Flags and capitals of Africa

Africa has more sovereign countries than any other continent, which makes it the region where flag and capital quizzes are won or lost. It stretches from the Mediterranean coast of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt to the Cape of Good Hope, and from Cabo Verde in the Atlantic to the Seychelles and Mauritius in the Indian Ocean.

Many African flags share the pan-African colours of green, gold and red, first made famous by Ethiopia, and many others add black, after the flag of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. That shared palette is why Senegal, Mali and Guinea, or Cameroon and Senegal, are so easy to confuse. Look for the details: a star, an emblem, the order of the bands, or whether the stripes run across or down.

Capitals bring their own traps. Several countries moved their capital in living memory: Nigeria from Lagos to Abuja, Tanzania officially to Dodoma, Côte d'Ivoire to Yamoussoukro and Malawi to Lilongwe. South Africa splits its capital functions between Pretoria, Cape Town and Bloemfontein, and the largest city is often not the capital at all. Names can trip you up too: Niger and Nigeria, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea, the two Congos, and Sudan and South Sudan.

Languages follow history. French is official across much of West and Central Africa, English in much of the east and south, Portuguese in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cabo Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe, and Arabic across the north. Alongside them sit widely spoken African languages with official status, such as Swahili, Amharic, Kinyarwanda, Sesotho and isiZulu.

Use the table below to study each country's flag, capital and official languages, then check the look-alike flags that catch most players out. When you feel ready, pick a quiz with Africa already selected and see how far you get in 10 rounds.