Rwanda Trivia
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48 free Rwanda trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Forty-four questions on Rwanda, the land of a thousand hills. Geography covers Kigali at 1,567 metres, Mount Karisimbi, Lake Kivu and its explosive methane, the Nyabarongo as a claimant to the source of the Nile, and the three national parks that hold a third of the world's mountain gorillas. History runs from the Nyiginya kings and King Rwabugiri, German and Belgian rule and the 1935 identity cards, the 1959 revolution and 1962 independence, through the civil war, the shooting down of Habyarimana's plane and the hundred days of genocide, to Gacaca courts, the RPF, Paul Kagame and the new flag of 2001. Culture and modern life cover Kinyarwanda, umuganda community mornings, the plastic-bag ban, Kwita Izina gorilla naming, the world-leading share of women in parliament, Visit Rwanda on Arsenal shirts, brochettes and imigongo cow-dung art. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the country, its parks, people and history, and the sentence that establishes it is quoted under each explanation. Suits a pub quiz, an African studies class or a gorilla-trekking trip.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital and largest city of Rwanda?
Kigali
Kigali was only a small colonial trading post until it became the capital at independence; the old royal court sat at Nyanza, further south.
Q 02Which large country lies on Rwanda's western border?
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, then called Zaire, took in more than a million Rwandans who fled across this border in July and August 1994.
Q 03What is Rwanda's famous French-derived nickname?
Land of a thousand hills
Land of a thousand hills suits a country where nearly every slope is terraced and farmed, because Rwanda is among Africa's most densely populated nations.
Q 04Rwanda's highest point, at 4,507 metres, is which volcano on its north-western border?
Mount Karisimbi
Mount Karisimbi gave half its name to Karisoke, the gorilla research camp set up in 1967 in the saddle between it and Mount Bisoke.
Q 05Which lake on Rwanda's western border holds enough dissolved gas to risk a rare limnic eruption?
Lake Kivu
Lake Kivu's depths hold vast amounts of carbon dioxide and methane, and since 2016 Rwanda's KivuWatt plant has pumped the methane out to generate electricity.
Q 06A stream in south-western Rwanda's rainforest is a contender for the most distant source of which river?
The Nile
The Nile may have its longest headstream there: in 2006 an expedition claimed to have traced the river to its true starting point in that forest after travelling 6,700 kilometres upstream in 80 days.
Q 07Mountain gorillas survive in the wild only in Rwanda, the DR Congo and which third country?
Uganda
Uganda shares them, and their numbers have climbed past 1,000, enough for their status to be eased from critically endangered to endangered in 2018.
Q 08Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park, created in 1925 to shield gorillas, holds what distinction?
First national park in Africa
First national park in Africa: it formed part of the Belgian-run Albert National Park, the rest of which survives across the border as Virunga.
Q 09Which American primatologist studied Rwanda's mountain gorillas from 1966 until her murder in 1985?
Dian Fossey
Dian Fossey founded the Karisoke Research Center in 1967 between two Virunga volcanoes and turned militant against poachers after her favourite gorilla, Digit, was killed in 1977; she was murdered there in December 1985.
Q 10Rwanda's annual Kwita Izina ceremony does what?
Names newborn baby gorillas
Kwita Izina names newborn baby gorillas: modelled on the Rwandan ceremony for naming a child, it lets invited guests name each year's infants, which helps rangers follow every individual.
Q 11Which Rwandan rainforest is famous for its chimpanzees, colobus monkeys and a canopy walkway?
Nyungwe
Nyungwe is one of Africa's oldest rainforests, which helps explain why thirteen kinds of primate, chimpanzees among them, share it.
Q 12Which country donated seven lions to Rwanda's Akagera National Park in 2015?
South Africa
South Africa sent the seven lions from two KwaZulu-Natal reserves, years after returning farmers had wiped out the park's last ones to protect their cattle.
Q 13Which European power first colonised Rwanda, making it part of its East African territory?
Germany
Germany governed through the Rwandan king as part of German East Africa until Belgian forces occupied the country in 1916, during the First World War.
Q 21What name was given to the traditional village courts revived to try genocide cases?
Gacaca
Gacaca courts used more than 160,000 judges elected by their neighbours to try well over a million cases, because the wrecked legal system could never have coped.
Q 22Which actor played hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina in 'Hotel Rwanda' (2004)?
Don Cheadle
Don Cheadle earned an Oscar nomination for the role; the real Rusesabagina, by then a critic of Rwanda's government, was jailed there for terrorism in 2021 and freed in 2023.
Q 23Who became president of Rwanda in 2000 after leading the RPF to power in 1994?
Paul Kagame
Paul Kagame grew up a refugee, fought in Yoweri Museveni's rebel army and took over the RPF when its first commander was killed on day two of the 1990 invasion.
Q 14After the First World War, Belgium ruled Rwanda as a single League of Nations mandate together with which present-day country?
Burundi
Burundi and Rwanda were run together as Ruanda-Urundi from Usumbura, now Bujumbura, then went their separate ways as two independent states in 1962.
Q 15In 1961 Rwandans voted to abolish what?
The monarchy
The monarchy was rejected by about 80 percent of voters, and the last king, Kigeli V, spent the rest of his life in exile, dying in the United States in 2016.
Q 16Rwanda's 1994 genocide began within hours of what event on 6 April?
The president's plane was shot down
The president's plane was shot down by missiles as it came in to land, killing Juvénal Habyarimana, and who fired them has never been settled.
Q 17Over roughly how many days did Rwanda's 1994 genocide unfold?
100
About 100 days: the killing of some 800,000 people, most of them Tutsi, stopped only when RPF fighters overran the country in July.
Q 18Which broadcaster infamously fuelled the genocide with anti-Tutsi propaganda?
Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines
Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines won young listeners with pop music, then read out the names of people to be killed; a UN tribunal later convicted its founders.
Q 19Which Hutu militia, formed as the ruling party's youth wing, led the roadblock killings of Rwanda's 1994 genocide?
Interahamwe
Interahamwe, a name often translated as 'those who attack together', was armed with machetes and hit-lists; after the RPF's victory many members fled abroad and regrouped as rebels.
Q 20Which Canadian general commanded the UN mission in Rwanda and warned his superiors in January 1994 of a planned extermination?
Romeo Dallaire
Romeo Dallaire reported hidden arms caches and a plan to exterminate Tutsi, but UN headquarters refused to let him raid them; he told the story in 'Shake Hands with the Devil'.
Q 24In 2008 Rwanda announced that its schools would switch from teaching in French to which language?
English
English replaced French in classrooms as Rwanda turned towards its English-speaking East African neighbours and away from France, which it accused of backing the 1994 killers.
Q 25After its 2003 election, Rwanda led the world in which measure of political representation?
Share of women in parliament
Share of women in parliament: the post-genocide constitution guarantees women 30 percent of seats, and in 2008 Rwanda became the first country to elect a female majority.
Q 26On the last Saturday of every month, Rwandans aged 18 to 65 must take part in what?
Umuganda community service
Umuganda community service shuts shops and thins traffic for the morning while neighbours clean streets and build homes, and those who skip it can be fined.
Q 27Which everyday item did Rwanda ban in 2008, even confiscating it from visitors' luggage?
Plastic bags
Plastic bags discarded after use were fouling streets and clogging drains, so Rwanda outlawed them entirely in 2008.
Q 28Rwanda's flag, adopted in 2001 to break with the genocide era, shows which emblem in its upper corner?
A golden sun
A golden sun shines from the corner of a flag that dropped the old banner's red and black, colours the government felt recalled blood and mourning.
Q 29Which English football club did the 'Visit Rwanda' campaign first sponsor in 2018?
Arsenal
Arsenal wore the logo on its sleeves from 2018, and by 2025 fans were protesting against the deal over Rwanda's alleged support for rebels in a neighbouring war.
Q 30Which grouping did Rwanda join in 2009 as only its second member with no colonial tie to the founding power?
The Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations admitted Rwanda as only its second member never ruled by Britain, after Mozambique, part of the country's deliberate turn away from French influence.