Africa Map by Official Language (Part 2)
How Many Official (or Colonial) Languages does Africa Speak?
Africa Speaks 7 Main Official (or Colonial) Languages:
1.) English Language (Purple shade on Visual Chart Figure. 1)
2.) French Language (Blue shade on Visual Chart Figure. 1)
3.) Portuguese (Orange shade on Visual Chart Figure. 1)
4.) Spanish (Red shade on Visual Chart Figure. 1)
5.) German (Grey shade on Visual Chart Figure. 1)
6.) Italian (Pink shade on Visual Chart Figure. 1)
7.) Arabic (Yellow shade on Visual Chart Figure. 1)
Of the 1.3 billion People Currently Resident in Africa, How Many Speak Per Official/Colonial Language?
Here (below) are the approximated estimates from our research of how many people in Africa speak what specific colonial language
N. B.
There are 54 countries in Africa and some of these countries speak at least 2 or 3 or 4 of all 7 official/colonial languages.
For example, as depicted and color-coded on Figure 1. (above) with countries like Cameroon and Mauritius (which speak both French and English); Egypt which is trilingual (with English-dominant, French and Arabic); and Libya which is quad-lingual (Italian, French, English and Arabic).
And, you might have noticed on Figure 2. (above) that although 21 countries in Africa speak French as primary/dominant official language, a total of 29 countries in Africa actually speak French.
And that this is more than 24 countries with English as dominant official/colonial Language.
Therefore, why the pervasive confusion or popular belief that Africa speaks mostly English than French as official/colonial language?
True. Comparatively according to both Figure 3, 4 and 5 (below), slightly more countries speak French than English as official/colonial language in Africa.
This means, you'll randomly end up in a French-speaking country in Africa that an English-speaking one.
But, why the confusion and popular belief given that the data depicted on Figure 3, 4 and 5 (below) shows the French language trumps English?
Figure 4. and Figure 5. are further breakdown of Figure 3.
Conclusion: Rule of Thumb Against the Confusion
This simple quotient can help you. Always remember that the number of English speakers in Africa has stayed at an 18%; that is nearly twice the number of people who speak French which has roughly remained at a 10%.
Why?
Because, 6 of the 10 most populous countries in Africa have English as their official/colonial language. In contrast to just 1 (The Democratic Republic of the Congo) which has French as its official/colonial language.
See Figure 6. Chart (below), to further understand this.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JANE LePAWAH is the founder of E'Or SOLUTIONS, Inc.™ where she doubles up as MD & (Sr.) FDi Advisor for China & Africa Market. She's also serial entrepreneur, solutions architect and much the brains behind brands like emoH.™ & food'atWORKS.™. Jane loves to grow businesses from ground on upward; and if she's not helping global brands & governments to expand on new projects/ideas/foreign markets, then she's out traveling the world, scouting for more opportunity zones.
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