Senegal Trivia
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49 free Senegal trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Forty-five questions on Senegal, the westernmost country of mainland Africa and one of the continent's steadiest democracies. Geography covers Dakar on the Cap-Vert peninsula, the Pointe des Almadies, the Gambia wedged inside the country, Casamance, Saint-Louis, the pink Lake Retba and a highest point of just 648 metres. History runs from the Jolof Empire and Takrur, the Portuguese landing, Goree and the slave trade, Faidherbe's conquests and Lat-Dior's resistance, the Four Communes, the Battle of Dakar in 1940, the short-lived Mali Federation, Senghor's presidency and his seat in the Academie francaise, the Senegambia Confederation, the peaceful handovers to Diouf, Wade, Sall and Faye, and the French troops going home in 2025. Culture and sport cover Wolof and teranga, the Sufi brotherhoods and Touba, thieboudienne, mbalax and Youssou N'Dour, laamb wrestling, the Lions of Teranga beating France in 2002 and finally winning AFCON, Sadio Mane, the Dakar Rally, the African Renaissance Monument and the 2026 Youth Olympics. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the country, its cities, people and institutions, and the sentence that establishes it is quoted under each explanation. Suits a pub quiz, a West Africa lesson or a Dakar-bound traveller.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Senegal almost completely surrounds which small country?
The Gambia
The Gambia, a strip seldom more than 50 km wide along the Gambia River, is bordered by Senegal on three sides and by the Atlantic on the fourth.
Q 02What is the capital and largest city of Senegal?
Dakar
Dakar, on the Cap-Vert peninsula, became the capital of the colonial federation of West Africa in 1902; its metropolitan area holds roughly a quarter of Senegal's population.
Q 03Which river forms Senegal's entire border with Mauritania?
The Senegal River
The Senegal River marks the whole frontier with Mauritania and gave the country its name; its main headstream, the Bafing, rises in Guinea's Fouta Djallon highlands.
Q 04Which language is Senegal's lingua franca, spoken by roughly four in five people?
Wolof
French is official but understood by only about a quarter of people; over 30 languages are spoken in all.
Q 05Which island near Dakar was a colonial base for buying slaves from 1677 and a UNESCO site since 1978?
Goree
Goree was among the first twelve World Heritage sites inscribed in 1978; its House of Slaves, with the 'Door of No Return', is the island's best-known building.
Q 06Which medieval state, founded by Ndiadiane Ndiaye, united Cayor, Baol, Sine, Saloum and Waalo?
The Jolof Empire
The Jolof Empire, founded around 1350, was a loose confederacy rather than a conquest state; it broke up after Cayor's victory at the Battle of Danki in 1549.
Q 07Which colonial governor led the 1850s conquest of the Senegalese mainland kingdoms?
Louis Faidherbe
Louis Faidherbe, governor from 1854, annexed Waalo in 1855, built a fort at Medine against El Hadj Umar Tall, and defeated the kingdom of Sine at Logandeme in 1859.
Q 08The 1940 Battle of Dakar was an unsuccessful Allied attempt to seize the port from whom?
Vichy French forces
De Gaulle's Free French and the Royal Navy were beaten off; Dakar stayed loyal to Vichy until 1942.
Q 09Senegal gained independence in 1960 as part of a short-lived federation with which neighbour?
French Sudan (Mali)
The Mali Federation broke up on 20 August 1960 after two months; Senegal's flag kept its colours, swapping a stick figure for a star.
Q 10Who was Senegal's first president, a poet later elected to the Académie française?
Leopold Sedar Senghor
Leopold Sedar Senghor, a leading poet of the negritude movement, was president from 1960 until he stepped down voluntarily at the end of 1980; he entered the Academie francaise in 1983.
Q 11Who became the youngest president in Senegal's history in March 2024?
Bassirou Diomaye Faye
Bassirou Diomaye Faye, 44 when sworn in on 2 April 2024, won the March election outright in the first round, ten days after his release from prison alongside his ally Ousmane Sonko.
Q 12Senegal's separatist conflict since 1982 has been centred on which southern region?
Casamance
Casamance, the region around the Casamance River in the far south, has been the MFDC's base since a December 1982 independence march in Ziguinchor was put down, starting the insurgency.
Q 13Which colonial city was capital of the whole West African federation from 1895 until 1902?
Saint-Louis
Q 21The famous rally to Senegal's capital, first run in 1979, originally started from which city?
Paris
Paris was the start line of Thierry Sabine's first rally, which set off on 26 December 1978 and reached Senegal in January 1979; the 2008 edition was cancelled over security fears in Mauritania.
Q 22Lake Retba near Dakar is famous for what colour, caused by Dunaliella salina algae?
Pink
Pink is the colour of Lake Retba, also called Lac Rose; Dunaliella salina algae make a red pigment in water whose salt content reaches about 40 percent, and salt is harvested by hand.
Q 23What is Senegal's national dish?
Thieboudienne
Thieboudienne (ceebu jen), fish cooked with rice, tomato and vegetables, was added to UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2021 and is claimed as the ancestor of jollof rice.
Saint-Louis, founded in 1659 on an island at the river mouth, became a World Heritage site in 2000; it also served as capital of colonial Mauritania from 1920 to 1957.
Q 14Senegal's tricolour flag bears what symbol at its centre?
A green five-pointed star
The green five-pointed star sits on the yellow central band of the green, yellow and red tricolour adopted in 1960; the three colours are the pan-African colours used by several neighbours.
Q 15Senegal's national football team is nicknamed the Lions of what?
Teranga
Teranga is the Wolof word for hospitality, a point of national pride.
Q 16Which reigning champions did Senegal beat 1-0 in the 2002 World Cup's opening match?
France
France, the 1998 winners, lost 1-0 in Seoul to a Papa Bouba Diop goal; Senegal then reached the quarter-finals, the second African side to do so after Cameroon in 1990.
Q 17Senegal won its first Africa Cup of Nations by beating which team in the 2021 edition's final?
Egypt
They had been runners-up in 2002 and 2019; the final went to penalties in Yaounde.
Q 18Which Senegalese forward became Africa's most expensive player when Liverpool signed him in 2016?
Sadio Mane
Sadio Mane joined Liverpool from Southampton for about 34 million pounds in June 2016; he won the Premier League and Champions League there and finished second in the 2022 Ballon d'Or.
Q 19Which traditional sport is described as Senegal's national obsession?
Wrestling
Senegalese wrestling, known as laamb, fills stadiums with tens of thousands of fans; star wrestlers such as Yekini and Balla Gaye 2 earn purses far above the average wage.
Q 20Which Olympic event did the IOC award to Senegal in 2018, the first ever for Africa?
The Summer Youth Olympics
The Summer Youth Olympics were awarded to Senegal's capital in October 2018 for 2022, then pushed back to 2026 by the pandemic; it is the first Olympic event of any kind awarded to an African nation.
Q 24Which Senegalese musical style, rooted in Serer percussion, was popularised by Youssou N'Dour?
Mbalax
Mbalax fuses fast sabar drumming with Cuban and Western pop elements; Youssou N'Dour's Super Etoile band carried it abroad from the 1980s, and Ismael Lo and Baaba Maal are other major names.
Q 25Youssou N'Dour's 1994 hit '7 Seconds' was a duet with which singer?
Neneh Cherry
Neneh Cherry duetted with Youssou N'Dour on '7 Seconds', a 1994 single sung in three languages that reached number three in the UK and topped charts across Europe.
Q 26The African Renaissance Monument, unveiled in Dakar in 2010, holds what record?
Tallest statue in Africa
At 49 metres the African Renaissance Monument is the tallest statue in Africa; the bronze family group was built by North Korea's Mansudae Overseas Projects and was criticised for its cost of about 27 million dollars.
Q 27Roughly what share of Senegal's population is Muslim?
About 95 percent
About 95 percent of Senegalese are Muslim, most of them Sunni followers of Sufi brotherhoods such as the Tijaniyya and Mourides; Christians, mostly Catholic, make up around 4 percent.
Q 28Senegal's Muslims are largely organised in Sufi orders known by what Arabic term?
Tariqas
Tariqas (Sufi orders) such as the Tijaniyya, Mouridiyya, Qadiriyya and Layene structure Senegalese Islam; each is headed by a khalif, usually a descendant of the founder.
Q 29What is Senegal's official language?
French
French has been the sole official language since independence in 1960 and is used in government, courts and schooling, though only about a quarter of the population speaks it.
Q 30Which currency does Senegal use?
West African CFA franc
The West African CFA franc, shared by the eight UEMOA member states and issued by the BCEAO from Senegal's capital, is pegged to the euro at 655.957 francs.