogo Cão
Centuries of trade followed, in goods and in people enslaved in the hinterland, before direct colonisation began in the 19th century.
Q 27The Republic of the Congo joined which producers' organisation in 2018?
OPEC
Petroleum has replaced forestry as the mainstay of the economy and made up 92% of exports in 2008.
Q 28In 2004 the Congo was excluded from the Kimberley Process amid allegations about which export?
Diamonds
Most of the stones it exported were suspected of being smuggled in from the DR Congo; it was readmitted in 2007.
Q 29Alongside French, which two languages are national languages of the Republic of the Congo?
Kituba and Lingala
Ethnologue counts 62 spoken languages in the country in total.
Q 30Which ethnic group is the largest in the Republic of the Congo, making up roughly half the population?
Kongo
The Teke, north of the capital, are second at about 17%, and the Mbochi of the north, the president's group, about 13%.