There are 54 countries in the continent of Africa. How many can you name?

[Edmond Dantès]

On Africa:

Africa is the second-largest and most populated continent after Asia. It covers around 6% of Earth's total surface, and it's the only continent that stretches across the four hemispheres. Considered the oldest mainland, it's widely believed to be the home of the first human. The continent is also home to the largest desert globally— the Sahara.

In terms of geography, Africa is divided into five major territories:

• North Africa
• East Africa
• Central Africa
• South Africa
• West Africa

Other African Territories:

In addition to 54 countries, Africa also includes 3 dependencies and one disputed territory. Two of the dependencies, Reunion and Mayotte, are controlled by France. Reunion is an island located just west of the small island country of Mauritius, and east of the large island country of Madagascar. It is the most populous of Africa's dependencies, containing approximately 895 thousand inhabitants. Mayotte is located in the Comoro Islands off the coast of Mozambique, and borders the country known as the Comoros. The least populous territory in Africa is the British-controlled dependency of St. Helena, which is located far off the coast of Middle Africa, practically in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. The aforementioned disputed territory is known as Western Sahara. It is located on the west coast of Northern Africa, between Morocco to the north and Mauritania to the south. The territory is now the scene of a long-running conflict between its local inhabitants, who want independence, and the country of Morocco, which claims the territory as its own.

Facts and figures:

Area: 30.3 million km²
Number of countries: 54
Biggest country by area: Algeria
Population as of 2021: 1.37 billion
Most populated country: Nigeria
Number of languages spoken: Over 2,000 languages across the continent
Largest peninsula: Horn of Africa, encompassing Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti
Highest mountain: Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania
Longest river: Nile River

List of countries:

Spoiler

Algeria
Angola
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cabo Verde
Cameroon
Central African Republic (CAR)
Chad
Comoros
Congo, Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Republic of the
Cote d'Ivoire
Djibouti
Egypt
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Eswatini
Ethiopia
Gabon
Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Kenya
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Madagascar
Malawi
Mali
Mauritania
Mauritius
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria
Rwanda
Sao Tome and Principe
Senegal
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Somalia
South Africa
South Sudan
Sudan
Tanzania
Togo
Tunisia
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe

How many can you name? Have you ever visited any countries in Africa or would like to? Are you from Africa?

 

[ResetGreyWolf]

I can name all of them, but I'm a geography nerd and a big time traveler. I've only visited the northern coast of Africa, though (and the canary islands, which do belong to a European country, but are geographically in the continent of Africa). Would love to visit Tanzania or Kenya some day.

There is this really neat app called World Map Quiz. It's very simple, but a very good way of learning the names and locations of every country in the world. Highly recommended! It's fun.

 

[Kain-Nosgoth]

Probably like 60% of them from memory? But if you tell the name of any of them to me, i'll know them, i won't be like "never heard of that one"

 

[Napalm_Frank]

Confident I could name ~15 no problem. After that I probably would have to start actually thinking hard.

Never been.

 

[Anjoys]

All of them, was born in Zimbabwe, and grow up in Zim and SA.

 

[HandsomeCharles]

Lets give it a go:

Spoiler: 14

* Namibia
* Niger
* Chad
* Sudan
* Zimbabwe
* South Africa
* Egypt
* Ethiopia
* Eritrea
* Nigeria
* Rwanda
* Ivory Coast
* Democratic Republic of Kongo
* Kenya

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Probably comparable to my knowledge of other continents Visited the first one as a child

 

[Jubilant Duck]

Huh I always forget Mauritius is considered part of Africa rather than just a continent-less couple of islands in the middle of the indian ocean. Doesn't help that its neighbour, Reunion, is considered part of France due to colonialism.

Continents are weird, man.

 

[Kormora]

These are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. And I thought I was fairly well versed in geography and I came up under half.

Spoiler: 25

Egypt
Libya
Tunisia
Morocco
South Africa
Eswatini
Kenya
Algeria
Somalia
Cape Verde
Namibia
Congo
Sudan
Ivory Coast
Madagascar
Ethiopia
Eritrea
Nigeria
Niger
Chad
Benin
Burkina Faso
Zimbabwe
Tanzania
Liberia

 

[L176]

I can pretty confidentially say that I can name all of them. I might misplace some of the West African countries but I can name them still.

 

[KeyBladerXIII]

Just took a quiz, I was able to name 30 of them. Not from Africa and Ive never been to Africa, Im too poor to travel.

 

[Menchin]

I can name a lot of them but if you put an unmarked map of the continent in front of me I'd have no idea which borders correspond to which country

 

[tiebreaker]

i know several from AFCON...

I'm familiar with most of them, but if you tell me to recite all of them, I can probably only do 20 at best.

 

[VegiHam]

I remember the countries of the world song, but I'm not sure which of them still exist and where they all are

 

[Idde]

Just name? My guess is about forty, perhaps forty five. Played quite a bit of Sporcle back in the day. Putting them on the absolute correct place on the map? Far fewer probably.

Spoiler

1. Morocco
2. Tunisia
3. Niger
4. Nigeria
5. Congo-Kinshasa
6. Congo-Brazzaville
7. Algeria
8. Benin
9. Togo
10. Madagascar
11. Egypt
12. Libya
13. Eritrea
14. Central African Republic
15. Sierra Leone
16. Ghana
17. Ivory Coast
18. Botswana
19. Burkina Faso
20. Sao Tomé en Principe
21. Mauritius
22. Mauritania
23. Chad
24. Senegal
25. Somalia
26. Kenya
27. Ethiopia
28. Zimbabwe
29. Mozambique
30. Tanzania
31. Guinea
32. Guinea Bissau
33. Equatorial Guinea
34. South Africa
35. Lesotho
36. The Seychelles
37. Mali
38. eSwatini
39. Namibia
40. Rwanda
41. Uganda
42. Sudan
43. South Sudan.

43 in the end. So yeah, somewhere around 40-45. Had to look up what Swaziland's new name was, cause I knew that changed a couple of years ago, but couldn't remember into what exactly.

 

[Kazooie]

Spoiler

Libya
Zimbabwe
Ghana
Uganda
Niger
Somalia
South Africa
Kamerun
Ethiopia
Egypt
Burkina Faso
Senegal
Sudan
Madagascar
Kongo
Ruanda
Angola
Togo

So 18; for most of those countries I only have very limited knowledge outside of their name. I also could not say for any of those outside of South Africa (going by name, not entirely sure it is accurate though!) if they are in the west, east, south or north. However, my geography knowledge is very low anyway. I can probably identify Europe, Asia and America on a world map and place correctly Germany, Italy and Austria. Since I know the US are in North America I would have a very basic idea of where that would be. I would probably not be able to differentiate it from Canada though.

 

[Time]

Without looking at a map, I was able to list 45 of them. If I used a unlabelled map as a reminder I would probably name them all.

I have only been to Morocco and Tunisia.

 

[RocknRola]

I can do well in Northen and Southern Africa. Central Africa I start getting lost on which country is which.

 

[Brazil]

Missed 5, but it feels hollow because I know almost nothing of what's been going on in the continent beyond the Somaliland kerfuffle.

 

[Theorry]

If i am honest probably 30%.
You probably gonna forget countries like Sao Tome and Principe, Eswatini, Lesotho etc

 

[Tomasoares]

I will say the names in portuguese because it will get much more harder in english lol

Spoiler

Marrocos
Egito
Argélia
Angola
Botswana
África Do sul
Madagascar
Congo
Niger
Nigéria
Cabo-verde
Guiné-bissau
Etiópia
Somália
Rwanda
Sudão do Sul
Libéria
Camarões
Zimbabué

19 lol A lot that I don't remember from my mind :/

Africa is big and diverse as fuck, it's always weird when it is refered as "one place", especially in films "I'm from africa", what?

 

[Coop]

All of them

 

[MisterSnrub]

Gonna try and go from the north east down, let's see how i cope;

1) Egypt
2) Algeria
3) Morocco
4) Libya
5) Sudan
6) Mauritania
7) That ambiguous bit on the west coast of the Sahara that may/may not be properly claimed land
8) Mali
9) Nigeria
10) Ghana
11) Niger
12) Sierra Leone
13) Chad
14) Ethiopia
15) Ivory Coast
16) Gambia
17) Democratic Republic of Congo
18) Burkina Faso
19) Botswana
20) Rwanda
21) Kenya
22) Liberia
23) Uganda
24) Central African Republic
25) Zambia
26) Zimbabwe
27) Namibia
28) South Africa
29) Madagascar
30) Angola
31) Gambia
32) Namibia
33) Mozambique
34) Tanzania
35) Somalia
36) Eritrea

Couldn't really keep on top of the 'top-down' approach about halfway in then it becomes a bit random, I'm absolutely stumped trying to think of what I missed as well

 

[Azem]

32/54 according to Sporcle, but I've heard of almost all of them and I couldn't recall some that I really should have been able to. The only ones I'm actually not familiar with are Comoros, Cabo Verde and while I've heard of São Tomé and Príncipe, I can tell you for a fact that I wouldn't have remembered it in a million years. Now I'm just angrily shaking my fist at all the ones I ought to have recalled, like "Sierra Leone! Burkina Faso! ZIMBABWEEEEE!"

edit: hello i have realised that cabo verde is cape verde, which is a name familiar to me, thank you for your patience

Spoiler: My successes and my failures, presented for all to see

 

[Rhomega]

It was around 2016 I read an article in which people were asked to pinpoint countries that were in the news like Afghanistan and Iran. A bonus question was to identify as many countries in Africa as you can, and most people could only name one or two. So I decided to learn all of them. I quickly found Sporcle and its Countries of the World quiz, and later the YouTube channel Geography Now.

I've also seen movies from Uganda, Cote D'Ivoire, Mali, and Algeria (co-production).

 

[ConflictResolver]

I got 33/54

It's annoying, I know nearly all of them but many of them just didn't come to my mind during the time pressure of the quiz.

The only two that I am completely blank on while I look at my results:
* Guinea-Bissau
*São Tomé and Príncipe

I can name all of them, but I'm a geography nerd and a big time traveler.

Click to shrink...

I read this as you being big into history at first lol.

 

[Ostron]

Never been. Could name 37. I have friends in Benin, Gambia and Senegal and they all sound like lovely places to visit disregarding current politics.

 

[Risitas]

I can name them all because : I'm African, I grew up around people from all over Africa, I watch the AFCON/CAN every time, I learned the history of the continent at school (especially the 20th century part), I play FIFA Ultimate Team (it helps a lot)

 

[Addi]

Just tried of the top of my head and stopped at 35, was starting to draw a blank. Checked the map an forgot some really obvious ones. I should be able to name most of them.

European, never been to Africa. Don't know if I'll ever travel there, but seeing a desert is on my bucket list.

 

[Never the Lesser]

Spoiler

1. Morocco
2. Algeria
3. Tunisia
4. Libya
5. Egypt
6. Senegal
7. Gambia
8. Mali
9. Mauritania
10. Central African Republic
11. Chad
12. Sudan
13. South Sudan
14. Côte d'Ivoire
15. Gabon
16. Liberia
17. Sierra Leone
18. Togo
19. Benin
20. Ghana
21. Niger
22. Nigeria
23. Democratic Republic of the Congo
24. Cameroon
25. Ethiopia
26. Eritrea
27. Somalia
28. Kenya
29. Uganda
30. Malawi
31. Mauritius
32. Seychelles
33. South Africa
34. Lesotho
35. Tanzania
36. Madagascar
37. Angola
38. Eswatini
39. Zambia
40. Zimbabwe
41. Namibia

41 out of 54. Never been.

 

[Daphne]

I tried Sporcle and got them all but I did learn that Swaziland is now officially Eswatini which I somehow missed despite it happening 6 years ago.

 

[Adventureracing]

I actually forgot it was that many. I've really let my geography slip so I probably couldn't name that many.

 

[Chimpzy]

I got 37 out of 54. Not bad, I guess. I've visited Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.

 

[StopMakingSense]

That's an easy 100% for me, but I went on a hard geography sporcle phase during Covid and hard focused it when dealing with bad brain fog for months. Can 100% nearly every world country still, minus needing a little refresher on some of Oceana.

 

[Shadybiz]

About 20 years ago, I could name all of them. I had to memorize the African countries and their locations for "Cultural Geography" in college.

Nowadays....I could not name all of them. Memory is not as good as it used to be.

 

[Hollywood Duo]

What is the international community's official position on the area of Western Sahara? I know most of them but I always get a little hazy where the Africa/asia border is

 

[Judau]

I recognize the names of about 20 of them, but I would have guessed about 10-12 of them because I thought the rest were either names of cities or places that weren't in Africa.

 

[Nintenleo]

I'll try, using italian names

Spoiler

Egitto
Marocco
Algeria
Tunisia
Nigeria
Niger
Gambia
Sud Africa
Libia
Kenya
Zimbabwe
Senegal
Repubblica democratica del Congo
Congo
Angola
Zambia
Madagascar
Etiopia
Burkina Faso
Costa d'Avorio

 

[julia crawford]

My god. I couldn't think of 15 city names in my own country. I just don't understand how people can recall country names like this.

 

[404LinkNotFound]

Spoiler: List i can remember

1. Bostswana
2. Central African Republic
3. south africa
4. namibia
5. lesotho
6. estwatini
7. Angola
8. Nigeria
9. Niger
10. Egypt
11. libya
12. Mauritius
13. seychelles
14. madagascar
15. Comoros
16. Ghana
17. equitorial Guinea
18. Guinea-bisseau
19. Guinea
20. Sudan
21. south sudan
22. Tunisia
23. Morroco
24. Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (i know not recognised by everyone)
25. Somalia
26. Algeria
27. Cote d'ivore
28. Togo
29. ethiopia
30. etriea
31. Tanzania
32. Mali
33. Chad
34. Bakino Faso
35. Kenya
36. Rwanda
37. Senegal
38. The Gambia
39. Uganda
40. Republic of the Congo
41. Democratic republic of the congo
42. Benin
43. Cameroon
44. Liberia

i can list 43 if the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic isnt counted, 44 if it is

Never visited Africa

My god. I couldn't think of 15 city names in my own country. I just don't understand how people can recall country names like this.

Click to shrink...

Be a geography or history nerd :p


For a couple of years i used to mix up Algeria, Albania and Armenia lol

 

[Sotha_Sil]

I got 36 on sporcle. Never been to any.

 

[Good4Squat]

Only 21 in 10 minutes. Was pretty embarrassed about some that I forgot.

 

[bremon]

Only hit two dozen or so. Never been, likely never will. I probably know the ones I do know because of night shifts at work where Africa Link would be on CBC towards the end of the shift. Eventually started listening to that as a podcast, which was the same way I got into BBC "global news podcast"; by CBC licensing them for what I can only assume is less than they could make their own content for.

 

[NekoNeko]

all of them but i do the sporcle quiz every once in a while.
the more interesting question is how many do i know concrete stuff about which is like 15-20.

only visited Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia.

 

[Skiptastic]

I can name all of them, but I'm a geography nerd and a big time traveler.

Click to shrink...

Are you supposed to give away your ability to travel through the ages?

I read this as you being big into history at first lol.

Click to shrink...

Glad I'm not the only one who had to do a double take lol

 

[Teddy]

30/56 on sporcle. Missed a couple big ones like Cameroon and Ghana, most of the others were the smaller countries I couldn't remember the name of.

 

[Briareos]

I live in the US but have been to Morocco in the 90s and then spent a bunch of time planning a literary conference in Asmara that never came to be (border skirmishes with Ethiopia flared up). We have a decent Horn and Congolese ex-pat community here in southern Maine as well (Catholic Charities helping them emigrate) so have that experience and familiarity. My non-profit owns a farm we lease to New Americans from those regions to learn how to farm, get lots of fun weird eggplants, amaranth, etc., that they grow.

Would love to go back, specifically I want to go to Tunisia and tour old Carthage sometime in the next few years. If anyone here is in that area would love to hear from you.

My friend's brother in law runs a firm out of Nairobi as well so we've hosted some programmers here from Kenya. I'd love for my company to open an office in Africa some day, harvest all that young talent growing up there. Not a lot of hardcore systems programming happening though.

Random old photo from my Morocco trip, I think this was in Essaouira:

 

[AndyVirus]

48/54 on Sporcle. Football (soccer) helps.

Spoiler: forgot

Burkino Faso
Burundi
Chad
Comoros
Sierra Leone
Togo

You ask me again next week it'd be a different 6.

 

[fade]

AFCON lit right now

 

[Kangi]

All of them, more or less. Insofar as I can name every country and can just name them in the process, but if pressed to name just Africa's I'm liable to forget which island nations are next to which landmass. Sorry, Mauritius

 

[AlgusUnderdunk]

Hrm...

South Africa, Mozambique, Niger, Ethiopia, Egypt, Morocco, Namibia, The People's Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Mali, Kenya, Sudan, Botswana, Algeria, Tanzania, Somalia, Djibouti, ...another Congo but blanking on the full title..., Cameroon, Tunisia, Libya, Togo, Guinea, Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Liberia...

And I think that's all I can recall off the top. But still kinda pleased with my dusty old brains!