Africa as a continent includes mainland and a couple of island states, so when you speak about capital cities, this can be about any of the two options.
The important word in the title is ‘mainland’, and in this case the westernmost capital in Africa is Dacar, the capital of Senegal.
However, the capital of Cape Verde islands, Praia, is more to the west.
Banjul, the capital of Gambia is the third westernmost African capital
These three cities are shown on the interactive map below, so please zoom in to see details:
Dakar
This capital of Senegal is with the longitude of 17°26′48″W. It is the largest city in the country with a multi-million population. More about the city you can see on Wikipedia.
The top picture above is by Initsogan and the original is available on this link.
From what is known about the origin of the city, it appears that it was established by Portugal in the 15th century. Note that they have also founded the capital of the nearby Cape Verde as well, see more below.
It is interesting that the city is with the latitude of 14°41′34″N, so this is almost the same parallel as Praia described below.
Please see more about Dakar in this video:
Praia
This is the capital of Cape Verde that is an independent island country that is a neighbor of Senegal.
So this is the true westernmost African capital, its longitude is 23°31′W. As You realize it is considerably more far to the west than Dakar mentioned above.
Europeans, or better to say Portuguese, discovered the islands in 1460. The village Praia de Santa Maria was first ever mentioned around 1615. It became the capital of Cape Verde in 1770.
it is interesting that Praia was the first stop of Charles Darwin’s on his voyage in 1832.
Banjul
This capital of Gambia is with the longitude of 16°34′39″W, so it is only around one degree less to the west than Dakar.
Gambia is a country with a peculiar position. If you zoom into the map above, you will realize that it is completely surrounded by Senegal.
Note that there are several larger cities in Gambia, so this is one of those countries where the capital is not really the most important city. According to Wikipedia, the city was founded in 1881.
So this was the list of the westernmost African capital cities. You might want to know also about the oldest capitals in Africa. Would you like to know how many capital cities are in Africa? If so, please follow the link. Check also my text about capitals in Africa with the highest elevation.
Please let me know if you have questions, there is a comment box below.
Bookmark this site and keep it as a reference, it is all about capitals in the world and you will always have new texts added here. Thank you for reading and have a nice day.