How to teach the countries of Africa

Grade 3 to Grade 6

Africa has fifty-four countries, the most of any continent, so the trick is to split it into regions (Northern, Western, Central, Eastern and Southern Africa) and learn one region at a time on a blank map, rather than treating fifty-four countries as fifty-four separate facts. A blank map to label is the core practice tool.

How to teach it

1. Start with the five regions and their rough positions before naming individual countries, so the map has a frame.
2. Learn one region at a time on a blank map: point, name, then write, and only add the next region once the first is secure.
3. Use the coasts and the Sahara as anchors: the North African countries along the Mediterranean, the West African bulge on the Atlantic, the Horn of Africa pointing east, South Africa at the tip.
4. Pair each country with its capital once the shapes are secure, and watch the traps where the capital is not the best known city (Abuja not Lagos in Nigeria, Pretoria not Johannesburg in South Africa).
5. Handle the edges honestly: the smallest coastal states (Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Togo, Benin, Equatorial Guinea) and the island nations are too small to label on a whole-continent map and are just named.

Common mistakes

• Muddling the many small, crowded countries of West Africa with each other.
• Confusing the two Congos, the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• Mixing up the Horn of Africa neighbours, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti.
• Assuming the biggest city is the capital (Abuja not Lagos, Pretoria not Johannesburg or Cape Town).