There’s something special about watching young Africans excel on a continental stage, and that’s exactly what happened when Nigerian students recently stood out at the African Spelling Bee competition in Zimbabwe.
The competition, which took place in Harare, brought together top young spellers from more than 30 African countries.
The African Spelling Bee had an intense speed round where participants were required to spell 20 words within one minute, alongside multiple challenging single-word elimination rounds that tested accuracy, confidence, and composure. 
Five Nigerian students, selected after a rigorous national process organised by the Nigeria Spelling Bee, represented the country at the event. They include:
- Oluwadamilola Adeolu (St Lawrence Metropolitan College, Ado-Ekiti)
- Abdurrahman Yusuf (Ar-Raheem International College, Ilorin)
- Oghenetano Idoghor (Mountain Top Schools, Lagos)
- Chinedu Okediachi (Madonna International Schools, Asaba)
- Maryam Yusuf (Ar-Raheem International School, Ilorin)
Among them, Oluwadamilola Adeolu delivered an outstanding performance, clinching first position and emerging as the champion of the junior category.
Abdurrahman Yusuf also impressed, securing third place in the same category, while South Africa’s Ashton Singh finished in second place.
The performance of these children is proof of the brilliance and potential in Africa.
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African Countries With the Most Intelligent People
While intelligence cannot be measured by a single number, IQ rankings are often used as a way to compare cognitive performance across Africa.
According to the Intelligence of Nations report by Richard Lynn and David Becker, these are the top 10 African countries with the highest average IQ scores:
- Libya — 90.92
- Mauritius — 86.56
- Tunisia — 79.22
- Sudan — 78.87
- Seychelles — 78.76
- Madagascar — 76.79
- Uganda — 76.42
- Egypt — 76.32
- Algeria — 76.00
- Kenya — 75.20
It’s important to remember that IQ rankings don’t tell the full story.
Intelligence shows up in many forms, like creativity, emotional intelligence, problem-solving, innovation, and cultural knowledge.
Across Africa, we see this every day in classrooms, tech hubs, in music, art, and storytelling, and even in spelling bee competitions.
Nigeria’s win and this list are proof that Africa is not lacking in intelligence.
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