What are Africa’s five smallest capital cities

What is a capital city and how is it chosen? Africa’s Five Smallest Countries and their capital capital cities are the Republic of Seychelles capital city of Victoria, São Tomé and Príncipe Sao Tomé is the capital city, Mauritius capital city of Port Luis, Comoros capital city of Maroni, and Cabo Verde Sao Tiago Island is the location of the capital of Praia.

Market day in Ghana capital city Accra

Africa’s five smallest capital capital cities

Africa has 54 countries, 2 unofficially recognized territories and 10 dependent territories. Officially according to the African Union, Africa has 54 countries with Algeria being the largest and The Gambia the smallest on the mainland and Seychelles the smallest overall. Seychelles is 175 sq miles, 455 sq. km, or 112432 acres.

What is a Capital City?

The word capital originates from the Latin capitalis, meaning of the head. This is where government buildings are and where government leaders work. As the city at the head of the territory, it is linked to the state, the politics of a capital city is not unique to the national capital but it also exists at all levels of government. For that reason, many capitals are built in the center of countries as they need to be seen as representative and accessible to the entire state. Capital cities focus legislative power in a single location rather than spread out across a state. In some countries, there are capital cities that serve as capitals and seats of government.

What is a Seat of Government?

The seat of government is the building, complex of buildings or the city from which a government exercises its authority. In most countries, the nation’s capital is also seat of its government, thus that city is appropriately referred to as the national seat of government. The terms are not however, completely synonymous, as some countries' seat of government differs from the capital.

How Did Africa’s Newest Country of South Sudan Choose Juba as the Capital?

The Ceasefire Joint Military Committee and the Headquarters of the Joint Integrated Units were agreed by the Parties of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement to be located in Juba. During the drafting of the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan, the issue of the capital city was one of the issues discussed by the Drafting Committee with Dr. John Garang de Mabior.

On September 7, 2011, the President of the newly born Republic of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit, issued an order forming a governmental committee to make the necessary preparations for the building of the new capital to be known as Ramciel Union.

Before his death in a plane crash July 30, 2005, Dr. Garang commissioned a technical committee to conduct a feasibility study for the new capital of South Sudan. Ramciel was identified as potential site for the new capital city as it lies between the three greater regions of the South, Bahr el Ghazal, Equatoria, and Upper Nile.

Officials say the uncertainty in the town had made access to land difficult to the national government, the ordinary people, as well as the investors that they said, had hampered the prospect for development in the area. Ramciel which officials say means, where rhinos meet in the two slightly different Dinka words, has almost no infrastructure, no towns, and only a few seasonal villages. To date, no further steps have been made to move the capital of South Sudan from Juba to Ramciel.

Africa’s Five Smallest Countries and their capital Capital Cities

Seychelles
Is the smallest African country; the constitution of the Republic of Seychelles lists 155 islands: 42 granitic and 113 coralline; by far the largest island is Mahe, which is home to about 90% of the population and the site of the capital city of Victoria.

São Tomé and Príncipe
Sao Tomé, the capital city, has roughly a quarter of the nation's population; Santo Antonio is the largest town on Principe; the northern areas of both islands have the highest population density.

Mauritius
The population is found through the main island with a greater density in and around the capital city of Port Luis.

Comoros
The capital city of Maroni, located on the western side of the island of Grande Comore, is the country's largest city; however, of the three islands that comprise Comoros, it is Anjouan that is the most densely populated.

Cabo Verde
Nine inhabited islands out of 18, around half of the population lives on Sao Tiago Island, which is the location of the capital of Praia.