Central African Republic Trivia
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59 free Central African Republic trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 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 59 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital and largest city of the Central African Republic?
Bangui
Bangui began as a French outpost in 1889, sited at rapids that stopped river boats from going any farther upstream; the river beside it now marks the country's southern border.
Q 02Under what name was the Central African Republic a French colony from 1903 until 1958?
Ubangi-Shari
Ubangi-Shari was named for the colony's two main rivers; its founding father dropped the name in 1958 because he hoped neighbouring territories would join one larger central African state.
Q 03Which colonial federation, governed from Brazzaville, included the future Central African Republic from 1910?
French Equatorial Africa
French Equatorial Africa leased huge tracts to private companies, whose overseers forced villagers to gather wild rubber; with their own fields neglected, famine and disease followed.
Q 04The Central African Republic became independent in August 1960, but its national day, 1 December, marks which earlier event?
The republic's proclamation
The republic's proclamation came on 1 December 1958, when the colony became self-governing under its new name; that date, not Independence Day on 13 August, is the national holiday.
Q 05Which former priest, the Central African Republic's founding father, led it to self-rule in 1958 and designed its flag?
Barthélemy Boganda
Barthélemy Boganda became the territory's first African Catholic priest, then denounced the missions that had backed his 1946 election to the French parliament and founded his own party in 1949.
Q 06The Central African Republic's founding father died in March 1959 in what kind of incident?
A plane crash
A plane crash killed the founding father on 29 March 1959, and no full report was ever published; suspicion fell on French business interests and secret services, but nothing was proved.
Q 07Who became the Central African Republic's first president in 1960 and returned to power when its emperor fell in 1979?
David Dacko
David Dacko was overthrown twice by his own army commander: first by the officer he had asked to head the new army, and in 1981, two years after French troops restored him, by a second general.
Q 08Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa seized power in a coup named after which date in the calendar?
New Year's Eve (Saint-Sylvestre)
New Year's Eve (Saint-Sylvestre): Bokassa struck on the night of 31 December 1965, with the country near bankruptcy and a general strike looming, and had declared himself president by New Year's Day.
Q 09To mark 50 years of independence in 2010, the Central African Republic's president did what for the late Bokassa?
Officially rehabilitated him
Officially rehabilitated him: a presidential decree restored all Bokassa's rights and praised him as a great builder, 23 years after a court had sentenced him to death for murder.
Q 10Bokassa's 1977 coronation was modelled almost exactly on the crowning of which earlier emperor?
Napoleon
Napoleon was Bokassa's hero; copying his coronation cost more than $20 million, paid largely by France, in a country his rule had already bankrupted.
Q 11Bokassa's gilded coronation throne was shaped like which creature?
An eagle
An eagle with gilded wings formed the throne, its seat hollowed out of the bird's belly; seated there, Bokassa took the crown and placed it on his own head.
Q 12Which French president lost the 1981 election after reports that Bokassa had given him gems?
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing had accepted the stones as finance minister in 1973; Le Canard enchaîné revealed the gifts in October 1979, and the affair shadowed him until Mitterrand beat him in 1981.
Q 13Bokassa's 1979 downfall followed the killing of about 100 schoolchildren arrested after protests against what?
Costly compulsory uniforms
Q 21Which mathematics professor became the Central African Republic's president in 2016 and ended presidential term limits in 2023?
Faustin-Archange Touadéra
Faustin-Archange Touadéra was an academic with no political background when he was picked to head the government in 2008; the 2023 referendum he called cleared his way to seek a third term.
Q 22Which private military company began protecting the Central African Republic's president in 2018 in return for mining concessions?
The Wagner Group
The Wagner Group's fighters served as the president's bodyguards and fought rebels alongside the army, while a company tied to its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was awarded valuable mining rights.
Q 23In 2022 the Central African Republic became only the second country to make what legal tender?
Costly compulsory uniforms, which pupils had to buy from a factory said to belong to one of Bokassa's wives, set off the protests; within months French paratroopers had removed him.
Q 14Which sensational charge against Bokassa at his 1987 trial ended without a conviction, though he was sentenced to death for murder?
Cannibalism
Cannibalism was the one charge that did not stick; found guilty of murdering schoolchildren, he had his death sentence commuted and walked free in 1993.
Q 15After his 1979 overthrow, Bokassa spent four years in exile in which West African country before moving to France?
Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast was only his first refuge: he later settled in a château near Paris, then flew home in 1986, although a court had sentenced him to death in his absence, and was arrested on landing.
Q 16Which general took power in a bloodless 1981 coup and ruled until losing the 1993 election?
André Kolingba
André Kolingba ruled through a military committee and conceded open elections only after riots over unpaid salaries; when he finally ran, voters rejected him in the first round.
Q 17Which rebel general toppled the Central African Republic's president, Ange-Félix Patassé, in March 2003 while he was abroad?
François Bozizé
François Bozizé, a former army chief, took the capital while Patassé was flying home from a summit; ten years later a rebel march on the same city drove Bozizé out in turn.
Q 18Which mostly Muslim rebel coalition seized the Central African Republic's capital in 2013 and installed Michel Djotodia?
Séléka
Séléka was formally disbanded by Djotodia within six months, but its fighters kept looting and killing, and rival militias rose against them.
Q 19The mainly Christian militias that rose against the Central African Republic's 2013 rebel government were called what?
Anti-balaka
Anti-balaka is usually translated 'anti-machete'; the militias formed to protect villages from the rebels, then turned on Muslim civilians, setting off a cycle of revenge killings.
Q 20Who became the Central African Republic's first female head of state as transitional president in 2014?
Catherine Samba-Panza
Catherine Samba-Panza, a businesswoman then serving as mayor of the capital, was chosen partly because both armed camps saw her as politically neutral.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin became legal tender in April 2022, after El Salvador in 2021, but the experiment was short: about a year later the government agreed to repeal that status.
Q 24Which lingua franca, derived from Ngbandi, is the Central African Republic's national language alongside French?
Sango
Sango began as the speech of river traders; missionaries took it up and spread it so widely that about nine in ten Central Africans now speak it.
Q 25On the Central African Republic's flag, which colour forms the single vertical band that crosses the four horizontal stripes?
Red
Red stands for blood: the flag's designer made it the one band that crosses all four stripes, a sign of the blood that binds peoples together.
Q 26Which world figure visited the war-torn Central African Republic in November 2015 and urged peace between Christians and Muslims?
Pope Francis
Pope Francis opened a holy door at the capital's cathedral, starting the Catholic Church's Year of Mercy there before Rome and calling the city 'the spiritual capital of the world' that day.
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 other central African states?
The CFA franc
The CFA franc is issued for all six states by one shared central bank; its initials once stood for 'French Colonies of Africa' and now stand for 'Financial Cooperation in Central Africa'.
Q 29Which gemstone long earned the Central African Republic about half of its export income?
Diamonds
Diamonds are easy to smuggle, and so many stones slip across the borders each year that the state has never captured the full value of the trade.
Q 30Which root crop is the staple food of most people in the Central African Republic?
Cassava
Cassava is not native to Africa: it was brought from the Americas, and its leaves are eaten too, cooked into the soups and stews of central Africa.