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60 free Comoros trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Comoros trivia quiz covers the whole archipelago: the three islands of Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli (and the fourth, Mayotte, that stayed French), the Karthala volcano, the coelacanth rediscovered off its coast, the ylang-ylang plantations that supply most of the world's perfume industry, and a post-independence history of more than twenty coups, mercenaries and secessions. The early questions suit anyone who has looked at a map of the Mozambique Channel; the later ones will test people who know their Fomboni Accords from their Federal Islamic Republic, and who Bahia Bakari is. Every question is multiple choice with a short explanation after you answer. Every answer has been checked against a primary source, and each question links to the page that confirms it.
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Q 01What is the capital and largest city of the Comoros?
Moroni
Moroni, on the west coast of the largest island, is both the seat of government and the biggest city; its harbour and old Friday mosque face the sea.
Q 02In which year did the Comoros proclaim independence from France?
1975
The Comorian parliament declared independence unilaterally on 6 July 1975; France recognised the new state, minus one island, on 31 December that year.
Q 03Alongside Comorian and French, which language is official in the Comoros?
Arabic
Arabic is the third official language alongside Comorian and French; it is the language of Quranic schooling, and Comorian itself has traditionally been written in Arabic script.
Q 04The Comoros is the only member of which organisation to lie entirely in the Southern Hemisphere?
Arab League
The Comoros joined the Arab League in 1993 and is its only member lying wholly in the Southern Hemisphere; it also belongs to the African Union and the Indian Ocean Commission.
Q 05The Comoros is Africa's third-smallest country by area, behind São Tomé and Príncipe and which other?
Seychelles
Seychelles, at about 460 square kilometres, is Africa's smallest country; São Tomé and Príncipe is next, and the Comoros, at under 2,000 square kilometres, is third.
Q 06The name 'Comoros' comes from Jazr al-Qumr, a phrase meaning what?
Islands of the Moon
'Islands of the Moon' is the usual translation: qamar means moon in the language of the Arab sailors who named the archipelago, and a crescent moon appears on the national flag.
Q 07The Comoros sits at the northern end of which body of water?
Mozambique Channel
The Mozambique Channel separates Madagascar from mainland Africa; the Comoros lie at its northern end, between northern Mozambique and the northern tip of Madagascar, with no land borders.
Q 08Which island of the Comoro archipelago voted against independence and is still administered by France?
Mayotte
Mayotte voted to remain French in the 1974 referendum and became a full French overseas department in 2011; the Comoros has claimed the island ever since independence.
Q 09Which active shield volcano is the highest point of the Comoros?
Mount Karthala
Mount Karthala is one of the world's most active volcanoes, erupting repeatedly since the 19th century, most recently in a series of eruptions between 2005 and 2007.
Q 10How tall is the highest point of the Comoros?
2,361 m
The volcano's summit stands at 2,361 m above sea level, and its 3 km by 4 km caldera has been reshaped by frequent eruptions.
Q 11Since independence, roughly how many coups or attempted coups has the Comoros experienced?
More than 20
More than 20 coups or attempted coups have shaken the Comoros since independence, many involving foreign mercenaries, and one president was assassinated in office in 1989.
Q 12The Comoros is the world's largest producer of which perfume-industry plant?
Ylang-ylang
Ylang-ylang oil is distilled from the flowers of Cananga odorata, a tree French planters introduced to the islands; the Comoros is the world's leading producer of the essence.
Q 13Which currency does the Comoros use?
Comorian franc
The Comorian franc is the national currency, issued by the Banque Centrale des Comores and pegged to the euro at a fixed rate guaranteed by the French treasury.
Q 21How many horizontal stripes does the Comorian flag have?
Four
Four horizontal stripes — yellow, white, red and blue — stand for the four islands of the archipelago, one of them the French-administered island the Comoros claims.
Q 22What does the title of the national anthem, Udzima wa ya Masiwa, mean?
The Union of the Great Islands
The Union of the Great Islands is the meaning of Udzima wa ya Masiwa, the Comorian-language song adopted as the national anthem in 1978.
Q 23Which is the largest island in the Comoros?
Grande Comore
Grande Comore, known locally as Ngazidja, covers about 1,024 square kilometres; as the youngest island geologically it has rocky soil and few good harbours.
Q 14Which 'living fossil' fish, thought extinct for 66 million years, was found off the Comoros in December 1952?
Coelacanth
Coelacanth specimens had first turned up in 1938 off South Africa; the 1952 catch off the Comoros revealed a living population, and dozens more were recorded there over the following decades.
Q 15Which UTC offset does the Comoros keep all year?
UTC+3
The Comoros keeps East Africa Time, UTC+3, the same offset as Madagascar, Tanzania and Kenya.
Q 16At the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, the Comoros pulled off a shock 3-2 group win over which nation?
Ghana
Ghana, one of Africa's most successful football nations, lost 3-2 to the Comoros in January 2022 after Ahmed Mogni scored twice, and went out in the group stage.
Q 17Who proclaimed Comorian independence and became the country's first president?
Ahmed Abdallah
Ahmed Abdallah lasted less than a month before a coup ousted him; he returned to power in 1978 and ruled until his assassination in 1989.
Q 18Which French mercenary, the 'Viceroy of the Comoros', joined four coup attempts there?
Bob Denard
Bob Denard ran the presidential guard with South African money and was finally forced to surrender to French paratroopers in 1995 after his fourth coup on the islands.
Q 19Which Comorian president, a socialist revolutionary, renounced Islam and became an atheist?
Ali Soilih
Ali Soilih, in power from 1976, was toppled by a mercenary-led coup on 13 May 1978 and shot dead a few weeks later.
Q 20The constitution approved by referendum in December 2001 renamed the country what?
Union of the Comoros
Union of the Comoros replaced the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros; each island became largely autonomous with its own president, and the Union presidency rotated between the islands.
Q 24By what name was the island of Anjouan known to English speakers until the early twentieth century?
Johanna
Johanna was the English sailors' name for the island, a watering stop for East India Company ships bound for India and for American whalers before the Suez Canal opened in 1869.
Q 25Which town is the capital of the smallest of the three main islands?
Fomboni
Fomboni is the chief town of the smallest island, which lies between the other two main islands and is home to the country's first national park, a marine reserve created in 2001.
Q 26Comorian, the islands' main language, is most closely related to which language?
Swahili
Swahili and Comorian both belong to the Sabaki group of Bantu languages; Comorian is spoken in a distinct dialect on each island.
Q 27Twarab, the Comoros' most influential music genre, was imported from where in the early 1900s?
Zanzibar
Zanzibar, the East African island where taarab flourished under its sultans, passed the style to the Comoros, where twarab became the music of grand-marriage festivities.
Q 28Livingstone's fruit bat, the largest and rarest bat in the Comoros, has a wingspan of up to how much?
1.4 m
Its wingspan reaches 1.4 m, with a weight of up to 800 grams; it survives on only two of the islands and, unlike most bats, soars on daytime thermals.
Q 29How old was Bahia Bakari, the sole survivor of the 2009 Yemenia Flight 626 crash off the Comoros?
12
Bahia Bakari was 12 when she was found clinging to wreckage hours after the crash; the other 152 people aboard died in the country's deadliest aviation disaster.
Q 30Yemenia Flight 626, which crashed on approach to the Comoros in 2009, had departed from which city?
Sanaa
The Airbus A310 had left Sanaa, Yemen's capital, bound for the Comorian capital; investigators found it stalled at low altitude during a night approach after inappropriate crew actions.