The Four Main Official Languages of Africa

Over 2,000 languages are spoken on the continent of Africa according to the Ethnologue.  But most of these countries have one of four languages as one of their official languages: French, Arabic, English, and Portuguese.  Although in many cases, few people in the countries speak these languages as their mother tongue, these languages make it easier to communicate with other countries and to use educational resources already published in those languages. 

The official language(s) of each country depend largely on which colonial power had control of the country during the colonial era.  Religion (particularly Islam) as well as politics are also factors.  Some countries have more than one official language.

I decided to map out these main official languages so you can see better how these official languages are distributed in Africa.  On this map, French is red, Arabic is yellow, English is blue, and Portuguese is brown.  Countries that have two of these languages as official languages have a color that is essentially a combination of two colors (for example, French (red) + Arabic (yellow) = orange).

As you can see, Arabic is mainly in northern Africa, French is mainly in central and western Africa, and English is mainly in southern and eastern Africa, and some in western Africa.  These three official languages alone cover the vast majority of Africa.

Portuguese is only spoken in five countries scattered throughout Africa, three of which are very small countries (Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tomé & Principe, Angola, and Mozambique).  But in those countries, Portuguese is the only official language, so obviously it is important for those living there.

Two exceptions to note: Ethiopia's only official language is Amharic; however, English is widely used in education and business.  Equatorial Guinea's official language is Spanish (Africa's only Spanish-speaking country); they also have French listed as an official language, but apparently it is not widely spoken there.

Many of these countries also have one or more African languages on their list of official languages; for example, South Africa has 11 official languages.  Even apart from the official languages, local languages are widely used by many Africans in daily life.  But for foreigners traveling to Africa, it's useful to be able to use one (or more) of these official languages to communicate with people!