I'm still quizzing myself on capitals of the world. I tell myself it is unkind to dismiss the Carribean and Oceania as too puny to matter. I mean, the Greater Antilles are not so puny, and Charlotte Amalie is a lovely name even though I would say the actual capital of the U.S. Virgin Islands is Washington, D.C., and Dominica is easy to remember because it's the only island left with any native population, thanks Columbus, but Nauru, Palau, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu have done nothing to distinguish themselves to me and they all sound alike.
It's the sound alike problem I have with Africa. I went through the list and noted the mnemonic I use for each country, and the capitals left are all too similar. The game I learn from is matching, which is good for my level because although I recognize Antananarivo as the capital of Madagascar when I see it, I couldn't fill in a blank with it. But the give-away of matching leaves me with three-syllable words that seem alien to me except that they're familiar to each other:
Equatorial Guinea : Malabo
Mali : Bamako
Uganda : Kampala
There is no reason for me not to know the capital of Uganda: Idi Amin happened in my lifetime. But it hasn't stuck in my head yet. Most of the other capitals have, though many only to the point of recognition:
Algeria, Algiers; obvious
Angola, Luanda; Angola borders Zambia to the left, as Luanda comes alphabetically left of Lusaka
Benin, Porto-Novo; known from Egg's trip
Botswana, Gaborone; Gabon-like
Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou; long and complicated like neighbor Ivory Coast
Burundi, Bujumbura; alliterative
Cameroon, Yaoundé; oon, aoun
Cape Verde, Praia; pretty islands, pretty name
Central African Republic, Bangui; alphabetically before Gambia; as is deceptively similar Bangui
Comoros, Moroni; LDS' homeland
Congo, DRC, Kinshasa; known from history
Eritrea, Asmara; sounds geographically appropriate
Ethiopia, Addis Ababa; known because has always been favorite country name
Gabon, Libreville; annoying, because distant from Sierra Leone and Liberia and from Botswana
Gambia, Banjul; alphabetically after CAR; as is deceptively similar Banjul
Ghana, Accra; alphabetically before other g-n Guinea; so is "akr" Accra
Guinea, Conakry; alphabetically after g-n Ghana; so is "akr" Conakry
Guinea-Bissau, Bissau; obvious
Ivory Coast, Yamoussoukro; long and complicated like neighbor Burkina Faso; also given as Abidjan, which erratically east African.
Kenya, Nairobi; known because has always been favorite country name
Lesotho, Maseru; geographically near Mozembique therefore both Ms; vowels in alpha order, therefore before Mozambique; begins with m, like obviously southern african Mbabane in Swaziland which is between Lesotho and Mozambique
Liberia, Monrovia; known from U.S. history
Libya, Tripoli; known from living history
Madagascar, Antananarivo; both long
Malawi, Lilongwe; long country, long in word
Mauritania, Nouakchott; sounds geographically appropriate
Mauritius, Port Louis; island therefore port
Morocco, Rabat; known from history
Mozambique, Maputo; geographically near Lesotho therefore both Ms; u comes after e therefore after Lesotho; begins with m, like obviously southern african Mbabane in Swaziland which is between Lesotho and Mozambique
Namibia, Windhoek; sounds geographically appropriate
Niger, Niamey; known because of Nisou's sister's Peace Corps work
Nigeria, Abuja; only one of the 10 most populous countries in the world: no reason to remember its capital
Republic of the Congo, Brazzaville; known
Rwanda, Kigali; known from Hotel Rwanda
Sao Tome and Principe, Sao Tomé; obvious
Senegal, Dakar; known from UConn Senegalese community
Seychelles, Port Victoria; island therefore port
Sierra Leone, Freetown; similar (reason for) name as Liberia
Somalia, Mogadishu; known from living history
South Africa, Pretoria; known from living history
Sudan, Khartoum; known from living history
Swaziland, Mbabane; sounds southern African
Tanzania, Dar Es Salaam; sounds like 1001 nights
Togo, Lomé; known from Egg's trip
Tunisia, Tunis; obvious
Zambia, Lusaka; Zambia borders Angola to the right, as Lusaka follows to the right of Luanda alphabetically
Zimbabwe, Harare; Nancy Farmer
I know Central and South America cold and most of Europe. I never remember Moldova and I sometimes swap the Baltic states. Matching might help me memorize Asia eventually, but Brunei still has not justified why the longass capital, and several -stans trip me up.