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50 free Democratic Republic of the Congo trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Democratic Republic of the Congo trivia quiz covers the giant of Central Africa, the country once called Zaire and, before that, Leopold II's Congo Free State. It runs from Stanley and Conrad through independence, Lumumba and Mobutu's leopard-skin hat, the Rumble in the Jungle, two Congo wars and the cobalt boom, and it does not skip the wildlife: okapis, bonobos, mountain gorillas and the lava lake of Nyiragongo. Congolese rumba, Papa Wemba, the Leopards of 1974 and Dikembe Mutombo are here too. The opening questions suit anyone who can find Kinshasa on a map; the last ones test people who know why Ebola is called Ebola and what an abacost is. Every question is multiple choice with a short explanation after you answer. The smaller Republic of the Congo across the river has its own quiz. Every answer has been checked against a primary source, and each question links to the page that confirms it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo?
Kinshasa
With about 18.5 million people it is the world's most populous city proper outside China and the fourth most populous capital.
Q 02Between 1971 and 1997 the country was known by what name?
Zaire
The name is a Portuguese corruption of the Kikongo nzere, 'river that swallows rivers'.
Q 03The DRC gained independence in 1960 from which European country?
Belgium
It was immediately hit by secessions, the murder of its first prime minister and, in 1965, a coup.
Q 04By area, the DRC is the second-largest country in Africa after which?
Algeria
At 2.35 million square kilometres it is also the eleventh-largest country in the world.
Q 05The DRC is the most populous country in the world to have which official language?
French
About 124 million people live there, and Lingala is the most widely spoken of more than 200 indigenous languages.
Q 06Which Belgian king ran the Congo Free State as his personal possession from 1885?
Leopold II
International outrage over atrocities in the rubber trade forced him to hand it to the Belgian state in 1908.
Q 07The 1903 report that exposed atrocities in the Congo Free State was written by which British consul?
Roger Casement
He went on to found the Congo Reform Association with the journalist E. D. Morel.
Q 08Who was the first prime minister of the independent Congo, assassinated in January 1961?
Patrice Lumumba
He was captured by Mobutu's forces and sent to secessionist Katanga, where he was killed.
Q 09Which mineral-rich southeastern province declared independence within days of the Congo's own in 1960?
Katanga
South Kasai broke away too; the crisis drew in the UN and helped bring Mobutu to power.
Q 10Who seized power in 1965 and ruled the country as a dictator until 1997?
Mobutu Sese Seko
He died in exile in Morocco less than four months after his overthrow.
Q 11Under Mobutu's 'authenticité' campaign, men had to wear the abacost, a name abbreviating what?
'Down with the suit'
Western ties were banned; Mobutu himself wore the Mao-style tunic with a Paris-made leopard-skin toque.
Q 12Before Mobutu renamed it in 1966, the capital was called what?
Léopoldville
The others became Kisangani, Lubumbashi and Mbandaka in the same purge of colonial names.
Q 13The 1974 'Rumble in the Jungle' in the Congolese capital saw Muhammad Ali beat which undefeated champion?
George Foreman
Ali went in as a 4-1 underdog; the fight has been called the greatest sporting event of the 20th century.
Q 21The most widely reported death toll for the Second Congo War is how many?
5.4 million
Most died of disease and malnutrition rather than fighting; other estimates put the figure at 3 million.
Q 222018 Nobel Peace laureate Denis Mukwege works at a hospital in which Congolese city?
Bukavu
He founded Panzi Hospital to treat women raped in the eastern conflicts, sharing the prize with Nadia Murad.
Q 23The Ebola virus is named after what?
A river
The first identified outbreak in 1976 was near the river in what was then northern Zaire.
The DRC's flag is sky blue with a red diagonal stripe and what in the upper left corner?
Q 14The okapi, endemic to the northeast DRC, is most closely related to which animal?
Giraffe
Despite its zebra-striped legs, it and the giraffe are the only living members of the family Giraffidae.
Q 15The DRC is the only country in the world where which great ape lives in the wild?
Bonobo
The species is confined south of the Congo River, which its ancestors could not swim across.
Q 16The word for the DRC's endemic great ape is thought to derive from what?
A misspelt town on a shipping crate
The first specimens were collected in the 1920s near Bolobo on the Congo River.
Q 17Virunga, Africa's oldest national park, was created in which year?
1925
It lies in the Albertine Rift and shelters eastern gorillas and more than 300 species found nowhere else.
Q 18Mount Nyiragongo, the volcano above the city of Goma, is known for what feature in its main crater?
A lava lake
In 2002 lava raced out at 64 km/h; the lake has at times been the most voluminous known anywhere.
Q 19The DRC possesses roughly what share of the world's cobalt reserves?
80%
The metal's role in electric-vehicle batteries has made the country a focus of geopolitical competition.
Q 20The Second Congo War of 1998-2003, which drew in nine African nations, is often called what?
Africa's World War
The most widely cited death toll, 5.4 million, would make it the deadliest conflict since World War II.
A yellow star
The red stands for the blood of martyrs, the yellow for wealth and the star for the future.
Q 25Under what name did the DRC become the first sub-Saharan side at a World Cup, in 1974?
Zaire
They had won the Africa Cup of Nations that year and in 1968.
Q 26How many times has DR Congo won the Africa Cup of Nations?
Twice
The 1968 final in Ethiopia was won 1-0 against Ghana; the 1974 title came as Zaire.
Q 27Congolese-born Dikembe Mutombo won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award how many times?
Four
That ties the record with Ben Wallace and Rudy Gobert; he entered the Hall of Fame in 2015.
Q 28Papa Wemba, dubbed the 'King of Rumba', was also a central figure in which fashion movement?
La Sape
The Society of Ambiance-Makers and Elegant People flourished in both Congolese capitals and among migrants in Paris.
Q 29Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness follows a steamer captain working for a company from which country?
Belgium
Conrad never names the river, but the Congo Free State was Leopold II's private colony when he wrote it in 1899.
Q 30Which Congo explorer is best remembered for the greeting 'Dr Livingstone, I presume'?
Henry Morton Stanley
Born John Rowlands in Wales, his work as Leopold's agent enabled the occupation of the Congo Basin.