Southern Africa
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
50 free Southern Africa trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Southern Africa packs a remarkable amount into the bottom of the continent: ancient deserts, a coastline shared by two oceans, mountain kingdoms, some of the world's great wildlife reserves and a history that reshaped the twentieth century. Its countries are close neighbours with very different stories, which makes the region a rewarding subject for a quiz. This quiz covers the countries of the region and their capitals, the landmarks every traveller hopes to see, the animals and plants found nowhere else, and the food, languages and sport of everyday life. History runs through it too, from early kingdoms and colonial rivalries to the struggle against apartheid and the people who led it. The opening questions are ones most people can reach; later ones reward players who know their maps. It suits a geography class studying Africa, a family planning a safari, or a quiz host who needs a ready-made round. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so a wrong guess still teaches something, and the questions can be printed for use on paper.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which country, an enclave inside South Africa, has the highest lowest point of any nation on Earth?
Lesotho
Lesotho has no ground lower than 1,400 metres, so it is the only country lying entirely above 1,000 metres. Only Vatican City and San Marino are likewise surrounded by a single neighbour.
Q 02Which waterfall on the Zambezi, known locally as 'The Smoke That Thunders', did David Livingstone name in 1855?
Victoria Falls
Victoria Falls forms the world's largest sheet of falling water, 1,708 metres wide and 108 metres high. Its spray rises more than 400 metres and can be seen from up to 50 km away.
Q 03Which South African leader spent 18 of his 27 prison years on Robben Island before becoming president in 1994?
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela was sent to Robben Island in 1964 and later moved to Pollsmoor Prison on the mainland. A billion people worldwide watched his inauguration on television.
Q 04Which country's flag is the only national flag to show a modern firearm, an AK-47 crossed with a hoe?
Mozambique
Mozambique gave the rifle the meaning of defence, set beside a hoe for production and an open book for education. Calls to remove the gun have been made since 1990.
Q 05Which landmark overlooking Cape Town has carried visitors to its summit plateau by cableway since 1929?
Table Mountain
Table Mountain's flat summit is often hidden by a cloud nicknamed the tablecloth, which forms when a south-easterly wind pushes moist air up its slopes.
Q 06Which vast sandy region covering much of Botswana has a name said to come from a Tswana word for 'the great thirst'?
Kalahari
The Kalahari is strictly a semi-arid sandy savanna rather than a true desert. It spreads across 900,000 square kilometres of Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.
Q 07Which antelope, known for stiff-legged leaps called pronking, is the emblem of South Africa's rugby team?
Springbok
The springbok can leap 2 metres into the air while pronking, a word that comes from a term meaning to show off. It is also South Africa's national animal.
Q 08Which plastic horn, about 65 cm long, became the deafening sound of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa?
Vuvuzela
The vuvuzela reaches 120 decibels at one metre, the threshold of pain. Its single droning note sits around the B flat below middle C.
Q 09Which British author was born in Bloemfontein in 1892 and bitten there by a baboon spider as a child?
J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien left for England with his mother at the age of three. Some link the bite to the giant spiders in his stories, though he said he had no memory of it.
Q 10Which country is named after a ruined medieval city whose 11-metre stone walls were built without mortar?
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe borrowed the name of a Shona royal capital that flourished from the 13th century. The word is usually read as 'houses of stones'.
Q 11Which southern African country changed its official name in 2018, partly to avoid confusion with Switzerland?
Eswatini
Eswatini means 'land of the Swazis', and King Mswati III announced the change to mark 50 years of independence. The kingdom is Africa's last absolute monarchy.
Q 12Which vast wetland in Botswana is fed by a river that fans out inland and never reaches the sea?
Okavango Delta
The Okavango Delta loses about 96 to 98 per cent of its water to evaporation, plants and the ground. In 2014 it became the 1000th site on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Q 13Which game reserve, first protected in 1898 to control hunting, became South Africa's first national park in 1926?
Kruger
Q 21Which African country shares its name with a lake that holds more species of fish than any other lake?
Malawi
Malawi borders a lake with at least 700 species of cichlid alone. David Livingstone, who reached it in 1859, nicknamed it the Lake of Stars after the lanterns of its night fishermen.
Q 22Which actress from Benoni became the first South African to win an acting Oscar, for the 2003 film Monster?
Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron grew up on her parents' farm near Johannesburg. Her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos also won her the Silver Bear.
Q 23Which technology billionaire was born in Pretoria in 1971 and left South Africa for Canada in 1989?
Elon Musk
Kruger National Park covers 19,623 square kilometres of South Africa's north-east, with rivers as natural boundaries to its north and south.
Q 14Which Indian independence leader lived in South Africa for 21 years and was thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg?
Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi arrived in 1893 as a young lawyer hired for a single lawsuit. He was ejected for refusing to leave a first-class carriage, and his years there shaped his politics.
Q 15Which Johannesburg-born comedian titled his memoir Born a Crime because his parents' relationship was then illegal?
Trevor Noah
Trevor Noah was born in 1984 to a mother classified as Black and a father classified as White under apartheid law. He hosted The Daily Show from 2015 to 2022.
Q 16Which metal, found on the Witwatersrand in 1886, turned farmland into Johannesburg, now South Africa's largest city?
Gold
Gold earned Johannesburg its nickname, the City of Gold. Unusually for a major city, it was not built on a river or a harbour.
Q 17Which South African churchman won the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize and popularised the term 'Rainbow Nation'?
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu had been nominated in each of the three years before he won. After 1994 he chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into abuses by both sides.
Q 18Which small pack-living mammal of southern Africa always keeps a sentry on lookout for predators?
Meerkat
The meerkat is a mongoose that is immune to scorpion venom. Adults teach their pups to eat scorpions by first removing the stinger.
Q 19Which animal joins the lion, leopard, elephant and rhinoceros in the Big Five, a term coined by big-game hunters?
Buffalo
The buffalo earned its place on a list of the five most difficult animals to hunt on foot. Its broad horns made it a popular trophy.
Q 20Which world first did surgeon Christiaan Barnard perform at Cape Town's Groote Schuur Hospital in December 1967?
Human heart transplant
The human heart transplant gave grocer Louis Washkansky the heart of an accident victim. He woke and talked with his wife, but died of pneumonia 18 days later.
Elon Musk had a claim to Canadian citizenship through his mother, who was born in Saskatchewan. On arrival he worked odd jobs, including at a farm and a lumber mill.
Q 24Which language, descended from 17th-century Dutch dialects, is widely spoken in both South Africa and Namibia?
Afrikaans
Afrikaans was once dismissed as 'kitchen Dutch', and South Africa recognised it as a distinct language only in 1925.
Q 25Which thick-trunked 'upside-down tree' of the African savanna can store up to 120,000 litres of water?
Baobab
The baobab can also live for well over two thousand years: one tree was about 2,450 years old when it died in 2011.
Q 26Which seabird, nicknamed the jackass for its donkey-like bray, has a mainland colony at Boulders Beach near Cape Town?
African penguin
The African penguin settled Boulders Beach only in the 1980s. Almost all of its other breeding sites are islands, 24 of them strung from Namibia to Algoa Bay.
Q 27Which air-dried, cured meat snack from southern Africa is prepared with vinegar, coriander and other spices?
Biltong
Biltong differs from jerky because it is never cooked: the meat hangs to dry in the air, traditionally for a fortnight in winter, when the cold slows spoilage.
Q 28Which caffeine-free herbal tea is farmed only in the Cederberg region of South Africa's Western Cape?
Rooibos
Rooibos means 'red bush', a name South Africa has protected by law since 2013. In Britain it is often called redbush tea.
Q 29Which Zulu king, famed for the short stabbing spear called the iklwa, was assassinated by his half-brothers in 1828?
Shaka
Shaka is credited with introducing the iklwa, though he probably did not invent it. One of his killers, Dingane, then took the Zulu throne.
Q 30Which South African institution sits in Cape Town, even though the president and cabinet are based in Pretoria?
Parliament
Parliament has met in Cape Town since a compromise gave South Africa three capitals, with the appeal court in Bloemfontein. Ministers and diplomats shuttle between cities when it is in session.