Neighbours in Africa Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ghana

With an area of 238,537 square kilometres/92,099 square miles, Ghana is situated in western Africa and has a coastline on the Gulf of Guinea to its south. Its capital, Accra, is in the southeast of the country on this coastline.

Formed by the convergence of the Black and White Volta rivers in central Ghana, the river Volta runs southwards through the southeastern part of the country to the Gulf of Guinea. Between 1961 and 1965 the Akosombo Dam was built on this river, creating Lake Volta, which is one of the world's two largest artificial lakes.

Answer: Zimbabwe

A landlocked country in southeast Africa, Zimbabwe's full official name is the Republic of Zimbabwe. It has an area of 390,759 square kilometres/150,872 square miles and its capital city, Harare, is in the northeast of the country.

The Zambezi River forms the border between Zimbabwe and its northern neighbour, Zambia, and on it are Lake Kariba and the Victoria Falls. The Falls is neither the highest nor the widest waterfall in the world but by the end of the rainy season in April the amount of water flowing over it increases enough to form the world's largest waterfall by volume.

Answer: Kenya

With an area of 582,646 square kilometres/224,960 square miles, Kenya is situated in eastern Africa with a coastline on the Indian Ocean to its south. Its capital, Nairobi, is in the central southern part of the country, the full name is the Republic of Kenya.

The country is crossed by the Equator and the Great Rift Valley runs through it from north to south. At 5,199 metres/17,058 feet, Mount Kenya, in the centre of the country, is the second highest peak in Africa. (Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is the highest at 5,895 metres/19,342 feet).

Answer: Liberia

Liberia, whose full title is the Republic of Liberia, is a country with an area of 111,370 square kilometres/42,999 square miles in western Africa. The Atlantic Ocean is to its west and south and its capital, Monrovia, is situated on the western coast.

Liberia is unique in Africa in being settled by African-Americans, although their descendants comprise only a minority of the population. In July 1847 Liberia was the first African country to become an independent republic. It was also the first country in Africa to gain a female head of state when Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was elected as its president in November 2005.

Answer: Sudan

As the number of its neighbours may suggest, Sudan, or the Republic of the Sudan, is one of the largest countries in Africa, with only Algeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo having greater areas. Sudan's area is 1,886,068 square kilometres/728,215 square miles, making it the sixteenth largest country in the world. Lying in northeast Africa, it has a coastline on the Red Sea to its east and Khartoum, its capital, lies in the central part of the country.

The Blue Nile and the White Nile both enter Sudan from the south then flow northwards through the country.

They converge near Khartoum to form the Nile, the world's longest river, which then continues to flow northwards through the rest of Sudan.

Answer: Angola

Angola, whose full official title is the Republic of Angola, is situated in southern west Africa and has a long coastline on the South Atlantic Ocean to its west. Its capital, Luanda, is on this coastline in the northwest of the country, which has an overall area of 1,246,700 square kilometres/481,351 square miles.

The country's northernmost province, Cabinda, is separated from the rest of Angola by the southwestern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which borders Cabinda to the south and east. The Republic of the Congo is to its north and, like the main part of Angola, Cabinda has a coastline on the Atlantic.

Answer: True

Guinea is in western Africa with a coastline on the North Atlantic Ocean to its west and the capital, Conakry, is situated on this coastline. The country's full official name is the Republic of Guinea and it has an overall area of 245,857 square kilometres/94,925 square miles.

Africa's third longest river, the Niger, has its source in the southern highlands of Guinea and the river then flows northeastwards through the rest of the country until it enters Mali.

Answer: Libya

Libya is in northeast Africa with its capital, Tripoli, in the north of the country on its coastline on the Mediterranean Sea. Libya's full title is the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. (Jamahiriya translates into English as "state of the masses" and refers to the fact that it is governed by a number of people's committees.)

The country is the fourth largest in Africa with an area of 1,759,540 square kilometres/679,358 square miles. However, more than 90 per cent of Libya's area is either desert or semi-desert and the world's highest temperature of 58 degrees Celsius/136.4 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded in the town of Al'Aziziyah on September 13th, 1922.

Answer: Lesotho

The landlocked country of Lesotho is entirely surrounded by South Africa. As this suggests, it is one of the smaller countries in Africa with an area of only 30,355 square kilometres/11,720 square miles. Its official title is the Kingdom of Lesotho and its capital, Maseru, is in the central western part of the country.

Lesotho is very mountainous with the Drakensberg mountain range in the east and the Maluti mountains, a spur of the Drakensberg, covering much of its central area. Even the country's western 'lowlands' are more than 1,400 metres/4,593 feet above sea level.

Answer: False

Benin shares a border with Nigeria but Cameroon is the country that is bordered by all the other countries in the question.

Situated in western Africa, Cameroon has an area of 475,440 square kilometres/183,567 square miles and its full name is the Republic of Cameroon. The capital city, Yaounde, is in the southern part of central Cameroon and the country has a coastline on the Bight of Biafra to its west.

Situated on the coast in southwestern Cameroon is the country's highest mountain, Mount Cameroon. At over 4,070 metres/13,353 feet tall it is the highest peak in sub-Saharan western and central Africa and it is also one of Africa's largest active volcanoes.