Q 01/05

Which boxer beat George Foreman in 1974's Rumble in the Jungle, staged in what is now the DR Congo?

A) Joe Frazier

B) Muhammad Ali

C) Ken Norton

D) Larry Holmes

Answer · why

B) Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali soaked up punches on the ropes, a tactic he later dubbed the rope-a-dope, then knocked out the tiring champion in the eighth round.

Q 02/05

Which virus, first identified in 1976, takes its name from a river in the northern DR Congo?

A) Zika

B) Lassa

C) Marburg

D) Ebola

Answer · why

D) Ebola

Ebola was first identified in the village of Yambuku, but the scientists named it after a river some distance away to spare the village the stigma.

Q 03/05

Eclipse photographs taken on the island of Príncipe in 1919 confirmed which physicist's new theory of gravity?

A) Einstein

B) Newton

C) Maxwell

D) Heisenberg

Answer · why

A) Einstein

Einstein had predicted that the Sun's gravity bends starlight, and Arthur Eddington's measurements off the African coast brought him worldwide fame.

Q 04/05

Which stripe-legged forest mammal, wild only in the DR Congo, is the giraffe's closest living relative?

A) Bongo

B) Duiker

C) Okapi

D) Sitatunga

Answer · why

C) Okapi

Okapi were unknown to science until 1901, when the first description placed the species among the horses and zebras.

Q 05/05

Which comic-strip hero visited the Congo in his second adventure, serialised from 1930?

A) Tintin

B) Asterix

C) Spirou

D) Lucky Luke

Answer · why

A) Tintin

Tintin and his dog Snowy were sent to report on the colony; Hergé redrew the story in 1946, and critics have since called it racist and imperialistic.