50 free Uganda trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Uganda is the country Winston Churchill called the Pearl of Africa, and this quiz covers it from the kingdoms of the Great Lakes to the present: Kitara and Bunyoro, the Kabakas of Buganda, the Uganda Martyrs, the 1894 protectorate and the railway built by Indian labourers, independence in 1962, Milton Obote, Idi Amin's eight brutal years and the raid on Entebbe, the war with Tanzania, and Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986. Easy questions ask for the capital, the great lake, the river that rises there and the national bird; the harder ones want the highest peak, the meaning of the country's name, the number of refugees it hosts, the omelette wrapped in a chapati, the runner who broke the 5,000m and 10,000m world records and the hurdler who won Uganda's first Olympic gold. There is also Bwindi's mountain gorillas, matoke, the five traditional kingdoms, the world's youngest population, Bobi Wine and the Cranes. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the country, its cities and its history, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which country borders Uganda to the east?
Kenya
South Sudan lies to the north, the DR Congo to the west, Rwanda to the south-west and Tanzania to the south. Uganda's sea trade runs through Kenya to Mombasa.
Q 02Uganda shares which lake, the world's second-largest freshwater lake, with two neighbours?
Victoria
The Victoria Nile flows out of it at Jinja, through Lake Kyoga and Lake Albert, then north into South Sudan.
Q 03Which British statesman visited in 1907 and dubbed Uganda the 'Pearl of Africa'?
Winston Churchill
The phrase from his book 'My African Journey' is still the national tourism slogan.
Q 04Uganda takes its name from which kingdom, which still covers much of the south including the capital?
Buganda
Its king is the Kabaka and its language, Luganda, is widely spoken. Britain sided with it against Bunyoro and rewarded it with half of Bunyoro's land.
Q 05In which year did Uganda gain independence from Britain?
1962
Independence Day is 9 October.
Q 06Which general seized power in a January 1971 coup and ruled Uganda for eight years?
Idi Amin
Between 80,000 and 500,000 people died under his rule. Forest Whitaker won an Oscar playing him in 'The Last King of Scotland'.
Q 07In 1972 Idi Amin expelled roughly how many people of Indian origin from Uganda?
80,000
Many descended from the 32,000 labourers brought to build the Uganda Railway. Only about 7,000 remained; many returned after 1979.
Q 08In July 1976 Israeli commandos rescued hostages from a hijacked Air France plane at which airport?
Entebbe
Idi Amin had backed the hijackers. About 100 hostages were freed ten days after the plane landed; the raid was later renamed for the one Israeli officer killed, Yonatan Netanyahu.
Q 09Idi Amin was overthrown in 1979 by an invasion from which neighbouring country to the south?
Tanzania
President Julius Nyerere hoped to restore his ally Milton Obote, who duly returned after a disputed 1980 election.
Q 10Which leader's rebel forces took Kampala in January 1986, making him president of Uganda?
Yoweri Museveni
Parliament scrapped term limits in 2005 and he won a further term in January 2026, extending a presidency that began in 1986.
Q 11Which pop star turned politician took 35% of the vote against Museveni in the 2021 election?
Bobi Wine
Born Robert Kyagulanyi, he leads the National Unity Platform. Besigye, once Museveni's doctor, was his main challenger in earlier elections.
Q 12Which bird appears in the white disc at the centre of Uganda's black, yellow and red flag?
The crested crane
The flag was adopted on independence day, 9 October 1962.
Q 13Uganda's highest peak, Mount Stanley, lies in which range on the DR Congo border?
The Rwenzori
The 'Mountains of the Moon' reach 5,109 metres and carry glaciers on the equator. Rwenzori Mountains National Park is a UNESCO site.
Q 21John Akii-Bua won Uganda's first Olympic gold at Munich 1972 in which event, setting a world record?
400m hurdles
His 47.82 seconds came from the tight inside lane. Amin's regime later forced him into exile in Kenya.
Q 22Which Ugandan set 5,000 m and 10,000 m world records and won 10,000 m gold at Paris 2024?
Joshua Cheptegei
He won world 10,000m titles in 2019, 2022 and 2023.
Q 23Stephen Kiprotich won which event for Uganda at the London 2012 Olympics?
Marathon
He added the 2013 world title in Moscow. Boxing has brought Uganda four Olympic medals, the team being known as the Bombers.
Q 14Which Ugandan national park is famous for its population of mountain gorillas?
Bwindi Impenetrable
Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in the Virungas has gorillas and golden monkeys too. Uganda has ten national parks in all.
Q 15The town of Jinja on the northern shore of the great lake is celebrated as the location of what?
The source of the Nile
John Hanning Speke identified Ripon Falls as the outlet in 1862; the Owen Falls Dam drowned the falls in 1954. Its name means 'stones'.
Q 16Uganda's median age of about 15 gives it what global distinction?
The world's youngest population
Nearly half of Ugandans were under 18 in 2024. The population grew from 9.5 million in 1969 to almost 46 million.
Q 17By 2025 Uganda hosted roughly how many refugees, more than any other African country?
Nearly 2 million
Most come from South Sudan and the DR Congo. Refugees get a plot of land, may work and move freely, one of the most open policies anywhere.
Q 18Uganda's two official languages are English and which other?
Swahili
Swahili was added in 2005. It is disliked in the Bantu south but widely used in the north, the police and the army; Idi Amin once made it the national language.
Q 19The Ugandan street food called a 'Rolex' consists of what?
An omelette rolled in a chapati
The name is a play on 'rolled eggs'. It shows the South Asian influence on Ugandan cooking and is treated as a national treasure.
Q 20Matoke, the staple food of central and western Uganda, is made from what?
Steamed green bananas
The East African Highland banana is mashed and steamed in its own leaves. Jackfruit grows everywhere too.
Q 24What is the nickname of Uganda's national football team?
The Cranes
They finished second at the 1978 Africa Cup of Nations but have never reached a World Cup. The Silverbacks play basketball and the Bombers box.
Q 25In which year was the British Protectorate of Uganda established?
1894
Protectorate status left more self-rule than in neighbouring Kenya, a colony.
Q 26The Uganda Martyrs, executed in 1885-86, were killed on the orders of which Kabaka?
Mwanga II
Anglican and Catholic converts at court refused his demands. Millions of pilgrims gather at Namugongo every 3 June to remember them.
Q 27About how many indentured labourers from British India built the Uganda Railway in the 1890s?
32,000
Most went home, but 6,724 stayed and their descendants came to dominate trade and cotton ginning, until Amin threw them out in 1972.
Q 28How many traditional Bantu kingdoms does Uganda officially recognise?
Five
Ankole's supporters have so far failed to get their kingdom restored.
Q 29Which rebel group led by Joseph Kony waged a long war in northern Uganda marked by child abductions?
The Lord's Resistance Army
The LRA's crimes include the Atiak massacre and mass child slavery; the conflict displaced millions before the group was pushed into neighbouring countries.
Q 30Uganda's MPs were allegedly paid how much each to abolish presidential term limits in 2005?
US$2,000
The same year a referendum ended the 19-year ban on multi-party politics under Museveni's 'Movement' system.