cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/432929

It may sound a little condescending, or like I’m bragging about something as elementary as putting on my pants or brushing my teeth, but I wouldn’t say that this thread is entirely unjustified either considering how so many adults are (almost) clueless about the subject.

It took me only 0.5–1 hour(s) to master this, and any frustration that I had was minor.

(If you are experiencing graphical glitches like giant text boxes, see here for advice.)

  • Erika3sis [she/her, xe/xem]@hexbear.netEnglish
    5·
    15 days ago

    I’ve had the placement of all the African countries more or less down for years, I might even be able to name all the countries of Africa off the top of my head just by visualizing a map of the continent in my mind’s eye. I made two mistakes in the linked quiz, however, namely mixing up Mauritius and Seychelles, and mixing up Mali and Mauritania — for the former mistake I should’ve known better, for the latter mistake, that was just because I was tired and going on autopilot. In any case I did manage to locate all 54 countries in 56 attempts with no skips.

    I can also identify all the African national flags, and could probably draw them all from memory, too. I can also identify all the national coats of arms of Africa, but I definitely could not draw those from memory.

    Testing myself on African capitals, which I used to have 100% memorized, I could only correctly identify two-thirds of them now. It probably won’t take much for me to relearn the capitals I’m weak on, since for a lot of the names that I couldn’t remember off the top of my head, those names did sound familiar once the answers were revealed.

    I also quizzed myself on African national anthems as performed by the US Navy Band.

    Anthems I can identify
    • DRC (Debout, congolais / Arise, Congolese)
    • Kenya (Ee mungu nguvu yetu / O God of All Creation)
    • Algeria (Qassaman / We Pledge — The lyrics to this anthem I’ve heard were first written in blood on a prison wall)
    • Sierra Leone (High We Exalt Thee, Realm of the Free)
    • Senegal (Pincez tous vos koras, frappez le balafons / Everyone strum your koras, strike the balafons)
    • Djibouti (Djibouti)
    • Eritrea (Ertra, Ertra, Ertra / Eritrea, Eritrea, Eritrea)
    • Ethiopia (Wodefit Gesgeshi, Widd Inate Ityoppya / March Forth, Dear Mother Ethiopia)
    • South Africa / Tanzania / Zambia (All use the melody of “Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrika” — South Africa uses this melody followed by the melody of “Die Stem van Suid-Afrika”)
    • Gabon (La Concorde / The Concord)
    • Madagascar (Ry Tanindrazanay Malala ô / O Beloved Land of Our Ancestors)
    • Morocco (Cherifian Anthem)
    • Mauritania (the 1960-2017 anthem — the post-2017 anthem sounds a bit like the 20th Century Fox theme)
    • Burkina Faso (Une Seule Nuit / One Single Night — this anthem was actually written by Sankara himself!)
    • Namibia (Namibia, Land of the Brave)
    • South Sudan (South Sudan Oyee)
    • Niger (L’Honneur de la Patrie / The Honor of the Fatherland)
    • Egypt (Bilady, Bilady, Bilady / Homeland, Homeland, Homeland)
    • Liberia (All Hail, Liberia, Hail!)

    Anthems I should’ve been able to identify but didn’t:

    • Eswatini (Nkulunkulu Mnikati wetibusiso temaSwati / God, Giver of Blessings to the Swazi — this is the only national anthem in the world with click consonants in its lyrics, but you can’t exactly hear that in an instrumental rendition…)
    • Chad (La Tchadienne / Song of the Chadian — I even knew some of the words)
    • Mali (Pour l’Afrique et pour toi, Mali / For Africa And For You, Mali — other renditions are much more distinctive)
    • Somalia (Soomaaliyeey toosoo / Somalis, Wake Up — this is technically the old anthem, in any case other renditions are much more distinctive)
    • Sudan (Nahnu Jundullah, Jundulwatan / We Are Soldiers of God, Soldiers of the Motherland — again, other renditions are much more distinctive)
    • Libya (Libiya, Libiya, Libiya / Libya, Libya, Libya — which in Arabic script looks like three viking ships)

    There are also a few historical anthems, anthems of unrecognized/partially-recognized countries, or subnational anthems I might’ve been able to identify, but which weren’t in the playlist I listened to. There’s also the question of whether you count Yemen as an African country because of Socotra, but I wouldn’t do this personally.

    Which means that I got 21 / 54 countries, or just over two-fifths.