Africans speak a vast diversity of languages, estimated between 1,250 and over 3,000 distinct languages across the continent. These languages belong to several major language families:
- Niger-Congo : The largest family, covering West, Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa. It includes widely spoken languages such as Swahili (about 200 million speakers), Yoruba, Igbo, and Fula
- Afroasiatic : Spoken mainly in the Horn of Africa, North Africa, and parts of the Sahel. Important languages include Somali, Amharic, Oromo, Berber, and Hausa
- Nilo-Saharan and Saharan languages : Found in East Africa and the Sahel region
- Khoisan : Languages spoken mostly in Namibia and Botswana
- Austronesian : Spoken in Madagascar and parts of the Comoros
In addition to indigenous languages, several European colonial languages serve as official or lingua franca languages in many African countries:
- English : Official in many countries and widely spoken, especially in former British colonies
- French : Spoken by about 90-115 million people, mainly in West and Central Africa, due to French colonization
- Portuguese : Official in Angola, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe
- Afrikaans : Derived from Dutch and spoken mainly in South Africa and Namibia
Most widely spoken languages by number of speakers include:
- Arabic (~17% of Africans)
- Swahili (~10%)
- French (~11.5%)
- English (~13%)
- Hausa (~5%)
- Yoruba, Oromo, Amharic, Zulu, and others also have millions of speakers
Swahili is often considered the lingua franca of East Africa, spoken as a native or second language by millions across countries like Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo
. In summary, Africans speak thousands of native languages from diverse language families, with widespread use of colonial languages such as English, French, and Portuguese as official or common languages across the continent
