Portuguese language in Africa

The nation-states with Portuguese as an official language in Africa are referred to by the acronym PALOP () and include the following: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe and Equatorial Guinea. Portuguese is a primarily urban language having a reduced presence in rural areas, except for in Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe, where the language is more widespread on a national level. South Africa also has approximately 300,000 speakers of Portuguese, primarily settlers from Madeira and white Angolans and Mozambicans who emigrated from 1975 onwards, following the independence of the former colonies. The civil wars in Angola and Mozambique also resulted in more recent migrations of refugees (some of whom speak Portuguese) to neighbouring countries such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia, Zambia and South Africa. Other migrations involved returning Afro-Brazilian ex-slaves to places such as Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Angola and Mozambique. There are also some returning white Portuguese African refugees and their descendants from Brazil, Portugal, and South Africa to their former African controlled territories, mostly to Angola (up to 500,000) and Mozambique (350,000), and most importantly, there is the arrival of Portuguese post-colonial expatriates in Angola in the recent years, because of Portugal's economic interests and the Angolan economic boom. Senegal has its own Lusophone connection with a significant community of Cape Verdeans in Dakar and speakers of Guinea-Bissau Creole in its southern region of Casamance, which was once part of the Portuguese colonial empire. Portuguese is taught as a foreign language throughout the country. In 2008, Senegal became an observer nation in the CPLP. Equatorial Guinea, at one point a Portuguese colony, is home to a Portuguese-based Creole and is a member nation in the CPLP. Portuguese is now an official language in Equatorial Guinea, although it is practically not used. Mauritius, a multilingual island in the Indian Ocean, has strong cultural ties with Mozambique. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to encounter the island. In 2006, Mauritius joined the CPLP as an associate member. As a fellow member of the SADC, Zambia has introduced Portuguese language instruction in its primary school system, partially due to the presence of a large Angolan population there. ==The role of Portuguese in Africa==

As an official language, Portuguese serves in the realms of administration, education, law, politics and media. Given the existing linguistic diversity of the PALOPs, Portuguese also serves the purpose of lingua franca allowing communication between fellow citizens of different ethno-linguistic backgrounds. The standard Portuguese used in education, media and legal documents is based on European Portuguese vocabulary used in Lisbon, but African Portuguese dialects differ from standard European Portuguese both in terms of pronunciation and colloquial vocabulary. Additionally, Portuguese connects the PALOP countries to one another, to Portugal and to East Timor, Macau and Brazil, which were also once Portuguese colonies. Music is one way in which the linguistic profiles of PALOP have increased. Many recording artists from PALOP, in addition to singing in their maternal languages, sing in Portuguese to one degree or another. The success of these artists in the world music industry increases international awareness of Portuguese as an African language. As a literary language, Portuguese has a strong role in the PALOP. Authors such as Francisco José Tenreiro, Luandino Vieira, Mia Couto, Pepetela, Lopito Feijóo, Rui Knopfli, Luis Kandjimbo, Manuel Rui or Ondjaki have made valuable contributions to lusophone literature, prompting an African scent and ideas to the language and creating a place for the Portuguese language in the African imaginary. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the Portuguese language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth. It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. It is estimated that by 2100, Africa will have the majority of Portuguese speakers in the world, surpassing Brazil. The Portuguese-speaking African nations together with Brazil, have turned Portuguese into a formidable world language, also making it an important language of the global economy. ==Media==

Portuguese is the language of journalism, which serves as a vehicle for the dissemination of the language. Literacy being an issue, radio serves as an important source of information for Lusophone Africans. Voice of America, BBC Para África, RFI and RTP África have regular services in Portuguese for listeners in Africa. ==Creoles==

Any discussion of the role of the Portuguese language in Africa must take into account the various Portuguese creoles that have developed there. These creole languages co-exist with Portuguese and, in the countries where they are spoken, form a continuum with the lexifying language. In Cape Verde, refers to a variety of Cape Verdean Creole which takes on various features of Portuguese and is a result of processes of decreolization in the archipelago. In São Tome e Principe, Santomense Portuguese is a variety of Portuguese strongly influenced by Forro in syntax and vocabulary. Since the lexicons of those languages are derived from Portuguese, even creole-speakers who do not speak Portuguese have a passive knowledge of it. In addition, Portuguese creoles have often been (and often continue to be) written using Portuguese orthography. An important issue in discussions of standardization of creoles is whether it is better to devise a truly phonetic orthography or to choose an etymological one based on Portuguese. ==See also==