African Languages

Africa’s colonial past means that a number of different European languages are spoken or understood, and many remain official languages of some countries in Africa. These include:

• English in Nigeria, Kenya,
• French in Morocco, Algeria,
• Dutch (Afrikaans) in South Africa
• Portuguese in Angola, Mozambique

The Islamic influence in North Africa also means that Arabic is spoken in every country along the north coast of the continent from Egypt in the east through Libya, Tunisia and Algeria, to Morocco in the west.

However, there are also a huge number of native African languages. These are unrelated to the Indo-European family of languages. Most African languages are part of the Niger-Congo family, Afro-Asiatic family or Chari-Nile family of languages.

Many official documents from African countries are written in European languages such as French or English or in Arabic. Aside from these, the most commonly requested African languages are:

• Amharic
• Bajuni
• Kikuyu
• Kirundi
• Lingala
• Rwandan
• Somali
• Swahili
• Tigrinya

If you would like further information about African language translations or would like to discuss your requirements with us, please contact us.