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Africa Capitals Quiz

Below, you will see the countries of Africa. Enter the names of their capital cities.
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: February 16, 2019
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First submittedJuly 25, 2011
Times taken486,841
Average score54.4%
Rating4.98
5:00
Enter capital city here:
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Country
Capital
Algeria
Algiers
Angola
Luanda
Benin (de facto)
Cotonou
Benin (official)
Porto-Novo
Botswana
Gaborone
Burkina Faso
Ouagadougou
Burundi
Gitega
Cameroon
Yaoundé
Cape Verde
Praia
Central African
Republic
Bangui
Chad
N'Djamena
Comoros
Moroni
Congo (Dem. Rep.)
Kinshasa
Congo (Rep.)
Brazzaville
Djibouti
Djibouti
Egypt
Cairo
Equatorial Guinea
Malabo
Eritrea
Asmara
Eswatini
Mbabane
Country
Capital
Ethiopia
Addis Ababa
Gabon
Libreville
Gambia
Banjul
Ghana
Accra
Guinea
Conakry
Guinea-Bissau
Bissau
Ivory Coast
Yamoussoukro
Kenya
Nairobi
Lesotho
Maseru
Liberia
Monrovia
Libya
Tripoli
Madagascar
Antananarivo
Malawi
Lilongwe
Mali
Bamako
Mauritania
Nouakchott
Mauritius
Port Louis
Morocco
Rabat
Mozambique
Maputo
Namibia
Windhoek
Country
Capital
Niger
Niamey
Nigeria
Abuja
Rwanda
Kigali
Senegal
Dakar
Seychelles
Victoria
Sierra Leone
Freetown
Somalia
Mogadishu
South Africa (executive)
Pretoria
South Africa (judicial)
Bloemfontein
South Africa (legislative)
Cape Town
South Sudan
Juba
Sudan
Khartoum
São Tomé and Príncipe
São Tomé
Tanzania
Dodoma
Togo
Lome
Tunisia
Tunis
Uganda
Kampala
Zambia
Lusaka
Zimbabwe
Harare
+9
Level 83
Jul 8, 2013
I knew all of these except for Tanzania and Ivory Coast which I think were changed recently, and the "de facto" capital of Benin whatever that means. But still only got 37 because I can't remember them all quickly enough. If I work on mastering this quiz then I should be able to get through the capitals of the world quiz pretty easily because Africa and Oceania are always what trip me up there..
+29
Level 59
Oct 19, 2017
I wouldn't say that recent: at least 20 years ago for both, more like 30 years ago for Cote d'Ivoire.
+3
Level 83
Feb 18, 2018
I originally learned the capitals of Africa in 1991 or 1992 so it may have been more than 20 years ago but I don't think it was 30.
+14
Level 59
Feb 20, 2018
[...looks something up on Wikipedia...] It was announced in 1983 that Cote d'Ivoire would change its capital to Yamoussoukro, so over 30 years ago. I imagine the reality of moving government departments there though took a little time. Like you, I also learned that the capital was Abidjan, and that was after 1983.
+2
Level 88
Jun 25, 2018
[....edits something on Wikipedia to read whatever I want, then check a legitimate source for the answer...]
+15
Level 72
Jan 29, 2022
[...pretends you have editing privileges on Wikipedia or that it's actually that easy to get edits to stick on remotely popular pages...]
+6
Level 65
Feb 1, 2022
[...something about Wikipedia...]
+6
Level 78
Mar 3, 2019
You don't know what 'de facto' means?
+31
Level 59
Jun 23, 2019
Come on, don't be so rude.

For everyone who is wondering: "de facto" means "technically it isn't, but actually it is" i.e. when there is a successful coup in a country the old president may still be the official president but the new president, while not technically the president is the "de facto" president. He's the one making the decisions that the president should make.

+3
Level 65
Jun 27, 2019
So it means in fact.
+2
Level 78
Jul 2, 2020
I wasn't trying to be rude, Steffy.
+1
Level 69
Sep 21, 2022
I guess it's just all natural, Jack.
+2
Level 65
Dec 10, 2020
Not bad for a 40 years old!
+11
Level 61
Jul 8, 2013
Oops glaring hole in my general knowledge!!
+3
Level 83
Jul 8, 2013
Maybe you could accept Gabarone for Gaborone? It's one of the redirects on the Wikipedia page, and I think I've seen it spelled that way before.
+2
Level ∞
Jul 9, 2013
Okay, that will work now
+17
Level 69
Jul 25, 2016
Come on. That's like asking for Ottowa for Ottawa or Washengton DC for Washington DC. See how ridiculous that sounds. Its spelling isn't that hard. Ouagadougou or Yamoussoukro on the other hand...
+2
Level 60
Nov 14, 2017
No, it's completely different. Firstly, the two you named are far more famous than Gaborone and are more widely known. Secondly, the same argument could be made for Ouagadougou and Yamoussoukro.
+15
Level 75
Feb 18, 2018
Gaborone is more famous than Ottawa in Botswana. I guess you're not doing the quiz from there.
+2
Level 83
Feb 18, 2018
Have you seen Washington spelled Washengton before?
+65
Level 80
Apr 25, 2018
Yes, twice now.
+2
Level 88
Jun 25, 2018
That's like saying Ouagodougou or Yamousoukro should be accepted because those are you the ones you can't remember.
+3
Level 75
Dec 4, 2019
But Ouagadougou has "Ouaga" as a type-in, so it isn't that hard
+4
Level 69
Apr 11, 2020
Come on, Ouagadougou isn't so hard to spell...
+2
Level 66
May 7, 2020
I've met kiwi's that would probably pronounce it Weshengton.
+3
Level 71
Dec 5, 2020
Yamoussoukro and Antananarivo are the bane of my existence.
+1
Level 75
Dec 6, 2020
Tried several spellings, but Ougadougou was as close as I could come. It wasn't close enough.
+11
Level 56
Jul 21, 2013
Haha! Finally got them all. Now I just need to get the islands in the Pacific and I'll have all 196. So close.
+4
Level 16
Sep 1, 2013
I couldnt get accra, but i had yamoussoukro and ouagadougou!
+7
Level 57
Dec 27, 2016
well, Ouagadougou isn't that hard anymore cause people think that ouaga is good enough
+10
Level 15
Jan 6, 2019
I agree SkyjumperTalon. To me it's a joke. Why is it not required to write the full name: "Ouagadougou". People would learn it better this way and would be less confused, with these partial names, that only have value (if any) on this quiz site.
+4
Level 82
Jan 13, 2019
Because it's often called Ouaga. Like NYC, DC and similar
+12
Level 76
Sep 23, 2019
It disturbs me every time when I have a left over t when I type Nouakchott
+2
Level 68
Nov 16, 2013
Only 34, oh well. I get really tripped up on all those tiny Gold Coast countries and the islands.
+3
Level 48
Oct 26, 2015
The Gold Coast is one country. Ghana
+7
Level 46
Jan 22, 2018
You know what he means. Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo and Benin.
+1
Level 88
Jun 25, 2018
Wildwood is the US' bouffant capital.
+3
Level 48
May 4, 2014
Africa has too many damn countries.
+1
Level 46
Dec 19, 2017
I know! It seems like 5 minutes would be just fine for a capitals quiz, but it's pretty difficult still.
+4
Level 71
Oct 3, 2022
Used to have around nine. Didn't work out too well for them.
+1
Level 64
Nov 20, 2022
54 isn't doing too much better tbh
+4
Level 37
Aug 3, 2014
Why have I always thought the capital of Ivory Coast is Abidjan? Wikipedia says it was changed back in 1983.
+3
Level 56
Oct 24, 2015
I've always thought Abidjan was the capital. It turns out that most of the political institutions are still in Abidjan while Yamoussoukro is the official capital. What's the deal with having a capital with barely any political institutions in it anyway?
+1
Level 88
Jun 25, 2018
They could remove most of the ones from Washington.
+2
Level 82
Jan 13, 2019
It's an excuse for construction projects, like the biggest church in the world.
+4
Level 72
Jul 16, 2019
According to Wikipedia, the President a few years back changed the capital simply because Yamoussoukro was his birthplace
+4
Level 69
Apr 11, 2020
Oh, Presidents...
+1
Level 66
Oct 24, 2014
Had to Google the de facto capital of Benin. Got them all except for that.
+5
Level 76
Sep 23, 2019
hhhhmmmm... Questionable logistics, although I have also been guilty of similar manoeuvres
+2
Level 80
Oct 29, 2014
Could we have some alternate spellings for Bloemfontein?
+11
Level 28
Dec 6, 2014
or you could just spell it correctly?
+2
Level 57
Dec 27, 2016
The problem with society these days, looking for alternate spellings - exactly why one of my favorite quizzers here is Malbaly. Try his hardest capitals...
+1
Level 41
Nov 21, 2022
The problem with society these days, seems to have gone beyond looking for alternate spellings. Though I will agree all of societies problems do have their roots in looking for alternate spellings.
+1
Level 17
Mar 29, 2015
On my last one, Kapala, I typed in Kampal and then the quiz ended! XD
+5
Level 69
Apr 11, 2020
I'm sorry, but there is no place called Kapala in Africa that I've heard of...
+4
Level 59
Jan 1, 2021
It’s quite obvious that he meant Kampala
+1
Level 64
Sep 30, 2021
r/woooshandalsoidonthaveredditbutidontcare
+1
Level 2
Jun 8, 2015
1.20 to spare yeah!
+1
Level 71
Oct 10, 2015
Good quiz - if you think you know African Capitals try my 'Mal's African Closest Capitals Hopscotch' quiz,,,,,,, very tricky.
+1
Level 57
Oct 24, 2015
Without Cotonou I would've had them all.
+1
Level 66
Oct 25, 2015
My best was with 04:02 left, but I'm too lazy to improve it.
+2
Level 66
Oct 25, 2015
Well, I was lying, 04:04 left.
+1
Level 60
Apr 27, 2016
You should accept Lobamba for the capital of Swaziland. Great quiz!
+2
Level 65
Oct 22, 2016
You should add Lombamba for Swaziland too in addition to Mbabane. It's kind of seat of the Royal House, I guess.
+1
Level 57
Dec 27, 2016
2:09 to spare - beat that

(I say as someone beats me)

+1
Level 54
Jul 26, 2017
I knew Lilongwe because i've been to Malawi but that was pretty much it
+4
Level 71
Sep 16, 2017
I can always remember Lilongwe because it is a 'little - long' country on the map.
+4
Level 67
Nov 10, 2017
When you call Cotonou de 'de facto' capital of Benin, you should consequently call Dar es Salaam the 'de facto' captal of Tanzania.
+6
Level 46
Dec 19, 2017
Yup, look up "de facto capital of Tanzania" and you will get: "Dodoma is the official and legislative capital of Tanzania, while Dar es Salaam is the de facto seat of government." from a site asking what Tanzania's capital is, while if you look up "de facto capital of Benin" you will get: "Although the capital is located at Porto-Novo, Cotonou is still the nation's economic and population centre. It also attracts many government institutions and embassies, regardless of Porto-Novo's status, leading to the city being referred as Benin's de-facto capital." from a cotonou travel site. There is an even stronger case for including Dar Es Salaam than Cotonou.
+1
Level 46
Dec 19, 2017
however, if you use Wikipedia solely, Cotonou is mentioned upfront, but you have to scroll further down to find Dar Es Salaam.
+1
Level 72
Nov 18, 2017
Knew all of them, besides Cotonou, but didnt know how to type Alger or Khartum in English :D
+1
Level 41
Nov 28, 2017
Got everything correct but going wrong with the spelling of yamoussoukro and ouagadougou
+1
Level 46
Dec 21, 2017
You must have been to Benin..?
+2
Level 36
Feb 18, 2018
Why are places like Dar es Salaam and Abidjan not included?
+1
Level 57
Feb 18, 2018
Would Port Luis count for Mauritius (english name)
+5
Level 59
Jan 17, 2019
I doubt it. It's is not Luis is either French or English (the two main languages of the country).
+2
Level 66
Feb 18, 2018
Apparently I need to drill my capitals again; in case I am ever in a survival situation, on a game show, or trying to get a tinder date.
+12
Level 55
Feb 18, 2018
There's only one capital in Africa and it's "A".
+1
Level 58
Feb 19, 2018
please more type ins for Bloemfontein (Bloemfontaine, Bloemfontain, etc)
+2
Level 65
Feb 25, 2020
Just remember it is an Afrikaans word, which comes from Dutch. So it would not end in an English (fountain) or French (fontaine) way/word.
+1
Level 39
Mar 3, 2018
I am getting there. This is so much fun. I have to master about three. Ivory Coast is very difficult.
+1
Level 44
Mar 29, 2018
I always struggle to remember that Freetown is the capital city of Sierra Leone and not Liberia's . In my mother tongue the word for Freedom resembles 'Liberia', so I keep associating Liberia and Freetown.
+2
Level 67
Apr 9, 2018
I used to make the same mistake for the same reason. If it helps, Liberia was founded by American slaves who were returned to Africa (either to give them the best chance at freedom or to remove them from American society, depending on which view you take), and the capital, Monrovia, is named after American president James Monroe. So I remember that Liberia is where the liberated American slaves went. Obviously, Freetown would still fit, but...if you remember they were American slaves, you can remember Monroe.
+1
Level 44
Apr 29, 2018
Thanks for the tips !
+1
Level 25
Mar 16, 2023
oh my god, i literally use J Monroe to remember the name of Liberia's capital just to make the association from liberia > the "land of freedom" (the usa) > monroe + fancy ending "via". i had no idea it was an actual correlation, that's very cool!!
+1
Level 35
Aug 27, 2020
I do the same!
+3
Level 46
Jun 13, 2018
I think you should just include a picture of the continent
+1
Level 46
Jun 13, 2018
well instead of south africa, it doesn't swallow up the whole continent and there are many other countries in there that are just as popular and interesting than South Africa... just saying I don't really hate South Africa
+2
Level 77
Jan 1, 2019
Well, congratulations to a certain country for changing its capital with the new year!
+1
Level 61
Jan 1, 2019
Yeah! Big news!
+1
Level 70
Jan 1, 2019
I did not know that! More big news are possibly gonna follow. The Papua New Guinean island of Bougainville is going to hold an independence referendum on June 15!
+9
Level 60
Jan 1, 2019
I spent way too much time trying a bunch of spelling variations of “Bujumbura” until deciding that that was probably the changed capital that had caused the quiz to be reset :/
+3
Level 75
Jan 3, 2019
Dammit, Burundi, I only just finished learning Africa's capitals a few months back!
+1
Level 75
Jan 10, 2019
Waah! I'd only just learnt Bujumbura from the 'Same Letter Country and Capital' quiz - that one now needs updating for consistency (and my sanity).
+1
Level ∞
Jan 10, 2019
That quiz has now been updated. Thanks!
+5
Level 75
Jan 5, 2019
Since you’re offering separate answers for Benin and South Africa’s capitals, please note that Eswatini also has two capitals - Mbabane (executive) and Lobamba (legislative, where parliament is located).
+1
Level 71
Jan 9, 2019
nooooo, I don't want to learn a new one! :-)
+2
Level 82
Jan 13, 2019
There are plenty of countries like this - Netherlands, Georgia for example
+1
Level 65
Jun 27, 2019
The netherlands only has one capital..
+4
Level 82
Nov 12, 2019
Of course, officially. I meant if we start listing de facto capitals, it opens a can of worms. Georgia has the government in Tbilisi, parliament in Kutaisi and constitutional court in Batumi, Dutch government is in The Hague, German constitutional and supreme courts are in Karlsruhe and a few ministries are apparently headquartered in Bonn etc etc.
+2
Level 47
Jan 5, 2019
I was trying Bujumbura for Burundi, considering that is the former capital, and I didn't know that they changed it to Gitega, so I spent about a minute trying various different spellings, until I had to look it up.
+4
Level 53
Jan 9, 2019
Nice Quiz! I always thought that Bujumbura is the capital of Burundi, guess I've been wrong. :/ Still 55/57
+3
Level 84
Jan 10, 2019
They changed it in December 2018
+2
Level 70
Feb 27, 2019
What?? No one told me! >:(
+3
Level 86
Jan 15, 2019
As long as you were updating Burundi's capital, why didn't you change Swaziland to Eswatini?
+1
Level 46
Jan 15, 2019
It's just an old quiz, it won't be easy for quizmaster to rename all the countries that have Swaziland in it, but people still call it Swaziland, it's not a big deal mate
+1
Level 59
Dec 24, 2021
Two years later and all featured quizzes in English containing Swaziland as an answer have been changed to Eswatini
+4
Level 73
Jan 15, 2019
Why is everything a horse-race? Knowledge is not about typing speed. 5 minutes is insufficient time to complete this quiz.
+1
Level 51
Jan 16, 2019
Tarabulus should be accepted for Libyia (Arabic name for Tripolis) too
+2
Level 59
Jan 17, 2019
The quiz is in English, Tarabulus is not used even as an alternative in English.
+1
Level 63
Mar 15, 2019
I really need to improve my knowledge of African capitals... Thank you for asking for all 3 South African capitals separately. That upped my answers dramatically. :D
+2
Level 47
Jun 8, 2019
I think the de-facto and official capitals of Benin should be the same term, and just have the definition as Porto-Novo/Cotonou.
+1
Level 72
Jul 16, 2019
I'd like to second those calling for Abidjan to be allowed/Cotonou disallowed. Wikipedia refers to Abidjan as a capital, while it only refers to Cotonou as an "economic capital", which seems a looser term.
+1
Level 57
Jan 27, 2021
The Wikipedia entry for the Ivory Coast says "Ivory Coast's political capital is Yamoussoukro, in the center of the country, while it's economic capital and largest city is the port city of Abidjan." So Wikipedia also classifies Abidjan as an economic capital. However if we're including Cotonou, then other economic capitals should be included for consistency, at least that's what I think.
+1
Level 38
Sep 30, 2019
Can't there be 2 capitals of Burundi (Bujumbura & Gitega) Official and de facto
+2
Level 33
Nov 12, 2019
I have completed all capitals apart from Africa... it's so long and so annoying compared to the other continents!
+1
Level 77
Nov 10, 2020
It took me about 20 tries but I finally got 100%
+1
Level 84
Dec 5, 2020
I got every single one of them except Accra, Juba, Victoria, Libreville, Gaborone, Yaoundé, N'Djamena, Porto-Novo, Asmara, Praia, Niamey, Bangui, Dodoma, Banjul, Port Louis, Moroni, Yamoussoukro, Nouakchott, Maseru, Malabo, Gitega, and Cotonou.

Man, I was sooo close to nearly getting a really high percentage of most of these.

+2
Level 56
Apr 22, 2022
So you didn't get every single one of them.
+1
Level 27
Jan 12, 2021
I'll never be able to type 'Oubougugadu" or whatever xD
+1
Level 53
Apr 3, 2021
I got to the end with a whole minute left, except I was missing Mali, convinced it was one of the six letter M capitals. Finally remembered Bamako with seconds left, was very close to failing this one. I will one day know the capitals of the world entirely fluently, but I have a way to go yet.
+1
Level 49
May 12, 2021
just because the seat of government isnt in the official capital it doesnt mean that the seat of government is also a de facto capital. the capital of the netherlands isnt den haag
+2
Level 44
Jan 25, 2022
Only one I missed was Benin's "de-facto" capital. Never knew it existed until today
+1
Level 42
Jan 25, 2022
to be honest as a historian and a geographer, African countries' capitals are the weirdest
+1
Level 26
May 4, 2022
Only missed Moroni, Comoros. For some reason, Its always so hard for me to memorize that city. I learn it, then when I actually try to remember it just doesn't come to my head, but the others do.
+1
Level 19
Jun 29, 2023
"Comoroni" is my rule of thumb!
+1
Level 28
Jul 18, 2022
NOOOOOOO! after tons of attempts, tons of learning how to spell Ouagadougou, I forgot Equatorial Guinea! Malabo... I still can try again!!!
+1
Level 28
Jul 18, 2022
YEEEESSSSS! I finally got them all, I don't want to do Europe next, It's so hard, So my last option is Asia since I completed all other Continents.
+1
Level 16
Nov 19, 2022
Finally got them all after like a week of learning. Some of these are really hard to spell
+2
Level 76
Nov 20, 2022
Any reason why Benin has two listed, but Tanzania does not?
+1
Level 19
Nov 23, 2022
I always spell it Yamoussoroko instead of Yamoussoukro. You have to spell it right for the answer, which i think is kind of stupid
+1
Level 75
Nov 28, 2022
If Benin is going to have its "de facto" capital listed, this site needs to start listing The Hague as the "de facto" capital of the Netherlands. I'm not sure why that bothers me so much, but it has an air of snide colonialism about it. As though the distinguished monarchy of the Netherlands is unassailably right about the location of its capital, but a young, post-colonial regime in Africa can't be trusted to tell us where its capital is.

Either you list all capitals as where the government literally is, or you list them all as where the country says its capital is.

+1
Level 43
Dec 22, 2022
I finally did it. Ive been practicing for awhile, today came in first try, first two rows but missed 7 on 3rd row. Refreshed and did it perfect. Then 2 tries I was able to get them all. So now ready for world test, which will be harder cause of the timer. I know rest the world pretty well, so hopefully have enough time to think about the Africa ones.

The volume of countries just makes this so hard. I actually forgot how bad struggled to learn the countries in first place, but its why I went and learned capital and flags of rest the world, and put off more Africa til now. The flags actually weren't that bad, I still struggled with a few but I can pass that test every time.

These Africa and Asia capitals been hardest thing so far. I know to master them need to do the map tests like I did rest the world.

+1
Level 48
Jan 21, 2023
Finally !!

This was the only thing stopping me from getting the world capitals

+1
Level 36
Jun 12, 2023
Missed Cotonou because I'm used in typing one of the capitals like in the world capital quiz
+1
Level 64
Jun 22, 2023
For some reason, Africa is the only continent I can never remember all the capital cities. I always miss roughly twenty something every time.
+1
Level 31
Aug 9, 2023
i got 51/57!! i forgot the capitals of eswatini and lesotho, also i keep forgetting that de facto capital of benin, i didn’t know that it really can be called a “capital”
+1
Level 60
Aug 20, 2023
i thought it was mbabne not mbabane
+1
Level 46
Oct 12, 2023
Why is this not part of the World Capitals badge?