African French

African French (français africain) is the generic name of the varieties of the French language spoken by an estimated 167 million people in Africa in 2023 or 51% of the French-speaking population of the world, spread across 34 countries and territories. This includes those who speak French as a first or second language in these 34 African countries and territories (dark and light blue on the map), but it does not include French speakers living in other African countries. Africa is thus the continent with the most French speakers in the world. French arrived in Africa as a colonial language; these African French speakers are now a large part of the Francophonie. In Africa, French is often spoken alongside indigenous languages, but in a number of urban areas (in particular in Central Africa and in the ports located on the Gulf of Guinea) it has become a first language, such as in the region of Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, in the urban areas of Douala and Yaoundé in Cameroon or in Libreville, Gabon. Ethnologue reported that there were a growing number of native speakers as well: 1,515,000 [French-speakers] in Gabon, all users. L1 users: 265,000 in Gabon (2021). L2 users: 1,250,000 (Marcoux et al 2022)." In some countries it is a first language among some classes of the population, such as in Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania and Algeria, where French is a first language among the upper classes along with Arabic (many people in the upper classes are simultaneous bilinguals in Arabic/French), but only a second language among the general population. In each of the francophone African countries, French is spoken with local variations in pronunciation and vocabulary. French proficiency in African countries according to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF). There are many different varieties of African French, but they can be broadly grouped into five categories: the French spoken by people in West and Central Africa – spoken altogether by about 97 million people in 2018, as either a first or second language.