Togo Trivia
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47 free Togo trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Togo is a sliver of West Africa less than 115 km wide, squeezed between Ghana and Benin, and this quiz covers it from the Slave Coast to the Commonwealth: the Ewe arrivals, the treaty forced on King Mlapa III in 1884, German Togoland and its cocoa and cotton, the Anglo-French invasion of 1914, the vote that sent the British half into Ghana, independence in 1960, the assassination of Sylvanus Olympio and the 38-year rule of Gnassingbé Eyadéma, followed by his son. Easy questions ask for the capital, the neighbours, the language and the coast; the harder ones want the meaning of the name 'Togo', the highest mountain, the longest river, the world's largest voodoo market, the mud tower-houses of Koutammakou, the wax-print traders called Nana Benz and the country's one Olympic medal. There is also Emmanuel Adebayor, the 2006 World Cup, the bus attack of 2010, the fourth-largest phosphate reserves on Earth and the 2024 constitution that made an 86-year-old the world's oldest president. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the country, its capital and its people, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Togo's capital, Lomé, sits on the coast of which gulf?
The Gulf of Guinea
The Gulf of Guinea gave Togo no natural harbour, so a deep-water port was built at Lomé in the 1960s. It now handles cargo for landlocked countries far to the north.
Q 02Togo is bordered by Ghana to the west and which country to the east?
Benin
Benin and Togo share more than a border: in the 1980s they jointly built a hydroelectric dam that both countries own, which cut Togo's reliance on imported electricity.
Q 03What is the official language of Togo?
French
French arrived late: the territory was a German colony until British and French troops seized it in 1914, and France was then handed the larger, eastern share to govern.
Q 04The 1975 Lomé Convention, signed in Togo's capital, gave trade preferences to Africa, the Caribbean and which other region?
The Pacific
The Pacific islands signed alongside African and Caribbean states, 46 countries in all. That June the same 46 formed a bloc of their own, the ACP Group, named after the three regions.
Q 05Who became independent Togo's first president?
Sylvanus Olympio
Sylvanus Olympio won the 1958 election that opened the way to independence, but he ruled for under three years: soldiers discharged from the colonial army shot him in a 1963 coup.
Q 06Which dry, dusty wind from the Sahara sweeps across Togo between about November and March?
The harmattan
The harmattan carries so much Saharan dust that it can dim the sun and cut visibility like fog, yet on the humid coast its dry air comes as a relief and has earned it the nickname 'the doctor'.
Q 07Lake Togo, just inland from the country's coast, is what kind of water body?
A lagoon
A lagoon: Lake Togo is an old river estuary cut off from the Atlantic by a narrow sandbar, and villagers still cross its shallow water by pirogue.
Q 08European traders gave Togo's stretch of the West African shore which nickname between the 16th and 18th centuries?
The Slave Coast
The Slave Coast was raided for captives for some two hundred years. Togo lay squeezed between two powerful slave-trading kingdoms, Ashanti and Dahomey, and lost people to both.
Q 09British Togoland voted in a 1956 UN plebiscite to merge with which neighbouring colony?
The Gold Coast
The Gold Coast took British Togoland with it into independence as Ghana the following year, which left the Ewe people split between two countries despite their campaign for a single homeland.
Q 10Which organisation did Togo and Gabon both join at a 2022 summit in Kigali?
The Commonwealth
The Commonwealth admitted both although neither has historic ties to it. They wanted wider diplomatic links and the benefits of English as a language of business.
Q 11Under Togo's 2024 constitution and parliamentary system, Faure Gnassingbé took which new office?
President of the Council of Ministers
President of the Council of Ministers is now the top executive post and has no term limit, while the presidency is ceremonial. Opponents called the switch an 'institutional coup' by a family in power since 1967.
Q 12The 1999 Lomé Peace Accord, signed in Togo's capital, was meant to end the civil war in which country?
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone's government and rebels signed it after six weeks of talks hosted by Togo. It gave the rebels government posts and an amnesty, yet within a year they were abducting UN peacekeepers.
Q 13Togo's flag has green and yellow stripes with a red square in the corner bearing what?
Q 21The wealthy Togolese women who dominated the 1970s wax-print trade were nicknamed after which car?
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz gave the 'Nana Benz' their name, after the expensive cars many of them drove. Their fortunes faded from the 1990s, partly because cheap Chinese copies undercut the Dutch-made prints they sold.
Q 22Koutammakou, a UNESCO World Heritage landscape in northern Togo, is famous for what kind of dwellings?
Mud tower-houses
Mud tower-houses called takienta are a national symbol and still lived in. When heavy rains in 2018 damaged or destroyed hundreds of them, UNESCO sent an emergency mission to assess the harm.
Q 23Emmanuel Adebayor was African Footballer of the Year in 2008 while playing for which club?
Arsenal
A white star
A white star, for peace, sits above five stripes that stand for Togo's regions. Artist Paul Ahyi designed the flag for independence in 1960, a year after finishing art school in Paris.
Q 14How long is Togo's entire coastline?
56 km
56 km is all the shore Togo has. The colony began as a small coastal enclave and grew inland, leaving a strip of country about ten times longer than its seafront.
Q 15What is Togo's highest mountain?
Mont Agou
Mont Agou reaches only 986 metres, yet it made a natural stronghold: when Ashanti armies invaded around 1870 its hill villages united to resist them, and the mountain became a symbol of defiance.
Q 16Which river runs south through eastern Togo from the central hills to the coast?
The Mono
The Mono is navigable only for a short, seasonal stretch near its mouth. Its water instead drives a hydroelectric dam, whose reservoir forced more than 7,000 villagers to move in the 1980s.
Q 17Which mineral has long been Togo's main mining export?
Phosphate
Phosphate prices quadrupled in the mid-1970s, just as Togo nationalised its mines, and the windfall went on grand projects. When prices fell again, the debts stayed.
Q 18Which currency does Togo use?
The CFA franc
The CFA franc is shared by eight West African countries and pegged to the euro. In January 1994 it lost half its value overnight, and the price of imported food and medicine soared.
Q 19Which animals stand on Togo's coat of arms, each holding a bow and arrow?
Lions
Lions were chosen to stand for the courage of the Togolese people. Their bows and arrows are a call for every citizen to help defend the country's freedom.
Q 20The Akodessawa market in Lomé is billed as the world's largest market for what?
Voodoo fetishes
Voodoo fetishes here are raw ingredients: stalls sell dried animal heads, skulls and skins, which priests and healers use in Vodun rituals and to make protective charms.
Arsenal sold him to Manchester City the following summer. When he scored against his old club that September, he ran the full length of the pitch to celebrate in front of the Arsenal fans.
Q 24Togo's coach quit days before their first World Cup in a dispute over what?
Bonuses
Bonuses promised to the players had not been paid, so they boycotted training and coach Otto Pfister walked out three days before the opening match. He returned within days, but Togo lost all three games.
Q 25Before the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, Togo's team bus came under fatal attack in which host country?
Angola
Angola's Cabinda enclave was where separatist gunmen ambushed the bus. Togo's government called the squad home, and CAF banned the team from two tournaments for it, then lifted the ban within months.
Q 26Togo's first Olympic medal was a bronze won by Benjamin Boukpeti at Beijing 2008 in which sport?
Canoe slalom
Canoe slalom was so unfamiliar at home that a Togolese minister said many of his countrymen had never heard of it. Boukpeti, born and raised in Europe, snapped his paddle in celebration.
Q 27At the 2022 census, what did the largest share of Togolese give as their religion?
Christianity
Christianity was named by about half of Togolese, far ahead of Islam and traditional beliefs at under a fifth each. Many churchgoers also keep traditional practices alongside their faith.
Q 28Togo is slightly smaller in area than which US state?
West Virginia
West Virginia is a little larger but far emptier: Togo fits more than four times as many people into its narrow strip of West Africa.
Q 29In southern Togo, small carved statuettes called venavi are kept and cared for in honour of whom?
Twins
Twins are held to be sacred, so when one dies a venavi figure takes its place. The mother or the surviving twin then looks after the carving as if it were the lost child.
Q 30Ewe weavers in Togo and Ghana are known for which colourful cloth, stitched together from narrow hand-woven strips?
Kente
Kente comes in narrow strips because it is woven on small, light looms that a weaver can carry. Among the neighbouring Ashanti it was long a cloth for royalty.