Capitals of Africa

Africa has 54 countries, more than any other continent, and the capitals of two of them face each other across one river.

The continent across the equator

Africa is the second largest continent, at about 30 million square kilometres, and the equator runs almost through its middle. The Sahara, the largest hot desert in the world, covers much of the north. South of it lies the Sahel, a dry belt of grassland, and then the rainforests of the Congo Basin around the equator. The Nile runs north for about 6,650 kilometres to the Mediterranean, and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania rises to 5,895 metres.

Africa has about 1.5 billion people and the youngest population of any continent. It is easiest to learn its capitals in five regions: North Africa along the Mediterranean, West Africa around the bulge of the Atlantic coast, Central Africa around the Congo River, East Africa from Ethiopia to Tanzania, and Southern Africa. Many West African capitals are ports, such as Dakar, Accra, Lomé and Monrovia, because the colonial trade routes ran by sea.

Large and small countries

Algeria is the largest country in Africa at 2,381,741 square kilometres. Sudan held that title until South Sudan became independent in 2011, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo is now second. Nigeria has the most people, more than 200 million. The smallest country is Seychelles, a group of islands in the Indian Ocean with about 455 square kilometres, and the smallest on the mainland is The Gambia, a narrow strip along the Gambia River almost surrounded by Senegal. Lesotho is completely surrounded by South Africa.

Five island countries are too small for the globe at this scale: Cabo Verde (capital Praia), Comoros (Moroni), Mauritius (Port Louis), São Tomé and Príncipe (São Tomé) and Seychelles (Victoria). Add them to the 49 countries on the map and you reach the full 54.

Planned and shared capitals

Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos, is on the coast in the far southwest. In the 1970s the government chose a site near the middle of the country for a new capital that no single region could claim, and on 12 December 1991 Abuja formally replaced Lagos. Côte d’Ivoire made a similar choice: Yamoussoukro became the official capital in 1983, though most ministries and embassies stayed in Abidjan. Tanzania’s official capital is Dodoma in the centre of the country, while the port of Dar es Salaam remains the largest city.

South Africa divides the work of government among three cities. The president and the ministries are in Pretoria, Parliament meets in Cape Town, and the Supreme Court of Appeal sits in Bloemfontein. Its largest city, Johannesburg, is none of the three. Morocco is another place where the famous city is not the capital: Casablanca is larger, but the king and government are in Rabat.

Some African capitals sit high in the mountains. Addis Ababa, whose name means "new flower" in Amharic, lies at about 2,355 metres, which makes it one of the highest capitals in the world, and it is home to the headquarters of the African Union. Eswatini, a small kingdom between South Africa and Mozambique, has two capitals: Mbabane is the administrative capital, while Lobamba is the royal and legislative capital. Benin is another split case, with Porto-Novo as the official capital and most of the government in the larger port of Cotonou. Cameroon is similar on a smaller scale: the port of Douala is the biggest city, but the government works inland in Yaoundé.

Easy to mix up