5 African Countries With English As Official Language

2. Tanzania

Population figure 2024: 69,419,073

In Tanzania, they’re all about Swahili (kiSwahili) and English as their official languages. Swahili is like the cool cat of the country, mixing together Bantu dialects and a dash of Arabic vibes that first popped up along the East African coast and Zanzibar. Swahili’s the go-to language for chatting with pretty much everyone in Tanzania. The government and other bigwigs have been big on spreading the Swahili love through all kinds of cool stuff like books, local shows, and poems. Kids start off learning in Swahili for their first seven years of school, then switch to English for the higher-ups. English is the boss language in government and higher education too. Tanzania’s got a cool language scene!