Africa Map Quiz: Find All 54 Countries

How to play the Africa map quiz

The map shows the whole continent of Africa, from Tunisia in the north to South Africa at the southern tip, plus the island nations in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Land outside Africa, such as the Arabian Peninsula and southern Europe, is shaded gray so you can see where the continent ends.

• Click the map. The quiz names a country ("Click Kenya") and you click it. If you click the wrong country, the quiz tells you which one you picked, so every mistake teaches you a neighbor.
• Type the name. One country lights up and you type its name. Spelling is forgiving, accents are optional, and common alternate names work: "Ivory Coast" counts for Côte d'Ivoire and "Swaziland" counts for Eswatini.
• Multiple choice. Pick the highlighted country from four names. The wrong answers are usually its neighbors, so you have to look carefully.
• Drag labels. All 54 names sit in a word bank. Drag each one onto the map, or tap a name and then tap its country.

Practice has no timer and brings missed countries back a few turns later. The Quiz is timed: you get three tries per country, and only first-try answers count toward your score. Challenge gives you 60 seconds, and every five correct answers in a row multiplies your points.

How many countries are in Africa?

Africa has 54 countries, more than any other continent. All 54 are members of the United Nations. The newest is South Sudan, which became independent from Sudan in July 2011.

Two places on the map need a note. Western Sahara is a disputed territory: Morocco administers most of it, and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic also claims it, so this quiz draws it in gray and doesn't count it. Somaliland in the north of Somalia has governed itself since 1991, but it is not a UN member and very few countries recognize it, so the map shows it as part of Somalia. That is the same convention National Geographic and most school atlases use.

The five regions of Africa

Learning 54 countries at once is a lot. Learning five groups of five to eighteen is much easier. The United Nations divides Africa into five regions:

The UN counts Sudan in North Africa and places Angola in Central Africa (it calls the region "Middle Africa"); some textbooks move them. Learn mode shows the region on each country's fact card, and the Hints button in the click quiz tells you which region to look in.

Africa's biggest, smallest and most populous countries

Sixteen African countries are landlocked, with no coastline at all, including Ethiopia, Chad, Niger, Mali, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Lesotho is completely surrounded by South Africa.

Physical features to know on the map of Africa

Countries are easier to remember when you know the land under them:

• The Sahara covers most of North Africa. It is the largest hot desert in the world, about the size of the United States. Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Niger, Chad, Mali and Mauritania all have large parts of it.
• The Nile flows north about 6,650 km (4,130 mi) from Lake Victoria and the Ethiopian Highlands to the Mediterranean. Trace it through Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt.
• The Congo River and rainforest fill the center of the continent. The Congo River crosses the equator twice.
• The Great Rift Valley runs from Ethiopia through Kenya and Tanzania toward Mozambique, with deep lakes such as Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi.
• Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is Africa's highest point, at 5,895 m (19,341 ft).
• Madagascar, off the east coast, is the world's fourth-largest island.

Tips to memorize the countries of Africa

1. Start with the giants. Algeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Libya and Chad together cover about a third of the continent. Once they're placed, the smaller countries fit in around them.
2. Use the coasts. Walk along the west coast from Morocco to South Africa saying each country's name, then do the east coast from Egypt down. Most of the small countries are coastal.
3. Learn one region a day. Turn on Names in Learn mode for one region, then turn Names off and take a Practice round with just that region in mind.
4. Pair the lookalikes. Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea are three different countries in West and Central Africa. The Republic of the Congo (capital Brazzaville) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (capital Kinshasa) face each other across the Congo River.
5. Mix the modes. Clicking teaches location, typing teaches spelling, and multiple choice is a gentle start for younger children.
6. Finish on paper. Print the blank map of Africa to check that the learning sticks without a screen.

African capitals that trip people up

Several African countries have a capital that is not their biggest or best-known city:

The capitals quiz accepts the alternate city where a country officially shares the role, and each fact card explains the difference.

Keep learning about Africa

When the map feels easy, try the African flags quiz, or zoom out to the world map quiz. North Africa's neighbors across the Red Sea are in the Middle East map quiz. For a story-based path through African history and geography, the programs below are popular with homeschool families, and many scholarship programs on Edulist may cover curriculum like them.