African Countries Wheel Spinner

This wheel picks a random African country, which is a fast way to hand out geography projects or find somewhere to read about that you would not have chosen yourself.

The wheel starts with five African countries spread across the continent: Nigeria in the west, Kenya in the east, South Africa in the south, and Egypt and Morocco in the north.

Five is a starting point, not a limit. Africa has 54 recognised countries and the wheel handles all of them comfortably — paste the full list in and each spin becomes far less predictable. A five-slice wheel repeats itself quickly, which students notice and complain about within about four spins.

The reason to draw rather than choose is worth stating plainly. Left to pick, a class will gravitate to the same handful of countries every year, and the rest of the continent stays invisible. A wheel with 54 slices routinely lands on Malawi or Benin, and the project that comes back is more interesting for it.

For travel, it works the same way on a shortlist that has stopped moving.