The Republic of Sierra Leone Trivia Quiz

Answer: Senegal

Sierra Leone is a small nation on the Atlantic Coast of West Africa. It has land borders with Guinea to the north and northeast and with Liberia to the south and southeast. Senegal is further north along the coast, but does not share a border with Sierra Leone.

Answer: Ireland

With an area of 27,133 square miles, Ireland is only slightly smaller than Sierra Leone. Of the alternatives, Denmark (at 16,639 square miles) is barely more than half the size of Sierra Leone. Belgium (11,787 sq miles) is even smaller and would fit comfortably twice inside Sierra Leone. By contrast, Greece (at 50,960 sq miles) is almost big enough to hold Sierra Leone twice over.

Answer: Tano River

The Mano River rises in Guinea and Liberia-Sierra Leone border before crossing the Kono and Kailahun District of Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone and Liberia formed the Mano River Union in 1973 to foster economic cooperation between the countries and it has since been joined by Guinea and Ivory Coast. The Great Scarcies River rises in Guinea where it is called the Kolenté River. It forms part of the border between Guinea and Sierra Leone before emptying into the Atlantic at Barlo Point. At 240 miles in length, the Rokel River is the longest in Sierra Leone. It rises in the Loma Mountains in eastern Sierra Leone and eventually joins the Sierra Leone River to form Freetown Harbor, the largest natural harbor on the African continent.

The odd one out is the Tano River, which is a 400km-long river in West Africa, but it flows through Ghana and eventually forms the Ghana-Ivory Coast border before entering the Atlantic.

Answer: Lowland Savannah

The Guinean mangrove swamps is a coastal eco-region that stretches along the coast of West Africa from Senegal to Sierra Leone. Most of central Sierra Leone is undulating hill country covered with tropical rain forest. The eastern extremes of the country are upland plateaus and high mountains. What Sierra Leone does not have is the sort of grassland savannah akin to those seen elsewhere on the continent in places such as Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa.

Answer: Sherbro Island

Located off the coast of the Bonthe district of Southern Province, Sherbro Island is 32 miles long and 15 miles wide - about 230 square miles. With more than 65 miles of beaches it is a prime tourist destination. A prime breeding ground for green and leatherback sea turtles, it is also popular with serious sports fishermen since the surrounding waters hold some of the biggest tarpon. Of the alternatives, Dublin Island is one of two inhabited islands in the Banana Islands which lie off the south coast of the Freetown Peninsular. Dublin Island is particularly renowned for its beaches. Bunce Island is located in the Sierra Leone River 20 miles upriver from Freetown. Only 1,650 feet by 350 feet, it was the site of an 18th-Century British slave castle. Tiwai Island, located in the Moi River in Southern Province, is a wildlife sanctuary and tourist destination covering about five square miles.

Answer: Mount Bintumani

At 6,391 feet, Mount Bintumani, which is also known as Loma Mansa, is Sierra Leone's highest point. Located in the Loma Mountains in the northeast of the country, the rain forests on its lower slopes are home to pygmy hippopotamuses, dwarf crocodiles and numerous primate species.

The alternatives are all the highest points in West African countries: Adrar des Iforas is the highest point in Mali, Mount Nimba is the highest point in The Ivory Coast, and Mount Agou is the highest in Togo.

Answer: Hausa

Temne is the native language of Sierra Leone's largest ethnic group, representing 35% of the population. Mende is Sierra Leone's other major ethnic group with 31% of the population speaking their language. Krio is a Creole variation that is the most widely-spoken language in Sierra Leone, with more than 97% of the population able to speak it. Krio is the primary language spoken by Sierra Leonese at home. The odd one out is Hausa, which is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken as a first language by around 35 million people in West Africa. One of the most widely-spoken languages throughout Africa, it is used widely in Niger, Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Sudan and Togo, but not in Sierra Leone.

Answer: Egyptian Fruit Bat

The Red Colobus Monkey is the most threatened primate species in Africa. They are an arboreal species and so they are particularly vulnerable to habitat loss due to logging, but they also have one other major problem -- they are the favorite food of chimpanzees. The Pygmy Hippopotamus is native to a small area of West Africa. mostly in Liberia with small populations in Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast. It is estimated that there are less than 3,000 remaining in the wild. The country's largest primate (other than man) is the Common Chimpanzee. Sierra Leone has about 2,000 Western Chimpanzees, the largest population anywhere other than neighboring Guinea.

Other endangered species found in Sierra Leone include Baer's Wood Mouse, the Diana Monkey and the African Wild Dog. Despite its name, the Egyptian Fruit Bat can be found in relatively large numbers throughout the whole of Africa except in the Sahara, and as far east as India and Pakistan. There are few environmental concerns about their future.

Answer: Ashanti

The alternatives are the three largest districts in Sierra Leone, all of them in Northern Province. Koinadugu in the extreme northeast is Sierra Leone's largest district -- at 4,680 square miles it is about the size of the Falkland Islands. Although it has almost 20% of the country's land area, it is home to less than 5% of the population, about 250,000 in the 2004 census. Its capital is Kabala. The Bombali District covers 3,083 sq miles (so just a little smaller than Cyprus) and is home to about 430,000 (2004 data). Its capital and largest city is Makeni. It is the birthplace of former President Joseph Saidu Momoh and of President Ernest Bai Koroma who was elected in 2007. Tonkolili District is the country's third largest, covering 2,700 sq miles which is just slightly larger than the US state of Delaware. Here is the country's major Leprosy Hospital.

The odd one out is the Ashanti Region, which is the primary gold-producing area of nearby Ghana.

Answer: Stars

The Sierra Leone football team plays under the competitively unimaginative name of the Leone Stars. They achieved their best results in the African Cup of Nations in 1994 and 1996 -- these are the only two occasions on which they have qualified for the final stages of the tournament, and in both years they were eliminated in the first round.

The alternatives are all nicknames used by African teams: the Seychelles team are the Pirates, the Sparrowhawks are from Togo, and the Cranes represent Uganda.