Zimbabwe Trivia
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49 free Zimbabwe trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Zimbabwe trivia quiz runs from the stone city that gave the country its name to the coup that ended Robert Mugabe's rule: the Shona kingdoms of Great Zimbabwe and Mutapa, Mzilikazi and Lobengula, Cecil Rhodes and the Pioneer Column, Ian Smith's UDI, the Lancaster House Agreement, Gukurahundi, land reform, the 100-trillion-dollar note and the 2017 handover to Emmerson Mnangagwa. It also covers what visitors and fans know Zimbabwe for — Victoria Falls, Hwange and Cecil the lion, the Matobo Hills and the balancing rocks, sadza and the mbira, Doris Lessing and NoViolet Bulawayo, Nick Price's majors, Test cricket and swimmer-turned-IOC-president Kirsty Coventry. Questions run from easy to expert with the difficulty shown on each one. Every answer has been checked against a primary reference and each question carries its citation.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital and largest city of Zimbabwe?
Harare
Harare, founded in 1890 as the Pioneer Column's fort, is Zimbabwe's capital and largest city; the name adopted in 1982 comes from the Shona chief Neharawa, whose people lived on the site's kopje.
Q 02Zimbabwe's capital was known by what name until 1982?
Salisbury
The Pioneer Column named the fort for Lord Salisbury, the British prime minister, when it arrived in Shona territory in 1890.
Q 03The name Zimbabwe is usually said to derive from a Shona phrase meaning what?
Houses of stone
Houses of stone — dzimba dza mabwe in Shona — refers to the medieval walled city of Great Zimbabwe near Masvingo; a rival reading, dzimba hwe, gives 'venerated houses'.
Q 04The states that culminated in Great Zimbabwe grew rich exchanging gold, ivory and copper with merchants from where?
Arab traders on the Indian Ocean coast
Arab traders on the Indian Ocean coast, via Swahili ports such as Sofala, bought the plateau's gold and ivory from about the 10th century, sending back cloth, glass beads and Chinese porcelain.
Q 05Great Zimbabwe's massive walls are famous for being built how?
Of dry stone, without mortar
Of dry stone, without mortar: Great Zimbabwe's granite blocks were cut and fitted so precisely that the Great Enclosure's outer wall, up to 11 metres high, has stood since the 13th-14th centuries.
Q 06The soapstone carving that appears on Zimbabwe's flag and coat of arms depicts what?
A bird
Eight such birds once stood on the walls and monoliths of Great Zimbabwe; the emblem was also used by Rhodesia on its currency.
Q 07Which Shona empire, called Monomotapa by the Portuguese, ruled much of Zimbabwe from c.1450?
Mutapa
Mutapa, founded by Nyatsimba Mutota as Great Zimbabwe declined, ruled the northern plateau from the Zambezi valley; the Portuguese rendered its king's title, Mwene Mutapa, as 'Monomotapa'.
Q 08Which Zulu general rebelled against Shaka around 1821 and founded the Ndebele kingdom in Matabeleland?
Mzilikazi
Mzilikazi, a Khumalo chief and Shaka's general, fled north with his followers and settled around 1840 on the plateau that became Matabeleland, ruling the Ndebele until his death in 1868.
Q 09From which Ndebele king did Cecil Rhodes obtain the 1888 mining concession used to justify colonisation?
Lobengula
Lobengula signed the Rudd Concession on 30 October 1888, granting exclusive mineral rights; Rhodes used it to win a royal charter for his British South Africa Company in 1889.
Q 10Which US-born scout assassinated the Ndebele religious leader Mlimo in 1896?
Frederick Russell Burnham
Frederick Russell Burnham, a Minnesota-born scout for the British South Africa Company, shot Mlimo in his cave sanctuary in June 1896; his fieldcraft later inspired Baden-Powell's scouting movement.
Q 11In which year did Southern Rhodesia become a self-governing British colony?
1923
In 1923, after a 1922 referendum rejected joining South Africa, Britain annexed Southern Rhodesia as a self-governing colony; the settler assembly controlled internal affairs from 1 October that year.
Q 12Which prime minister issued Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965?
Ian Smith
Ian Smith, Rhodesian Front prime minister from 1964, signed the UDI at 11 am on 11 November 1965 — Armistice Day — after Britain refused independence without guaranteed progress to majority rule.
Q 13The 1979 agreement that ended Rhodesia's guerrilla war was signed at which London venue?
Lancaster House
Q 21Which opposition leader became prime minister in 2009 under a power-sharing deal with Mugabe?
Morgan Tsvangirai
Morgan Tsvangirai, founder of the Movement for Democratic Change, was sworn in as prime minister on 11 February 2009 under the Global Political Agreement, having withdrawn from the violent 2008 run-off.
Q 22Which vice-president's sacking triggered the November 2017 coup that ended Mugabe's rule?
Emmerson Mnangagwa
Emmerson Mnangagwa, nicknamed 'the Crocodile' after his 1960s Crocodile Gang guerrilla unit, was sacked on 6 November 2017; the army moved on 15 November and he was sworn in as president on 24 November.
Q 23Where did Robert Mugabe die in September 2019, aged 95?
Singapore
Lancaster House, in London's St James's, hosted the talks Lord Carrington chaired from September 1979; the agreement was signed there on 21 December 1979, and Britain briefly resumed rule under Governor Christopher Soames.
Q 14In what year did Zimbabwe gain internationally recognised independence?
1980
Zimbabwe became independent on 18 April 1980 after Robert Mugabe's ZANU won 57 of the 80 common-roll seats in February's election; Julius Nyerere told Mugabe he had inherited 'a jewel'.
Q 15What was Gukurahundi?
A 1980s massacre campaign in Matabeleland
Gukurahundi was the 1980s massacre campaign in Matabeleland: from January 1983 the Fifth Brigade, answering directly to Mugabe, killed thousands of Ndebele civilians accused of backing 'dissidents', until the Unity Accord ended it.
Q 16Which country trained Zimbabwe's notorious Fifth Brigade?
North Korea
North Korea trained the Fifth Brigade under an agreement between Mugabe and Kim Il-sung; North Korean instructors drilled the unit in the Eastern Highlands for about a year before it deployed to Matabeleland in January 1983.
Q 17Robert Mugabe switched from prime minister to executive president in which year?
1987
In 1987 Mugabe amended the constitution to abolish the ceremonial presidency and the premiership, becoming executive president on 31 December; that same month ZANU and ZAPU merged under the Unity Accord.
Q 18What did the government launch in 2000 that led to the eviction of more than 4,000 white farmers?
Fast Track Land Reform
The Fast Track Land Reform programme, launched in 2000 after voters rejected a new constitution, saw war veterans and the state seize most of the roughly 4,500 white-owned commercial farms; Zimbabwe became a net food importer.
Q 19At hyperinflation's peak in November 2008, monthly inflation reached roughly what?
79.6 billion percent
79.6 billion percent a month was economist Steve Hanke's estimate for November 2008, when prices doubled roughly every 24 hours; the government had stopped publishing official inflation figures after July 2008.
Q 20What was the face value of the largest banknote issued during Zimbabwe's hyperinflation?
100 trillion dollars
The notes are now collectors' items; the economy rebounded only after a multi-currency system was adopted in 2009.
Singapore's Gleneagles Hospital, where Mugabe had long travelled for treatment, was where he died on 6 September 2019; his 37 years in power had ended with the November 2017 coup.
Q 24How many official languages does Zimbabwe recognise?
16
16 languages are officially recognised under section 6 of the 2013 constitution, including English, Chewa, Kalanga, Tonga, Venda, Xhosa and sign language, all of which the state must treat equitably.
Q 25Zimbabwe lies between which two great rivers?
Zambezi and Limpopo
The Zambezi and Limpopo bound the country: the Zambezi, which plunges over Victoria Falls, forms the northern border with Zambia, while the Limpopo forms the southern border with South Africa.
Q 26What is Zimbabwe's highest point, at 2,592 metres in the Eastern Highlands?
Mount Nyangani
Mount Nyangani, in Nyanga National Park, is Zimbabwe's highest point at 2,592 metres; Mount Binga, the highest of the Chimanimani range, lies on the Mozambique border.
Q 27What is Zimbabwe's largest national park, home to the lion Cecil?
Hwange
Hwange National Park, formerly Wankie Game Reserve, covers about 14,600 square kilometres of Matabeleland North and holds one of Africa's largest elephant populations, numbering in the tens of thousands.
Q 28Cecil the lion, killed in 2015 in an outcry that went global, was shot with what by an American dentist?
A bow and arrow
Walter Palmer wounded him with an arrow and finished him with a compound bow 10 to 12 hours later; he had a permit and was never charged.
Q 29Cecil Rhodes is buried at 'World's View' in which range of granite hills in Matabeleland?
Matobo
The Matobo Hills hold Rhodes's grave at World's View, known to the Ndebele as Malindidzimu, and thousands of San rock paintings; they were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003.
Q 30What geological curiosity, pictured on Zimbabwe's banknotes, is most spectacular in Matabeleland's granite hills?
Balancing rocks
Balancing rocks — granite boulders weathered into precarious stacks — appear on Zimbabwe's banknotes: the famous 'Banknote Rocks' stand at Epworth, southeast of the capital, while the grandest displays crowd Matabeleland's granite hills.