How to play
- Press Start. You have 4 minutes 30 seconds for all 54 countries, listed in alphabetical order with their capitals blank.
- Type a capital. It counts as soon as it matches and fills in next to its country; a capital from another continent clears the box, with a note saying whose it is.
- When the time is up, the list shows the capitals you missed and the map shows their countries in red.
About the capitals of Africa
Africa’s capitals are a mix of old port cities, colonial-era administrative towns and a handful of cities chosen or built after independence to sit nearer the middle of the country. That makes them harder than they look: in several countries the largest and best-known city isn’t the capital, and in a few the government has moved within living memory.
Capitals are still moving. Equatorial Guinea moved its capital from its island to a new city on the mainland in January 2026, and the former capital is still accepted here until the start of 2028. Burundi moved its political capital in 2019, Nigeria moved its capital inland in 1991, and Tanzania’s largest city hasn’t been its official capital for decades. South Africa has three capitals, one for each branch of government, and any of them names the country; Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Eswatini each have two.
Show the capitals mentioned above (gives some answers away)
Equatorial Guinea: Ciudad de la Paz, formerly Malabo. Burundi: Gitega; Bujumbura is now the economic capital and isn’t accepted. Nigeria: Abuja, formerly Lagos. Tanzania: Dodoma; Dar es Salaam isn’t accepted. South Africa: Pretoria, Cape Town and Bloemfontein.
What counts
The same countries as in Countries of Africa: the UN’s grouping of countries on the continent and its islands. Any capital a country officially names counts, and so does the city where its government works when that is somewhere else; capitals, accents and punctuation don’t matter. The answers were checked on 29 September 2026.
Show the accepted alternative names (gives some answers away)
| Country | Capital | Also accepted |
|---|---|---|
| Djibouti | Djibouti | Djibouti City |
| Equatorial Guinea | Ciudad de la Paz | Oyala |
Show the countries with more than one capital (gives some answers away)
| Country | Capitals accepted |
|---|---|
| Benin | Porto-Novo (official capital); Cotonou (seat of government) |
| Côte d'Ivoire | Yamoussoukro (official capital); Abidjan (seat of government) |
| Equatorial Guinea | Ciudad de la Paz; Malabo (former capital, accepted through 1 January 2028) |
| Eswatini | Mbabane (executive); Lobamba (legislative and royal) |
| South Africa | Pretoria (executive); Cape Town (legislative); Bloemfontein (judicial) |
Questions
Is Egypt’s new capital accepted?
Not yet. Egypt’s government has been moving to a new administrative city east of its historic capital, but the new city hasn’t been declared the capital, so it isn’t an answer.
What if a capital changes?
When a country moves its capital, the old one is still accepted for two years, so a recent change never costs you a point.
More geography
- Countries of Africa: the same continent, naming its countries
- Capitals of the World: all 197 at once
- Other continents: Capitals of Asia, Capitals of Europe, Capitals of North America, Capitals of South America, Capitals of Oceania
More to play
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- All quizzes
- El Trivia home