Out of Africa Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lesotho

Basutoland initially came under the control of the British in January 1868, when the then Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Earl of Carnarvon, authorised the territory's annexation under the existing Colony of Natal. However, Natal's attempt to force the opening of Basutoland to European settlement led to it coming under the Cape Colony instead in 1871. This lasted until 1884 when, owing to the unpopularity of rule from the Cape, Basutoland became a colony in its own right. In this, although executive power was invested in the colony's governor, the actual internal governance was directed by the local tribal chiefs, under the Paramount Chief of the Basuto, giving it a high degree of autonomy.

Although there were attempts to transfer the administration of Basutoland to the Union of South Africa following its foundation in 1910, these were not successful, with Basutoland remaining as a crown colony. All attempts to revisit this prospect ended in 1948 following the introduction of apartheid in South Africa. Basutoland was given greater internal freedom from 1959 when it gained its first elected legislature, while in 1965 universal suffrage was enacted.

On 4 October 1966, Basutoland gained its independence, and was renamed as the Kingdom of Lesotho, with the then Paramount Chief, Moshoeshoe II, named as the country's King.

Answer: Botswana

From 1867 onwards, John Mackenzie, a Scottish missionary working in southern Africa, warned that the land held by the Tswana people was being encroached on by white Afrikaaner settlers from the Transvaal, and encouraged the British government to make the area a protectorate. In January 1885, the government decided to send troops into the area and, following the signing of treaties with a number of the local tribes, the Bechuanaland Protectorate was established two months later in March 1885.

Initially, the British government intended to turn over the administration of the protectorate to either South Africa or Rhodesia. However, objections from the Tswana led to this being reversed, with Bechuanaland governed directly by the British for its entire history.

During its history, there was an increasing degree of participation of local tribal leaders in the government of the protectorate, which saw the formation of a pair of advisory councils, one European and one African, in 1920; these were merged into a single council after the Second World War, with a consultative legislative council established in 1961. This became part of the transition of Bechuanaland towards independence; in 1965, the seat of government was moved from Mafeking in South Africa to Gaborone, while the first general election under universal suffrage was held. On 30 September 1966, Bechuanaland became the Republic of Botswana, with the Prime Minister, Sir Seretse Khama, elected as the new country's first President.

Answer: Benin

In 1872, France began the colonisation of the existing Kingdom of Dahomey, having had significant trading interests in the country for two decades. The French fought two wars against the native forces of Dahomey, with French victory in the Second Franco-Dahomean War in 1894 seeing Dahomey's independence ended and it becoming a French protectorate, renamed as the Colonie du Dahomey et dépendances (Colony of Dahomey and Dependencies). Ten years later, in 1904, French Dahomey was incorporated into the federation known as French West Africa, an administrative grouping of French territories in the west of the continent.

Following the Second World War, France began to give its overseas territories a greater degree of internal autonomy, and in 1946, Dahomey gained its own parliament, as well as representation in the French National Assembly. Under the conversion of France's empire into the "French Union", in 1958, the Republic of Dahomey was established as a self-governing entity; two years later, on 1 August 1960, Dahomey achieved full independence, with Prime Minister Hubert Maga serving as the country's first President. A decade and a half after independence, Dahomey was renamed as Benin as a politically neutral name intended to be acceptable to all of the country's ethnic groups.

Answer: Djibouti

Although French Somaliland was formally established in 1896, France had begun acquiring the territory from the local Issa and Afar peoples for thirty years prior to its official creation. The first acquisition came in 1862, when Obock was obtained through a treaty between France and the Afar; this was used to obtain the area south of the Bay of Tadjoura, subsequently made a protectorate.

Permanent French administration over the two areas was established in 1894 in the city of Djibouti, when Obock and the southern region were amalgamated into the Côte française des Somalis (French Coast of the Somalis), which became generally known as French Somaliland.

Following the Second World War, French Somaliland ceased to be a colony, and was instead incorporated as an overseas territory. In 1958, a referendum was held to determine whether the region should join with the rest of the Somali regions, which were administered by Italy and the United Kingdom, in an independent Somalia. The outcome of the referendum saw a decision to remain joined with France. A second referendum in 1967 reiterated this decision, with the territory renamed as the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas. However, a third plebiscite in 1977 saw a 99% majority in favour of the territory's independence. The newly independent state was named as the Republic of Djibouti, after its capital city, with Hassan Gouled Aptidon elected as its first President.

Answer: Ghana

The Gold Coast was initially established as an area under the control of the African Company of Merchants, which was primarily responsible for British trading in West Africa. In 1821, the British government withdrew the company's charter, and began seizing privately owned lands in the region, forming the Gold Coast colony.

As the 19th century continued, the British incorporated other European countries' territories into the colony, at the same time beginning the subjugation of inland areas controlled by the native Ashanti and Fante peoples. This saw three further territories incorporated - the Ashanti Colony, the Northern Territories and British Togoland, all of which were grouped collectively with the Gold Coast Colony under the overall name Gold Coast.

Following the Second World War, the Gold Coast began to gain much greater local autonomy to run its own affairs. In 1956, the four elements that made up the region were formally amalgamated into a single Gold Coast colony as a precursor to it gaining full independence in 1957 as the Dominion of Ghana, becoming the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence. Initially a Commonwealth Realm, with Elizabeth II serving as Queen of Ghana, in 1960 a constitutional referendum saw the country transition to a republic, with the Prime Minister, Kwame Nkrumah, elected as the country's first President.

Answer: Zambia

Northern Rhodesia was established in 1911 as a British Protectorate by the amalgamation of two other existing regions, Barotziland-North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia. As with neighbouring Southern Rhodesia, the protectorate was not administered directly by the British government, but instead by the commercial British South Africa Company (BSAC), which had responsibility for the governance of Northern Rhodesia on the government's behalf. In 1924, a settlement between the government and the BSAC led to the Colonial Office assuming direct responsibility for the protectorate.

Following the Second World War, in an effort to improve the prospects of both Northern and Southern Rhodesia, alongside neighbouring Nyasaland, the three were amalgamated into a single Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. However, at the time calls were increasing in many European owned possessions in Africa for majority rule, which saw the majority population in Northern Rhodesia look unfavourably on the Federation, with the result that it was dissolved in 1963.

On 24 October 1964, Northern Rhodesia was granted independence under the name Republic of Zambia, with Kenneth Kaunda, the Prime Minister, named as the country's first President.

Answer: Malawi

Nyasaland was originally established in 1889 as the British Central African Protectorate, in an attempt to forestall Portuguese claims to the region. Following negotiations with Portugal, which possessed the area known as Portuguese East Africa to the east of the British claimed area, and with Germany, which also possessed a major part of the region, the Protectorate was formally ratified in 1891. In 1907, the name of the Protectorate was changed to Nyasaland, after Lake Nyasa, the second largest freshwater lake in Africa.

After the Second World War, the United Kingdom decided to amalgamate Nyasaland into a federation with neighbouring Northern and Southern Rhodesia as the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, to improve the economic prospects of all three. However, when the federation was declared in 1953, there was already a move towards decolonisation in Africa, which was the primary cause of its dissolution a decade later.

Following the end of the federation, on 6 July 1964, Nyasaland was granted independence as the Dominion of Malawi, with Queen Elizabeth II serving as the country's monarch. Two years later, the country's new constitution proclaimed it as a republic, with the Prime Minister, Hastings Banda, named as the country's first President.

Answer: Zimbabwe

Rhodesia was originally established as an area known as Southern Rhodesia, named in honour of the the businessman and colonial administrator Cecil Rhodes, with the name coming into use from 1895 onwards. Until 1923, the governance and administration of both Northern and Southern Rhodesia was the responsibility of Rhodes's British South Africa Company, which had been formed initially to exploit the gold reserves that were expected to be located in the Mashonaland region. However, although these proved not to be as great as expected, the company increased both its land and mineral holdings throughout the area of Rhodesia, controlling them until a 1922 referendum in Southern Rhodesia led to the region being annexed as a colony of the United Kingdom the following year.

In 1953, Southern Rhodesia was amalgamated, along with neighbouring Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, into a single federation in an effort to improve the economic prospects of all three territories. However, ten years later, following the increasing efforts at decolonisation in Africa, it broke up, with both Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland gaining independence, and Southern Rhodesia taking the name Rhodesia.

Two years later, the white-dominated government made a Unilateral Declaration of Independence, that led to the unrecognised Republic of Rhodesia being declared. This saw a decade and a half of civil war that ultimately led to the British reassuming direct control and an agreement over full independence that led, on 18 April 1980, to the establishment of the Republic of Zimbabwe, with Canaan Banana named as the country's first President.

Answer: Central African Republic

Ubangi-Shari was formed in 1903 from two other French territories of the existing French Congo, Haut-Oubangui and Haut-Chari, following the French victory over the forces of the Khedive of Egypt, who had also claimed the area. Three years later, in 1906, the colony increased in size when more settlements, this time around Lake Chad, were incorporated into it. In 1910, Ubangi-Shari was folded into the wider administration of French Equatorial Africa, before being withdrawn again in 1916, and losing the Lake Chad areas in 1920. In 1934, it was once again folded into French Equatorial Africa, becoming a French overseas territory in 1937.

Following the end of the Second World War, moves began to secure autonomy and eventual independence for many French territories in Africa. Barthélemy Boganda, the first person from Ubangi-Shari to be elected to the French National Assembly, led the ultimate movement towards the region's independence when, in 1957, his group, MESAN, won every seat in the legislative election of the Ubangi-Shari Assembly. In 1958, he had declared the independence of what came to be termed the Central African Republic, although this was within the French Community, the collective grouping of French possessions, and thus still counted as part of France's overseas empire.

Following Boganda's death in 1959, his cousin, David Dacko, took control of MESAN and became Prime Minister. The following year, on 13 August 1960, the Central African Republic achieved full independence from France, with David Dacko named as the first President.

Answer: Burkina Faso

Upper Volta was originally formed in 1919, when areas of the French territories of Upper Senegal & Niger and Côte d'Ivoire occupied by the Mossi people were merged into a single new territory as part of French West Africa. However, this territory only remained in existence until 1932, when it was abolished and its parts distributed to other existing French territories. However, in 1937, a new administrative region called Upper Coast was incorporated; this featured much of the territory of Upper Volta, but did not have the status of a colony.

Following the Second World War, the Mossi renewed pressure on the French government to raise the Upper Coast to the status of a territory once again. Upper Volta was restablished as a territory of French West Africa in 1947. This was in prelude to the start of full autonomy for France's territories in Africa, as part of first the French Union, and then the French Community.

In 1958, Upper Volta was granted full internal autonomy within the French Community as the Republic of Upper Volta. Upper Volta achieved full independence on 5 August 1960, with Maurice Yaméogo appointed as the first President. In 1984, almost twenty-five years after Upper Volta's independence, Thomas Sankara, who had assumed the presidency following a 1983 coup d'etat, ordered the name of the country changed to Burkina Faso, a composite name featuring words from the Mossi and Dioula languages meaning "land of the honest men".