Famous South Africans quiz

David Whitley,

South Africans have achieved enormous success in several fields, whether sporting, cultural, political or business. But can you match the person to the achievement for some of the country’s most famous children – some of whom you probably didn’t realise were South African in the first place. Take the quiz to find out.

Famous South Africans quiz

South Africans have achieved enormous success in several fields, whether sporting, cultural, political or business. But can you match the person to the achievement for some of the country’s most famous children – some of whom you probably didn’t realise were South African in the first place. Take the quiz to find out.

1 / 10

Vilakazi Street in Soweto proudly boasts that it is the only street in the world where two Nobel Prize winners lived. One was Nelson Mandela, but who was the other?

2 / 10

In 1967, what did Christiaan Barnard achieve for the first time at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town?

3 / 10

Which South African film director burst to international attention in 2009 with District 9, a film about aliens taking over Johannesburg?

4 / 10

Choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo from Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal famously featured on which 1986 Paul Simon album?

5 / 10

Which extremely rich South African-born businessman is bizarrely keen to deny that his father owned a Zambian emerald mine?

6 / 10

Which Durban-born batsman holds the South African record for the highest individual score in Test cricket, scoring 311 against England in 2012?

7 / 10

Which Cape Town-born novelist was the first author to be awarded the Booker Prize twice, for Life & Times of Michael K in 1983 and Disgrace in 1999?

8 / 10

The Eastern Cape village of Mvezo plays host to the birthplace museum of which famous South African?

9 / 10

Which actress, born in Benoni in 1975, was the first South African to win an acting Oscar?

10 / 10

Which anti-Apartheid campaigner is Johannesburg’s main airport named after?

Your score is

The average score is 70%

Book recommendations

For more brain-teasers with a twist, I recommend the map-centric Ordnance Survey Puzzle Book and the lateral thinking-sparking GCHQ Puzzle Book.

For absolutely astonishing tales of mutiny, shipwreck and survival, Batavia’s Graveyard by Mike Dash and The Wager by David Grann cover two of the most riveting true stories you’ve probably never heard of.

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