BurundiCapital: Gitega, the political capital since 2019. Bujumbura, the largest city, is the economic capital, and both are accepted. Landlocked, with three neighbors. Independent from Belgium since 1 July 1962, the same day as Rwanda.
ComorosCapital: Moroni. One of the four smallest countries in Africa. All four are islands. Independent from France since 1975.
DjiboutiCapital: Djibouti, a city with the same name as the country. Independent from France since 1977.
EritreaCapital: Asmara. Its independence left Ethiopia without a coast. Ethiopia is the large neighbor to the south.
EthiopiaCapital: Addis Ababa. The most populous landlocked country in the world.
KenyaCapital: Nairobi. Independent from the United Kingdom since 1963.
MadagascarCapital: Antananarivo. Africa's largest island country, about 588,000 square kilometers. Independent from France since 26 June 1960.
MalawiCapital: Lilongwe. Landlocked, with three neighbors. Called Nyasaland until it left British rule in 1964.
MauritiusCapital: Port Louis. An island country, a little over 2,000 square kilometers. Independent from the United Kingdom since 12 March 1968.
MozambiqueCapital: Maputo. Sixteenth largest country in Africa, about 800,000 square kilometers.
RwandaCapital: Kigali. Landlocked, with four neighbors. Independent from Belgium since 1 July 1962.
SeychellesCapital: Victoria. The smallest country in Africa, about 450 square kilometers. That is why the map shows it as a dot.
SomaliaCapital: Mogadishu. Independent since 1 July 1960.
South SudanCapital: Juba. Landlocked, with six neighbors. It split from Sudan in 2011.
TanzaniaCapital: Dodoma. Dar es Salaam, the largest city, is the former capital. Tanganyika, the mainland, became independent from the United Kingdom in 1961 and later united with Zanzibar.
UgandaCapital: Kampala. Landlocked, with five neighbors. Independent from the United Kingdom since 9 October 1962.
ZambiaCapital: Lusaka. Landlocked, with eight neighbors. The most of any landlocked country in Africa. Called Northern Rhodesia until independence in 1964.
ZimbabweCapital: Harare. Landlocked, with four neighbors. Independent as Zimbabwe since 18 April 1980. The colony was called Southern Rhodesia.
Middle Africa 9
AngolaCapital: Luanda. Seventh largest country in Africa. The total includes the Cabinda exclave. Independent from Portugal since 1975.
CameroonCapital: Yaoundé. Independent since 1 January 1960. The first of the 17 colonies that became independent in that one year.
Central African RepublicCapital: Bangui. Landlocked, with six neighbors. Independent from France since 13 August 1960.
ChadCapital: N'Djamena. The largest landlocked country in Africa. The fifth largest overall. Independent from France since 1960.
Democratic Republic of the CongoCapital: Kinshasa. Second largest country in Africa, about 2.34 million square kilometers. Independent from Belgium since 30 June 1960.
Equatorial GuineaCapital: Ciudad de la Paz. It took over from Malabo in January 2026. Independent from Spain since 12 October 1968.
GabonCapital: Libreville. Independent from France since 17 August 1960. The last of four neighbors in French Equatorial Africa to become independent within one week.
Republic of the CongoCapital: Brazzaville. Independent from France since 15 August 1960. Congo-Brazzaville is accepted as a typed answer.
São Tomé and PríncipeCapital: São Tomé. Second smallest country in Africa, about 1,000 square kilometers.
Northern Africa 6
AlgeriaCapital: Algiers. The largest country in Africa, about 2.38 million square kilometers. Independent from France since 1962.
EgyptCapital: Cairo. Suez Canal: the usual line between Africa and Asia. So the Sinai Peninsula, its eastern corner, is counted as part of Asia.
LibyaCapital: Tripoli. Fourth largest country in Africa, about 1.76 million square kilometers. Independent since 24 December 1951.
MoroccoCapital: Rabat. Independent from France and Spain since 1956.
SudanCapital: Khartoum. Third largest country in Africa. The largest until South Sudan split off in 2011. The United Nations files it under Northern Africa.
TunisiaCapital: Tunis. Independent from France since 20 March 1956.
Southern Africa 5
BotswanaCapital: Gaborone. Landlocked, with four neighbors. Independent from the United Kingdom since 1966.
EswatiniCapitals: Mbabane (administrative) and Lobamba (royal and legislative). The smallest landlocked country in Africa. Independent from the United Kingdom since 1968.
LesothoCapital: Maseru. It has a single neighbor on every side. One of three such countries in the world. The other two, San Marino and Vatican City, are inside Italy.
NamibiaCapital: Windhoek. Fifteenth largest country in Africa, about 827,000 square kilometers.
South AfricaCapitals: Pretoria (executive), Cape Town (legislative) and Bloemfontein (judicial). Ninth largest country in Africa.
Western Africa 16
BeninCapital: Porto-Novo. The government sits in Cotonou, the largest city. Independent from France since 1 August 1960, at first under the name Dahomey.
Burkina FasoCapital: Ouagadougou. Landlocked, with six neighbors. Independent from France since 1960, at first under the name Upper Volta.
Cape VerdeCapital: Praia. An island country of about 4,000 square kilometers. Independent from Portugal since 1975. Cabo Verde is accepted as a typed answer.
GhanaCapital: Accra. Independent from the United Kingdom since 6 March 1957. The colony was called the Gold Coast.
GuineaCapital: Conakry. Independent from France since 1958. That was two years before the other colonies of French West Africa.
Guinea-BissauCapital: Bissau. Declared independence from Portugal on 24 September 1973.
Ivory CoastCapital: Yamoussoukro, the official capital. Abidjan, the largest city, is the working seat of government, and both are accepted. Independent from France since 7 August 1960. Côte d'Ivoire is accepted as a typed name.
LiberiaCapital: Monrovia. Declared independence on 26 July 1847. That was more than a century before its neighbors.
MaliCapital: Bamako. Landlocked, with seven neighbors. Independent from France since 1960, at first joined with Senegal in the Mali Federation.
MauritaniaCapital: Nouakchott. Eleventh largest country in Africa. A little over one million square kilometers. Independent from France since 28 November 1960.
NigerCapital: Niamey. Landlocked, with seven neighbors. Sixth largest country in Africa. Independent from France since 3 August 1960.
NigeriaCapital: Abuja. Independent from the United Kingdom since 1 October 1960.
SenegalCapital: Dakar. Independent from France in 1960. First inside the Mali Federation and on its own from 20 August.
Sierra LeoneCapital: Freetown. Independent from the United Kingdom since 27 April 1961.
The GambiaCapital: Banjul. The smallest country on the African mainland. Independent from the United Kingdom since 18 February 1965.
TogoCapital: Lomé. Independent from France since 27 April 1960.
How this list was compiled: The 54 countries are the African member states of the United Nations, read off the member list at https://www.un.org/en/about-us/member-states, checked 2026-09-19. The five regions and which country sits in which: United Nations Statistics Division, Standard country or area codes for statistical use (M49), https://unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/, checked 2026-09-19. Capitals: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependent_territories_in_Africa, checked 2026-09-19; Ciudad de la Paz as the capital of Equatorial Guinea since January 2026 and independence on 12 October 1968: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equatorial_Guinea, checked 2026-09-19. Areas and area ranks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African_countries_by_area, checked 2026-09-19. Landlocked countries, their neighbor counts, Lesotho as one of three countries inside a single neighbor, Ethiopia as the most populous landlocked country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landlocked_country, checked 2026-09-19. Dates of independence and colonial names: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decolonisation_of_Africa, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_national_independence and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_date_of_formation, checked 2026-09-19; the 17 colonies that became independent in 1960: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_of_Africa, checked 2026-09-19. Sinai counted with Asia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependent_territories_in_Asia, checked 2026-09-19. Sub-Saharan Africa is the M49 grouping of the same name: the 48 countries of Eastern, Middle, Southern and Western Africa, which leaves out the six of Northern Africa. Tanzania: Dodoma is the capital and Dar es Salaam the former capital and largest city (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanzania and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodoma, checked 2026-09-19); the Africa list above still prints the older wording. Ivory Coast, Benin and Burundi, the official capital and the second city: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_multiple_capitals, checked 2026-09-19; Abidjan and Bujumbura are accepted as typed capitals, Cotonou is not. Gitega as the political capital since 16 January 2019, and Bujumbura as the largest city and economic capital: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gitega and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burundi, checked 2026-09-19. Cotonou and Abidjan as largest cities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benin and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory_Coast, checked 2026-09-19. Where two sources gave different days for one event, only the year is stated. Two shapes of the drawing that the points file flags as disputed are not on this list and are never asked. Positions in the hints were read off the drawing. Hints and detail lines written for this site. Licence: own work
The drawing: Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_admin_0_countries_lakes (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_admin_0_countries_lakes.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection centred on 1°N 17°E. Outlines simplified; small islands are left out. One place is too small to draw at this scale and shown as a dot. Licence: public domain (Natural Earth terms of use: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/)
How it works
This Africa countries map quiz puts all 54 on one blank map, from Tunisia at the top to South Africa at the tip. Thirteen are too small to tap and carry a numbered ring, and the regions under Start from zoom the map.
Read the full guide
Which 54 countries are asked
The list is the 54 African members of the United Nations. Five sets under Start from split them as the UN statistics office does: Northern Africa (6), Western Africa (16), Middle Africa (9), Eastern Africa (18) and Southern Africa (5). A sixth, Sub-Saharan Africa (48), asks every country outside Northern Africa. As an Africa states quiz for class, one region a day covers the continent in a school week.
Rings for the 13 countries too small to tap
Each has a numbered ring: Burundi, Rwanda, Djibouti, Eswatini, Lesotho, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, The Gambia and five island states. On a phone, press a region first so the rings grow. Typed answers accept Swaziland for Eswatini and Cabo Verde for Cape Verde. Miss four, and Practise the 4 you missed repeats them.
Gulf of Guinea coast, west to east: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria. Togo and Benin are the thin strips.
Three Guineas: Guinea-Bissau is the small one on the Atlantic, Guinea curves around Sierra Leone, and Equatorial Guinea sits between Cameroon and Gabon.
Chad, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo and Gabon chain from the Sahara to the Atlantic. All became independent in August 1960.
Questions and answers
How many countries are in Africa?
Fifty-four are member states of the United Nations, and those 54 are what this page asks. Algeria is the largest, at about 2.38 million square kilometers, with the Democratic Republic of the Congo a close second. Sixteen have no coast and six are island states.
Why is Sudan under Northern Africa?
The regions under Start from follow the United Nations M49 list, which files Sudan with Egypt and Libya. South Sudan, which split off in 2011, sits under Eastern Africa with Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. That leaves five in Southern Africa: Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa.
Which countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa?
On the United Nations list, Sub-Saharan Africa is the four regions south of Northern Africa: Western, Middle, Eastern and Southern Africa, 48 countries in all. The set Sub-Saharan Africa (48) asks them together. Sudan is not among them.