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Which African countries speak French as an official language?
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Map of Africa highlighting countries where French is an official language, concentrated in West and Central Africa and including Senegal, Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire, Benin, Togo, Cameroon, Chad, the Central African Republic, both Congos, Rwanda, Burundi, Djibouti, Comoros, and Madagascar.
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Map of Africa highlighting countries where French is an official language, concentrated in West and Central Africa and including Senegal, Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire, Benin, Togo, Cameroon, Chad, the Central African Republic, both Congos, Rwanda, Burundi, Djibouti, Comoros, and Madagascar.
African countries with French as an official language

Which African countries speak French as an official language?

Written by
Amy McKenna
Amy McKenna is a senior editor, primarily focused on geography and history matters pertaining to sub-Saharan Africa. She joined Encyclopaedia Britannica in 2004. She was previously employed by Standard...
Amy McKenna
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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•History

In Africa, French is an official language in many countries that were colonized by France or Belgium as well as in some that were not. There are now 17 African countries and two dependencies that have French as their official language or as one of multiple official languages. The language is also widely spoken in other African countries.

African countries or dependencies with French as an official language

Many of these countries were French colonies, some of which were also once part of French West Africa or French Equatorial Africa administrative groupings. Exceptions are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which was a Belgian colony, and Rwanda and Burundi, which were German colonies that were later administered by Belgium after World War I (1914–18) under the League of Nations mandate of Ruanda-Urundi. In the case of Equatorial Guinea, a former colony of Spain that had Spanish as its original official language, its government added French in 1997 as a result of the country’s growing economic ties with Francophone countries. (It later added Portuguese as an official language for the same reason.)

The French language has a different status in some other countries. For example, Seychelles’ constitution designates three national languages, of which French is one.

Some African countries that used to have French as an official language no longer do. For example, the status of the French language was changed from “official language” to “working language” in Burkina Faso (2024), Mali (2023), and Niger (2025).

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World map highlighting countries where French is an official language in dark pink, including France, much of central and western Africa, parts of Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Madagascar, and several island territories. Lighter pink indicates regions where French is widely spoken but not official, such as parts of North Africa and Southeast Asia.
French language
Colonization of Africa collage
Colonization of Africa
Map of Africa highlighting countries where English is an official language, including Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and others across West, East, Central, and southern Africa; Sudan is marked as having English as an official working language.
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Locator map highlighting Equatorial Guinea in orange on the west coast of Central Africa, bordered by Cameroon and Gabon, with the capital Ciudad de la Paz marked. Surrounding countries and the Atlantic Ocean are labeled, and an inset globe shows the region's location within Africa.
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Map of North America in 1763 using color coding to show colonial territories: the 13 American colonies in red along the Atlantic coast, other British territory in orange across much of present-day Canada, Spanish territory in purple covering most of the southern and western regions, Russian territory in green in the northwest, and large areas of unclaimed land in white. Major bodies of water such as the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Hudson Bay are labeled.
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A map of the continent of Africa, including its countries, boundaries, and capital cities. It also shows parts of Europe and Asia and surrounding bodies of water, including the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean.
Africa
Amy McKenna