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60 free Central African Republic trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Central African Republic sits at the very middle of the continent, landlocked between six neighbours, and most people know it for one man: Jean-Bedel Bokassa, the colonel who crowned himself emperor in a Napoleon-style ceremony that cost a fifth of his country's budget. There is far more to ask about, though: a founding father who was a defrocked priest and designed the flag, a creole that is one of Africa's few indigenous official languages, forest clearings where hundreds of elephants gather, and a capital that sits on one of the planet's largest magnetic anomalies. This quiz covers geography (the Ubangi and Chari basins, Mont Ngaoui, Boali Falls, Dzanga-Sangha, Chinko), history (Ubangi-Shari, the Kongo-Wara revolt, Boganda, Dacko, the empire, Kolingba, Patasse, Bozize, Seleka and the anti-balaka, Touadera and Wagner), symbols (the five-colour flag, 'La Renaissance', the CFA franc), culture (Sango, cassava, the Aka) and sport (Les Fauves, the 1974 basketball champions). Questions run from easy to expert. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and other reference pages before publishing.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital and largest city of the Central African Republic?
Bangui
Founded as a French outpost in 1889, it sits on the country's southern border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Q 02Under what name was the country a French colony from 1903 until 1958?
Ubangi-Shari
The name combined the two great rivers of the territory; the first prime minister replaced it because he dreamed of a wider Central African union.
Q 03Which colonial federation, run from Brazzaville, did the territory belong to from 1920?
French Equatorial Africa
Concession companies forced locals to gather rubber and coffee, and thousands died building the Congo-Ocean Railway.
Q 04In what year did the Central African Republic gain full independence from France?
1960
Independence Day is 13 August; the country had been an autonomous republic since December 1958.
Q 05Which defrocked priest, the country's founding father, was its first prime minister and designed its flag?
Barthélemy Boganda
He died months before independence in an air disaster that was never fully explained.
Q 06The founding father died in March 1959 in what kind of incident?
A plane crash
A full report was never published and the possibility of assassination remains open.
Q 07Who became the country's first president in 1960 and returned to power after the emperor's fall in 1979?
David Dacko
He was the founding father's cousin and was toppled twice, in the 1966 New Year's Eve coup and again in 1981.
Q 08Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa seized power in a coup named after which night?
New Year's Eve (Saint-Sylvestre)
He struck on 31 December 1965, suspended the constitution and dissolved the National Assembly.
Q 09In 1976 Bokassa renamed the country what?
The Central African Empire
It lasted less than three years before French paratroopers restored the republic in September 1979.
Q 10Bokassa's 1977 coronation was modelled almost exactly on the crowning of which earlier emperor?
Napoleon
He even timed it for December, echoing the 1804 ceremony at Notre-Dame; the bill topped US$20 million.
Q 11Bokassa's coronation throne, weighing two tons, was shaped like which creature?
An eagle
It was gilded bronze; a Paris jeweller made the crown and a French artist staged the whole event.
Q 12Which French president was brought down partly by revelations that Bokassa had given him gems?
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
The satirical paper Le Canard enchaîné broke the story in 1979 and he lost his 1981 re-election bid.
Q 13Bokassa's 1979 downfall followed the killing of about 100 schoolchildren who had protested against what?
A decree forcing pupils to buy uniforms from his wife's company
Q 21Which mathematics professor became president in 2016 and ended term limits in 2023?
Faustin-Archange Touadéra
He holds two doctorates in mathematics and won a third term in December 2025.
Q 22Which Russian private military company backed the president from 2018 for mining rights?
The Wagner Group
It trained local troops at Berengo, the former emperor's palace, and one Western ambassador called the country a 'vassal state' of the Kremlin.
Q 23In 2022 the Central African Republic became only the second country to make what legal tender?
Bitcoin
Within months France staged Operation Caban to remove him and Operation Barracuda to reinstall his predecessor.
Q 14Which charge against Bokassa at his 1987 trial was set aside as a misdemeanour covered by an amnesty?
Cannibalism
He was convicted of murdering schoolchildren, sentenced to death, then freed in 1993 and died in 1996.
Q 15After his overthrow Bokassa first fled to which West African country, spending four years in Abidjan?
Ivory Coast
He later moved to his Château d'Hardricourt near Paris before returning home to face trial in 1986.
Q 16Which general took power in a bloodless 1981 coup and ruled until losing the 1993 election?
André Kolingba
Members of his Yakoma ethnic group filled lucrative posts, fuelling a north-south rivalry that dogged later governments.
Q 17Which rebel general toppled Ange-Félix Patassé in March 2003 while he was out of the country?
François Bozizé
Congolese and Libyan troops failed to save him; the new ruler was himself ousted a decade later.
Q 18Which mostly Muslim rebel coalition seized the capital in 2013 and installed Michel Djotodia?
Séléka
Its name means 'alliance' in the national language; its leader was the country's first Muslim head of state.
Q 19The mainly Christian militias that rose against the 2013 rebel government were called what?
Anti-balaka
By late 2014 the country was effectively split, with these fighters in the southwest and ex-rebels in the northeast.
Q 20Who became the country's first female head of state as transitional president in 2014?
Catherine Samba-Panza
A former insurance broker, she had been mayor of the capital during its devastation the previous year.
El Salvador had gone first in 2021; the CFA franc remains the everyday currency.
Q 24Which creole, based on the Ngbandi language, is the country's national language alongside French?
Sango
Almost all 5.5 million citizens speak it, making the CAR one of the few African states with an indigenous official language.
Q 25How many horizontal stripes cross the flag's vertical red band?
Four
The stripes stand for France and Africa, joined by red for the blood that unites them.
Q 26Which two colours on the flag were chosen to stand for France?
Blue and white
Green and yellow represent Africa; the yellow star in the corner is the star of independence.
Q 27'La Renaissance' shares its composer, Herbert Pepper, with which other country's anthem?
Senegal
The founding father wrote the words; the tune was kept throughout the imperial years.
Q 28Which currency, pegged to the euro, does the Central African Republic share with five neighbours?
The CFA franc
Gems are the biggest export, yet up to half of them are thought to leave the country illegally.
Q 29Which gemstone is the country's most important export, worth 40-55% of export revenue?
Diamonds
Uranium, gold and cobalt also lie underground, yet the country has the world's lowest GDP per capita at purchasing power parity.
Q 30Which root crop is the staple food of most Central Africans, with 200,000-300,000 tonnes grown a year?
Cassava
Food crops earn farmers far more than cotton, the main export crop; the tsetse fly limits cattle raising.