How to learn the countries of Africa

Read it in bands, north to south

• The Mediterranean coast (5), west to east: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt.
• The Sahara's southern edge (5), west to east directly below them: Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, Sudan.
• The west coast (13). Start at Senegal, which wraps around the Gambia, and follow the coast round the bulge: Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria. Burkina Faso sits inland above Ghana, and Cabo Verde is the island group off Senegal.
• The middle (7). Cameroon in the corner of the coast, then Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo going south, with the Central African Republic and the huge Democratic Republic of the Congo inland. São Tomé and Príncipe are the islands in the gulf.
• The Horn and the upper Nile (5). Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia on the coast, Ethiopia behind them, South Sudan to the west.
• The east (5). Kenya and Tanzania on the ocean, Uganda inland, and the small pair Rwanda (north) and Burundi (south).
• The south (10). Angola and Namibia on the Atlantic, Mozambique on the Indian Ocean, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Botswana between them, South Africa at the tip with Lesotho inside it and Eswatini on its eastern edge.
• The islands in the east (4). Madagascar, with the Comoros off its north-west, and Mauritius and the Seychelles out in the ocean.

The name families

• Three Guineas. Guinea-Bissau and Guinea are neighbours on the west coast, the small one above the large one. Equatorial Guinea is far away, in the corner under Cameroon.
• Two Congos. They face each other across the Congo River. The Democratic Republic is the giant in the middle of the continent; the Republic of the Congo is the smaller one to its west.
• Niger and Nigeria. Nigeria is on the coast. Niger is the landlocked one on top of it.
• Sudan and South Sudan. As the names say.
• Zambia and Zimbabwe. Zambia is above Zimbabwe, with the Zambezi between them. The Gambia, which only sounds like Zambia, is the sliver inside Senegal.
• Mauritania and Mauritius. Mauritania is the desert country in the north-west. Mauritius is an island on the opposite side of the continent.
• Mali and Malawi. Mali is in the Sahara band. Malawi is the thin country along its lake in the south-east.

An order that works

Begin with the two bands in the north: ten large countries in two tidy rows, and a third of the map is done. Then the south, where the shapes are distinct. Leave the west coast for last and take it in two halves, Senegal to Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire to Nigeria, because it is a run of small countries where order is everything.

Take one group at a time. Play it on Name it until the names come without thinking, then switch to Find it, which asks the harder question: given only the name, where is it? What you miss comes back sooner in Review, and what you know comes back less often, so a few minutes a day is enough.

Practise it

• Countries of Africa: all 54, ten questions at a time.
• Landlocked countries in Africa: the inland ones, which are the ones that go missing.
• Capitals of Africa and Flags of Africa for the next round.