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44 free Sierra Leone trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Forty-four questions on Sierra Leone, the West African republic founded as a home for freed slaves. Geography covers Freetown on its mountainous peninsula, Africa's largest natural harbour, Mount Bintumani, Tiwai Island's pygmy hippos, the Lungi airport ferry and 400 km of Atlantic coast. History runs from Pedro de Sintra's 'lioness mountains' in 1462, Bunce Island's slave fort, the Black Poor of London and the Province of Freedom, the Nova Scotian settlers of 1792 and the Cotton Tree, Jamaican Maroons, Liberated Africans and the birth of Krio, Fourah Bay College, Bai Bureh's Hut Tax War, Milton Margai and independence in 1961, Siaka Stevens' one-party state, the RUF, blood diamonds and Executive Outcomes, Operation Palliser, the 2014 Ebola outbreak and the presidents since. Culture rounds cover Krio spoken by 97 percent, the Temne and Mende, three-quarters Muslim with famous tolerance, the leone, rice at every meal, poyo palm wine, the green-white-blue flag and the Leone Stars. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the country, its capital, war and people, and the sentence that establishes it is quoted under each explanation. Suits a pub quiz, a West Africa lesson or anyone who has read 'A Long Way Gone'.
30 of 44 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Sierra Leone borders Guinea and which other country?
Liberia
Liberia's civil war spilled over to ignite Sierra Leone's own conflict in 1991.
Q 02What is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone?
Freetown
Freetown, founded in 1792 on the Sierra Leone Peninsula, is the country's capital and by far its largest city, home to more than a million people.
Q 03Which Portuguese navigator named the hills above today's Freetown 'Serra Leoa' in 1462?
Pedro de Sintra
Pedro de Sintra charted this coast in 1462 and called the peninsula's hills Serra Leoa, 'Lioness Mountains', the Portuguese name from which Sierra Leone derives.
Q 04The capital was founded in 1792 by Black Loyalists relocated from which Canadian province?
Nova Scotia
About 1,200 Black Loyalists, given poor land and facing racism in Nova Scotia, sailed from Halifax in January 1792 under John Clarkson and founded Freetown.
Q 05Fourah Bay College, founded in 1827, holds what distinction?
Oldest university in West Africa
Fourah Bay College, founded in 1827 and affiliated to Durham University from 1876, is the oldest university in West Africa; its scholars earned Freetown the nickname 'Athens of West Africa'.
Q 06Which Temne chief led the 1898 Hut Tax War against the British in Sierra Leone before surrendering that November?
Bai Bureh
Bai Bureh was exiled to the Gold Coast by Governor Cardew, who hanged 96 of his warriors; Madam Yoko was the pro-British Mende paramount chief.
Q 07Sierra Leone gained independence from Britain on 27 April of which year?
1961
Sierra Leone became independent on 27 April 1961 with Sir Milton Margai as prime minister; it kept the Queen as head of state until becoming a republic in April 1971.
Q 08Which prime minister was ousted within hours of taking office in 1967 and made the APC the sole legal party in 1978?
Siaka Stevens
A counter-coup restored him in 1968; he retired in 1985 and handed over to General Joseph Saidu Momoh.
Q 09Which South African private military company was hired in 1995 to push back the RUF?
Executive Outcomes
Executive Outcomes, a South African firm hired in 1995, used a few hundred men to retake the eastern diamond fields from the RUF; the British firm Sandline figured in a separate 1998 arms affair.
Q 10The 2000 British military intervention that helped end the war and secure the capital was codenamed what?
Operation Palliser
Operation Palliser, launched in May 2000, landed British paratroopers to secure Lungi airport and Freetown as the RUF advanced; British forces then retrained the army and the war was declared over in January 2002.
Q 11Which Liberian leader was indicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for backing the RUF?
Charles Taylor
Charles Taylor, Liberia's president from 1997 to 2003, was convicted in 2012 of aiding and abetting RUF war crimes and sentenced to 50 years, served in a British prison.
Q 12The gems mined and sold to buy weapons during the war became known worldwide as what?
Blood diamonds
'Blood diamonds' paid for RUF weapons; a UN-backed certificate-of-origin scheme for Sierra Leone's rough diamonds began in 2000, three years before the global Kimberley Process.
Q 13Which mineral, a titanium ore, does Sierra Leone hold in some of the world's largest deposits?
Rutile
Q 21What happened to the capital's Cotton Tree on the night of 24 May 2023?
Much of it toppled in heavy rain
Much of the Cotton Tree toppled in a heavy rainstorm on the night of 24 May 2023, leaving little more than a stump; it had stood in central Freetown since before the 1792 settlers arrived.
Q 22Bunce Island, the British slave fort near Freetown, shipped most of its captives to planters in which region?
The Carolina and Georgia Lowcountry
The Carolina and Georgia Lowcountry planters prized rice-growing skills, and the Gullah people of the Sea Islands trace roots to Sierra Leone.
Q 23What is the highest point in Sierra Leone, at about 1,945 metres?
Rutile, titanium dioxide, is mined at Sierra Rutile in the south-west, one of the world's largest natural rutile deposits; diamonds, gold, bauxite and iron ore round out the sector.
Q 14Sierra Leone's July 2022 redenomination swapped how many old leones for one new leone?
1,000
The new leone (SLE) launched on 1 July 2022 at 1,000 old leones to one, cutting three zeroes from prices after decades of inflation.
Q 15Which language, spoken by almost every Sierra Leonean, is the country's lingua franca?
Krio
Krio, an English-based creole that grew among Freetown's settler and Liberated African communities, is understood by about 95% of Sierra Leoneans; English is the official language.
Q 16Which two ethnic groups, each roughly a third of the population, dominate Sierra Leone?
Temne and Mende
The Temne lead in the north and the Mende in the southeast, and national politics runs along that axis.
Q 17Roughly what share of Sierra Leoneans are Muslim?
Three-quarters
About three-quarters of Sierra Leoneans are Muslim (77% at the 2015 census) and a fifth Christian; the secular state is noted for religious tolerance, with Eid and Christmas both national holidays.
Q 18In December 2002 Sierra Leone declared which surprising language an honorary official language?
Bengali
Bengali was declared an honorary official language in December 2002 by President Kabbah, in thanks for the thousands of Bangladeshi peacekeepers who served in the UN mission UNAMSIL.
Q 19What are the three colours of Sierra Leone's flag, top to bottom?
Green, white, blue
Green, white, blue: the green stands for agriculture and mountains, the blue for the harbour.
Q 20The historic Cotton Tree in the centre of the capital, a symbol of the city, is what species?
Kapok
Legend says the 1792 settlers prayed beneath it and that a slave market was once held in its shade.
Mount Bintumani
Mount Bintumani, also known as Loma Mansa, crowns the Loma Mountains of the north-east at about 1,945 metres; Sankan Biriwa in the Tingi Hills is the country's second peak.
Q 24Sierra Leone claims Africa's largest what, next to the capital?
Natural harbour
Freetown's harbour on the Sierra Leone River estuary is claimed as Africa's largest natural harbour; ocean ships dock at the Queen Elizabeth II Quay in Cline Town.
Q 25How have most passengers travelled between Lungi airport and the capital?
By ferry across the estuary
Lungi airport lies across the Sierra Leone River estuary from Freetown, so most arriving passengers have crossed by ferry or water taxi; the road around the estuary takes hours.
Q 26Tiwai Island in southern Sierra Leone, with one of the world's densest primate populations, also shelters which rare animal?
Pygmy hippopotamus
A pygmy hippopotamus population shares Tiwai with over 135 bird species; the Tacugama sanctuary near Freetown shelters chimpanzees.
Q 27What is Sierra Leone's staple food, eaten at virtually every meal?
Rice
Rice is the staple, eaten at almost every meal and served under 'plasas' such as cassava-leaf, potato-leaf or groundnut stew.
Q 28Poyo, a popular Sierra Leonean drink, is what?
Palm wine
Poyo is palm wine, tapped from oil or raffia palms and drunk fresh while lightly fermented; roadside 'poyo bars' are a fixture across the country.
Q 29The national football team is nicknamed what?
The Leone Stars
The Leone Stars have never reached a World Cup, but played the 1994 and 1996 Africa Cup of Nations.
Q 30The 2014 Ebola outbreak killed which leading Sierra Leonean physician who was fighting it?
Sheik Umar Khan
Dr Sheik Umar Khan, head of the Kenema Government Hospital's Lassa fever programme, led the country's Ebola response and died of the disease on 29 July 2014.