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49 free Namibia trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Namibia takes its name from the oldest desert on Earth and is the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa, yet it packs in some of the continent's greatest sights: the red dunes of Sossusvlei, the salt pan of Etosha, the shipwrecks of the Skeleton Coast and Africa's largest canyon. This quiz covers the geography (the Namib and Kalahari, the Caprivi Strip, Königstein, the Orange River, the fog that keeps the desert alive) and the wildlife, from black rhinos and desert-adapted plants that live 2,000 years to Cape Cross's seals. History runs from the San and Nama through the German colony of 1884, the Herero and Nama genocide, South Africa's League of Nations mandate and apartheid, SWAPO's long war, independence on 21 March 1990 under Sam Nujoma and the return of Walvis Bay in 1994. Modern questions cover the 14 regions, English as sole official language despite few native speakers, Oshiwambo, Lutheranism, diamonds and uranium, the flag's twelve-rayed sun, Frankie Fredericks's four Olympic silvers, the rugby team's World Cups and the country's first female president in 2024. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Namibia, the Namib, Sossusvlei, Etosha, the Fish River Canyon, the Skeleton Coast, Windhoek, welwitschia, the flag and the Herero and Nama genocide, and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital and largest city of Namibia?
Windhoek
Windhoek, about 1,700 m up on the Khomas Highland in the centre of the country, is both Namibia's capital and by far its largest city.
Q 02Which river forms Namibia's southern border with South Africa?
The Orange
The Orange River forms Namibia's entire southern border with South Africa, reaching the Atlantic at the diamond-mining town of Oranjemund.
Q 03The Namib is often described as what?
The oldest desert in the world
The Namib is often called the oldest desert in the world, having been arid for roughly 55 to 80 million years; only Chile's Atacama rivals that age.
Q 04Which Namibian people are known for coating skin and hair with red ochre paste?
The Himba
The Himba of the Kunene Region mix red ochre with butterfat into a paste called otjize, worn on skin and braided hair as protection and adornment.
Q 05Which ocean lies to the west of Namibia?
The Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean washes Namibia's entire western coast, a shoreline of about 1,570 km from the Kunene River mouth in the north to the South African border in the south.
Q 06What is the narrow panhandle in Namibia's northeast that reaches toward Zambia and Zimbabwe called?
The Caprivi Strip
The Caprivi Strip, renamed the Zambezi Region in 2013, receives Namibia's highest rainfall and saw a failed secessionist uprising at Katima Mulilo in August 1999.
Q 07Namibia sits between the Namib and which other desert?
The Kalahari
The Kalahari extends into the neighbours to the south and east.
Q 08What is the highest point in Namibia, at 2,573 m?
Königstein
Königstein, at 2,573 m the summit of the Brandberg massif in the northwestern Namib, is Namibia's highest point; the Brandberg also holds the famous 'White Lady' rock painting.
Q 09Sossusvlei's tallest dune, nicknamed Big Daddy, rises to roughly what height?
325 metres
Big Daddy rises roughly 325 metres above the Sossusvlei pan, the tallest dune there; the white clay pan of Deadvlei lies at its foot.
Q 10The Etosha salt pan covers about what share of Etosha National Park?
23%
The Etosha salt pan, some 130 km long and dry for most of the year, covers roughly 23% of Etosha National Park.
Q 11Etosha holds one of the world's largest populations of which critically endangered animal?
Black rhinoceros
Etosha protects one of the world's largest black rhinoceros populations, a critically endangered species; the floodlit Okaukuejo waterhole is a famous place to watch them at night.
Q 12The Fish River gorge holds which distinction?
Largest canyon in Africa
At about 160 km long, up to 27 km wide and nearly 550 m deep, the Fish River Canyon is the largest canyon in Africa.
Q 13The Skeleton Coast takes its name from what?
Whale and seal bones on the shore
Q 21What was Namibia called before independence?
South West Africa
The territory was known as South West Africa from the German colonial era until independence; the UN General Assembly voted to rename it Namibia in June 1968.
Q 22Which movement did the UN recognise in 1973 as the official representative of Namibians?
SWAPO
The UN General Assembly recognised SWAPO as the authentic representative of the Namibian people in December 1973; its armed wing, the People's Liberation Army of Namibia, had begun its guerrilla war in 1966.
Q 23On what date did Namibia become independent?
21 March 1990
Namibia became independent on 21 March 1990; Nelson Mandela, released from prison five weeks earlier, attended the midnight ceremony in Windhoek.
The Skeleton Coast is named for the whale and seal bones that once littered its shore from the whaling industry; today the sands also hold the skeletons of hundreds of shipwrecks.
Q 14The San called the Skeleton Coast 'The Land God Made in Anger'; what did Portuguese sailors call it?
The Gates of Hell
Portuguese sailors called the Skeleton Coast 'The Gates of Hell': dense fog and pounding surf made landings deadly, and anyone who got ashore faced desert with no fresh water.
Q 15The welwitschia plant of the Namib is remarkable for having how many leaves?
Two
A welwitschia produces just two leaves in its lifetime; they grow continuously from the base and are shredded by the wind into ragged strips.
Q 16The oldest welwitschias are thought to be roughly how old?
2,000 years
The oldest welwitschias are thought to be roughly 2,000 years old, with many large specimens dated at more than 1,000 years; the plant is a gymnosperm found only in the Namib.
Q 17Which Namibian port is named after the German trader whose 1883 land purchase began the colony?
Lüderitz
Lüderitz, formerly Angra Pequena, is named after Bremen merchant Adolf Lüderitz, who bought the bay and surrounding land from Nama chief Josef Frederiks II in 1883.
Q 18Which Namibian island held a German concentration camp for Herero and Nama prisoners from 1905?
Shark Island
Shark Island, in Lüderitz Bay, held a German concentration camp from 1905 to 1907 in which well over a thousand Herero and Nama prisoners died of cold, hunger and forced labour.
Q 19Which German commander issued the notorious extermination order against the Herero in October 1904?
Lothar von Trotha
Lothar von Trotha issued the Vernichtungsbefehl on 2 October 1904, ordering that any Herero found inside German borders be shot; a similar proclamation against the Nama followed in April 1905.
Q 20Which country administered Namibia under a League of Nations mandate from 1920?
South Africa
South Africa received the League of Nations mandate in December 1920, later extended apartheid to the territory and refused to place it under UN trusteeship, so the UN revoked the mandate in 1966.
Q 24Who was sworn in as Namibia's first president?
Sam Nujoma
Sam Nujoma was sworn in as Namibia's first president at the independence ceremony, attended by Nelson Mandela, and served three terms until 2005, when Hifikepunye Pohamba succeeded him.
Q 25Which port was transferred to Namibia only in 1994?
Walvis Bay
Walvis Bay, annexed by Britain in 1878 and later attached to the Cape Colony, stayed a South African enclave after independence and was handed to Namibia on 1 March 1994.
Q 26Who won Namibia's 2024 presidential election as the ruling party's first female candidate?
Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah
Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah won the November 2024 presidential election with about 57 percent of the vote and took office in March 2025 as Namibia's first female president.
Q 27Which president of Namibia died in office in February 2024?
Hage Geingob
Hage Geingob, president since 2015, died in a Windhoek hospital on 4 February 2024 after a cancer diagnosis; Vice-President Nangolo Mbumba served out the remainder of the term.
Q 28What is Namibia's sole official language?
English
English has been Namibia's sole official language since independence, chosen as a neutral unifying tongue even though only a few percent of Namibians speak it at home.
Q 29Which language is spoken in almost half of Namibian households?
Oshiwambo
Oshiwambo, the main language of northern Namibia, was the home language of about 49 percent of households at the 2011 census, far ahead of Khoekhoe and Afrikaans.
Q 30Which Christian denomination is the largest in Namibia?
Lutheran
Lutherans make up roughly half of Namibia's population, a legacy of 19th-century German and Nordic mission work; the Catholic Church is the second-largest denomination.