Angola(capital: Luanda)Capital: Luanda. The seventh-largest country in Africa. Its province of Cabinda is an exclave up the coast, between the two Congos. The UN files Angola under Middle Africa; wider lists of southern Africa include it.
Other 8
Cameroon(capital: Yaoundé)Capital: Yaoundé. Its coast is on the Bight of Biafra. Its people speak about 250 native languages.
Central African Republic(capital: Bangui)Capital: Bangui. Six neighbors and no coast. Under France it was the colony of Ubangi-Shari.
Chad(capital: N'Djamena)Capital: N'Djamena. The fifth-largest country in Africa. The largest landlocked one, at about 1.3 million square kilometers.
Democratic Republic of the Congo(capital: Kinshasa)Capital: Kinshasa. Africa's second-largest country. The most populous French-speaking country in the world. Formerly named Zaire.
Equatorial Guinea(capital: Ciudad de la Paz)Capital: Ciudad de la Paz, on the mainland, since January 2026. Older lists give Malabo, on the island of Bioko. Africa's only Spanish-speaking country.
Gabon(capital: Libreville)Capital: Libreville. Officially the Gabonese Republic, about 270,000 square kilometers. Port-Gentil and Franceville are its other main cities.
Republic of the Congo(capital: Brazzaville)Capital: Brazzaville. Often called Congo-Brazzaville, to tell it from its larger neighbor. It lies to the west of the Congo River.
São Tomé and Príncipe(capital: São Tomé)Capital: São Tomé. The second-smallest African state, after Seychelles. Nobody lived on the islands until Portuguese explorers reached them.
How this list was compiled: The 54 countries are the African member states of the United Nations: 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: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equatorial_Guinea, checked 2026-09-19. The wider list of southern Africa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Africa, checked 2026-09-19. Sudan filed under Northern Africa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-Saharan_Africa, checked 2026-09-19. 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; the two "largest shape" hints were checked against the areas of the drawn shapes. The former names of the capital of Equatorial Guinea that are accepted (Oyala, Djibloho, La Paz): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciudad_de_la_Paz, checked 2026-09-19. The name Swaziland until April 2018: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eswatini, checked 2026-09-19. The three capitals of South Africa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa, checked 2026-09-19. The second and later sentences of each detail line were read on 2026-09-19 in the lead of that country's article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ followed by the country's name as the quiz labels it (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_(country) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland for those two); no detail line names a flagged shape or describes a border that is contested. 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
Nine countries, Chad down to Angola, make up this Central Africa map quiz, on a blank map zoomed to the middle of the continent. Find it names a country to tap. Name it lights one up, then asks its capital.
Read the full guide
Which nine countries are on the list
The list is the United Nations region Middle Africa: Angola, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, and São Tomé and Príncipe. The bloc ECCAS also counts Burundi, and Rwanda announced its withdrawal from it in June 2025. The UN files both under Eastern Africa, so check your class list.
Two rings, one detached piece, then the capital
Equatorial Guinea and São Tomé and Príncipe are too small to tap, so each has a ring. Angola is drawn in two pieces. The small one up the coast is Cabinda, cut off by a strip of DR Congo. Either piece counts. In Name it, a question scores only when country and capital are both right.
Four touch the equator: São Tomé and Príncipe, Gabon and both Congos. Equatorial Guinea, despite its name, does not.
Only two have no coast: Chad, the big one under Libya, and the Central African Republic directly south of it.
Down the Atlantic coast: Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville, Cabinda, a sliver of DR Congo, then the rest of Angola.
Questions and answers
Is Central Africa the same as Middle Africa?
On this page, yes. Middle Africa is the United Nations label, and Central Africa is what most classrooms and atlases say. Both mean the same nine countries here. If your teacher's list adds Burundi or Rwanda, practice those two on the full map of Africa.
Which Congo is which on the map?
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, the giant in the middle, the second-largest country in Africa, called Zaire from 1971 to 1997. The Republic of the Congo is the narrower country to its west. DRC, DR Congo and Congo-Brazzaville are accepted when typing.
What is the capital of Equatorial Guinea now?
Ciudad de la Paz, a planned city on the mainland, since January 2026. Before that it was Malabo, on the island of Bioko, which older atlases still print. Name it wants Ciudad de la Paz and also accepts Oyala, Djibloho or La Paz.
Does this quiz ask the capitals of Central Africa too?
In Name it, yes. After you name the lit country, the quiz asks its capital, and the question scores when both are right. Find it asks the nine countries alone. Study lists every country with its capital, so open it first.