How to Memorize the Countries of Africa: Tips and Techniques

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Memorizing all 53 independent countries in Africa can be a daunting task. However, by using mnemonic devices and chunking techniques, you can make the process more manageable and effective. This article provides a detailed guide to help you memorize the countries of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula using these strategies.

The Power of Mnemonics and Chunking

Mnemonics are memory aids that help you memorize large amounts of information by making it more meaningful. Chunking involves breaking down information into smaller, more manageable pieces. Combining these techniques can significantly improve your ability to memorize the countries of Africa.

My intention in publishing this is that the chunked list and the observations about it will make it easier for people around the world to memorize all or just part of Africa and Arabia. I do wonder whether a necessary part of the process that worked so well for me is creating one’s own list, and creating and/or finding one’s own patterns in it. I hope for some feedback about this. I hope I will at least inspire someone to do something similar with some part of the world map or some other map.

Content Chunking and Organization

Content chunking is used throughout the list. I looked for memorable sets of countries that were also a round number, by which I normally mean a multiple of five or ten, preferably the latter.

1-10: South Africa and Its Neighbors

Thus 1-10 is South Africa and the six countries that border it, together with three countries that while not bordering it, are nearby, and border on countries that do border on South Africa and have a long history of involvement with South Africa, either as friend of foe. Thus anyone reading or thinking about the history of South of Africa would do well to learn 1-10 by heart.

Read also: A Look at African Geography

1-10 is also the set of mainland African nations that lie on or south of the fifteenth parallel south. The northern limit of the area covered by 1-10 lies entirely between the fifteenth and the Equator, and is the northern borders of four nations, all of which lie on the fifteenth parallel, which is thus memorable in two ways. The northern tips of the four nations form a fairly straight line that points roughly speaking to the northern tip of Madagascar. This also is memorable, and makes for more accurate freehand drawing of the map.

  1. Lesotho
  2. Swaziland (AKA Eswatini)
  3. South Africa
  4. Zimbabwe
  5. Zambia
  6. Malawi
  7. Mozambique
  8. Botswana
  9. Namibia
  10. Angola

11-15: The Uganda Five

  1. Congo-Kinshasa
  2. Tanzania
  3. Burundi
  4. Rwanda
  5. Uganda

16-25: The Djibouti Ten

  1. Kenya
  2. Somalia
  3. Congo-Brazzaville (AKA Zaire, DRC)
  4. Gabon
  5. Equatorial Guinea
  6. Cameroon
  7. Central African Republic
  8. South Sudan
  9. Ethiopia
  10. Djibouti

26-30: The Ivory Coast Five

  1. Nigeria
  2. Benin
  3. Togo
  4. Ghana
  5. Ivory Coast

31-40: The Yemen Ten

  1. Somalia
  2. Mauritania
  3. Mali
  4. Burkina Faso
  5. Niger
  6. Chad
  7. Sudan
  8. Eritrea
  9. Red Sea*
  10. Yemen

41-50: The Kuwait Ten

  1. Morocco
  2. Algeria
  3. Libya
  4. Egypt
  5. Sinai*
  6. Israel
  7. Jordan
  8. Saudi Arabia
  9. Iraq
  10. Kuwait

51-60: The Guinea-Bissau Ten

  1. Persian Gulf*
  2. Bahrain
  3. Qatar
  4. United Arab Emirates
  5. Oman
  6. Greenland*
  7. Iceland*
  8. Western Sahara
  9. Gambia
  10. Guinea-Bissau

61-70: The Madagascar Ten

  1. Tunisia
  2. Liberia
  3. Sierra Leone
  4. Guinea-Conakry (AKA Guinea)
  5. Cape Verde
  6. Sao Tome and Principe
  7. Comoros
  8. Seychelles
  9. Mauritius
  10. Madagascar

*Note: Zones marked with an asterisk are not African or Middle Eastern nations. They are included to complete a memorable chunk of zones.

Key Techniques for Memorization

Contiguity

Where possible zones are contiguous with the preceding and following zones especially within a set. For example, because Uganda is 15, Kenya is 16, and Somalia is 17. Because Equatorial Guinea is 20, Gabon is 19, and Congo-Kinshasa is 18.

Modularity

1-9 or 1-10 could be used on their own if you are mainly interested in Southern Africa, or just South Africa. 1-9 includes all six nations that border on South Africa.

Completion of Round Numbers

A technique I invented that I call “completing the round number” (I created the phrase on the model of the well-known “completing the square”) is used throughout. It means that when a series of zones is to be memorized, if it is not a round number of zones one or more other zones are added to make it round, because round numbers are more memorable.

Read also: African Beauty Standards

For example, in the list below the group of ten zones numbered 31-40 was made into that round number (ten) by adding the Red Sea and Yemen. It was originally a neat row of eight African nations (memorably they are the African nations that lie on the 30th parallel north, and with the sole exception of Burkina Faso, and the “Sahel countries”, meaning each has a large proportion of its area inside the Sahel. I wanted a multiple of ten, so I added the Red Sea and Yemen. These two also lie on the 30th parallel though not being countries in Africa, they cannot be Sahel countries. In fact, my mnemonic list originally had no countries in Arabia. Once I saw I needed some, I decided to add all of them, for completeness. Ordinary memory will let me know that Burkina is not a Sahel country, and that Yemen is not in Africa. The Arabian Peninsula is intimately connected with Africa and is almost part of the latter: geologically it broke away very recently, and is still near, for one thing and I therefore decided to include Arabia.

Likewise, 41-49 started as a neat row of the 4 North African nations cut by the 30th parallel (Tunisia is just missed by it) and touching the Mediterranean Sea. I (in my own mind) broke the Sinai Peninsula off from Egypt because I wanted a round number, i.e. 5 and because it is so interesting and important a zone, being the only part of an African country not in Africa (it’s in Asia). Again, ordinary memory will tell me that the Sinai is part of Egypt, so no harm is done. As for Tunisia, that is collected later as the first zone in 61-70, together with three other zones that did not fit into any neat row, and all six sovereign African island countries.

I ignored all lakes, but because it lies on the Equator I would count Lake Victoria as a zone to keep 16-25 that length and to keep it symmetrical if Somalia and Kenya merged to become one country called Somaliakenya. This is because 16-25 is ten zones, but a merger of Somalia and Kenya would make it nine. The effects of the merger are counteracted by making Lake Victoria, the biggest lake in Africa, by area into a zone. Symmetry is maintained because Gabon and Congo-Brazzaville on the west of the thirtieth meridian would be balanced by Lake Victoria and Somaliakenya on the east of it. The list would have to be understood to be of all African countries, all countries on or bordering the Arabian Peninsula, together with Lake Victoria, the Red Sea, the Sinai, the Persian Gulf, Greenland, and Iceland. The Greek legend of Procrustes comes to mind. The material to be learned has its length (in the form of number of units) altered rather ruthlessly to make it fit the desired length of the chunk and attention could also be paid to the initial letter of the new zone. Thus if ‘V’ were not convenient as an initial, some other zone could be created out of anything else that lay on that part of the Equator that is to the east of Uganda, and had the desired initial letter. A particular initial might spell something memorable. Sinai is convenient as an artificial zone because it’s initial is ‘S’ and so when appended to MALE, it makes MALES. Had Sinai not started with an S, perhaps a province at the eastern border of Egypt does. It wouldn’t be as interesting, I assume (who knows?) as Sinai, but 41-45 would still have five zones and have a pronounceable string of initials, which is the important thing. I tend towards thinking that such tricks should be used only as a last resort, because the mnemonic becomes harder to decipher, because it stands for more kinds of things.

Attention to Major Parallels and Meridians, Topological Symmetry and Analogies

1 lies on the thirtieth parallel which is one reason it is first (2 is also landlocked and also touches something, though it isn’t a major meridian or parallel, but Mozambique) while 3 contains the intersection of the thirtieth parallel and the thirtieth meridian.

1 and 2 are either side of the thirtieth meridian while 3-5 lie on it. 6 and 7 are to the east of it, while 8-10 are to the west. 11-15 are cut by it, with 11 and 12 mostly either side of it. The thirtieth meridian is thus alluded to or highlighted. I deliberately created a set of analogies between the following sets, that differ by exactly ten. 1-2 and 11-12 each have the thirtieth run between them, in the former case narrowly missing both, and the latter, narrowly hitting both making a tenuous but mnemonically useful analogy. 3-5 and 13-15 lie on the thirtieth. 6-7 and 16-17 lie to east of the thirtieth. 8-9 and 18-19 lie to the west.

Read also: Single-Chamber Legislatures in Africa

1-9 and 11-19 are analogous in that each set is symmetrical about the thirtieth as far as numbers of nations on each side of it. 1-9 has three cut by it, and three on each side while 11-19 has five cut by it and two on each side. 1-2 are extremely near to the intersection of the thirtieth meridian and the thirtieth parallel which is itself nearly on the coast while 12-12 are even nearer to the intersection of thirtieth with the Equator, the intersection being due west of and rather close to what is perhaps the most famous lake in Africa, Lake Victoria. It is the only lake printed on many maps of Africa because it is the largest by area.

Note that the intersection of the thirtieth meridian with the thirtieth parallel north is also rather near both the Mediterranean coast and the Red Sea coast making the triplet very memorable and helping to make the thirtieth meridian all the more interesting and memorable.

Ordinary memory will tell you that after departing Uganda thirtieth just grazes the northeast corner of Zaire before it cuts nearly perfectly in half the remaining three nations due north: South Sudan, Sudan, and Egypt. Thus, one will be able to use it to recall the entire list of African nations cut by the thirtieth meridian.

Only and all the northernmost row of 1-10 (i.e. 5-7 and 10) are cut by the fifteenth parallel south.

Zones 20-30 all lie between the Equator and the fifteenth parallel north. Likewise, 61-64.

31-40 only and all lie on the fifteenth parallel north. I call them the Fifteeners or to be more specific, the north Fifteeners. All the Sahel countries those with a large proportion of theirClosure and unity and attention to natural regions.

Closure, Unity, and Natural Regions

I constantly strove to make the round numbers lie at the end of natural-seeming sets of zones. For example, 26-30 stops at a sort of corner where the coast changes direction from going west to going northwest.

Zones 20-25, except for the tiny 20 and 25, are each figuratively a sort of bridge or buffer zone between the Sahel that touches and crosses slightly the northern border and what could be called “the Equatorials”, meaning the countries in Africa cut by the Equator. Zone 26 would is touched by the Sahel to the north, but it doesn’t touch an Equatorial.

Attention to Initials

1-5 is LSSZZ which I think is memorable, because of the pair of pairs of letters. This is purely fortuitous. I chose the order before I noticed the pattern in the initials.

6-10 is MMBNA. MM is 2000 in Roman numerals, and BNA is DNA said wrong.

11-15 is DTBRU. The DT’s are seeing pink elephants and ‘bru’ means ‘bro’ (brother) in English slang, for example in South Africa. So DTBRU could mean a bro who is seeing pink elephants.

16-19 KSCG. I’ve got nothing. “Keep shooting Congo guns”, anyone?

20-25 has initials ECCSED (which sounds like “ex ed”) while 26-30 spells NBTGI (which sounds like “n.b. CGI” said wrongly). Together ECCSEDNBTGI can be recalled (it works for me) by thinking that an image editor got fired because he said “TGI” instead of “CGI” and that that should be noted well, ie “ That guy is an ex ed. N.b. it’s because he said TGI.”

ECCSED (20-25) I call them the “superequatorials”, because they all border an equatorial and lie to the north, ie on top on a typical map or globe. There are four big ones, and two tiny ones. The big ones all border additionally on the Sahel biome and contain just a smidgen of it, always in the extreme north of the country.

See under 20-2531-40 SMMBNCSERY. “Slow moving mountains bring new cars, SERY”

41-55 Zones 41-45 spell MALES, 46-50: IJSIK, 51-55: PBQUO. Taken together: MALESIJSIKPBQUO. It sounds a bit like, “Males ij sik. Pb quo.” Which could be taken to be a very garbled version of “Males are sick. Pb quota.” Where Pb is the symbol for lead, meaning “The males are sick from lead poisoning.” Don’t forget that “lead poisoning” is sometimes used as a euphemism for shooting, because bullets are usually made of lead.

56-60 GIWGG “Giwg G” pronounced like “Gewg G” or “G I W double G” ( G.I. Doubleyoodoublegee sounds like the name or nickname of a soldier.)

All lie on the fifteenth meridian west. Greenland and Iceland are very memorably just clipped by it on the eastern extreme. I wanted five zones and so I was glad to include them. It helps the student know and visualize how far west the mainland of Africa extends, because 59 is Gambia which is inside Senegal except for a short coastline, which contains the westernmost point in mainland Africa, and therefore more generally where Africa is and how big it is.

There is another pattern in 56-60. 56, sea, 57, sea, 58, Mauretania and part of Senegal, 59, some more of Senegal, 60, sea and Katchek Island (but 1-64 ignores African and Arabian islands, although not Greenland or Iceland, only counting mainland Africa and Arabia). That’s five numbered zones and a gap after each one. The reason Mauretania and Senegal are ignored and counted as gaps are that they have already been numbered as part of 31-40 (what I call the Yemen Ten). Senegal is 31 and Mauretania is 32. The first and second members of the Yemen Ten.

62-64 LSG. Sounds like LSD said wrong. All three are by design all between the Equator and the fifteenth parallel, as well as on the coast, contiguous, and to the east of the fifteenth meridian west at least as far a the mainland is concerned. They match 26-30, except for not all touching a “Fifteener” meaning a country cut by the fifteenth parallel north. Guinea-Conakry has an island that is cut by the fifteenth meridian, Katchek Island, that I mentioned elsewhere.

65-70 CSCSMM. CS twice then M twice.

Note: The equatorials, as I call them, read from west to east along the Equator, are Gabon (19), Congo(18), DRC (also known as Zaire) (11) , Uganda(15), Kenya (16), Somalia(17). GCDUKS is pronounceable and sounds like a name: “G.C. Duks” it would be. “GC Zuks” if you use the old name, “Zaire” instead of the confusing new name, “DRC”. I have always found the following trips off the tongue rather well and is memorable: Gabon, Congo, Zaire, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia. I say it fai...

Creating Your Own Mnemonic Sentences

There are 53 independent countries in Africa and it’s a lot to memorize, especially if you’re cramming for a test. The easiest way to memorize all of the countries names is with a mneumonic device. Mneumonic devices help you memorize loads of information in a way that makes it make sense to you. You’ve probably already heard the device that helps you to memorize the planets, “My Very Egnoramous Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas.” That particular example replaces the name of the planets by keeping the first letter of each planet and creating a sentence that makes sense. Since there are so many countries, they will be easier to memorize if put into short sentences.

Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde: Algae And Ben Bought Birkenstocks Fast, But Cameron’s Green Cape* Centralized Africa’s Republic.

Some of these sentences may seem very silly and absurd, but this is also just an example of how you can memorize. Feel free to modify these sentences to help yourself memorize the countries. After all, you’re the one who has to memorize all of the countries, so it should be something that makes sense to you.

By using a combination of chunking, mnemonic devices, and attention to geographical details, you can effectively memorize the countries of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Experiment with different techniques to find what works best for you, and don't be afraid to create your own personalized memory aids.

Memorize the Countries of Africa with 71 Memory Tricks

Data Reliability

Please note that all the map data used in this article comes from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Wikipedia has a separate article for each parallel and meridian that is a whole number of degrees, and they appear to be very accurate. Thus, it easy to see which nations and seas and major lakes lie on any parallel or meridian. It’s an invaluable resource.

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tags: #Africa