Latin Africa

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**Afrique Latine**
**África Latina**
Official languages	French, Portuguese and Spanish
Member states	27

Romance languages in Africa

Latin Africa, historically those countries in North Africa, from Morocco to Egypt, which were part of the Roman Empire. Some exclude Egypt, as there the dominant language of administration and business was Greek rather than Latin. The region between Tunisia and Morocco was later called the Maghreb (West) by the Arabs who conquered it in the seventh century.

In modern times the expression has been used by the French to refer to their former colonial territories in the African continent.

Currently, the expression is used to refer to those African countries that are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) or International Organization of La Francophonie and the members of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries whose official languages are either French, Portuguese or Spanish, or have a significant population that speak any of these languages.

Note that not all the Latin Africa countries are members of the Latin Union.

1 French language
2 Portuguese language
3 Spanish language
4 French and Spanish in North Africa
5 Italian language
6 Catholicism
7 See also
8 References

[edit] French language

Francophone Africa.

Sub-Saharan African countries where French or African French is spoken. The countries colored dark blue in the map had a population of 321 million in 2007.^[1] Their population is forecasted to reach 733 million in 2050.^[1]

Benin, French language in Benin
Burundi, French language in Burundi
Burkina Faso, French language in Burkina-Faso
Central African Republic, French language in Central Africa
Chad, French language in Chad
Cameroon, French language in Comoros
Côte d'Ivoire, French language in Cote de Ivoire
Democratic Republic of the Congo, French language in Democratic Congo
Republic of the Congo, French language in the Republic of Congo
Djibouti, French language in Djibouti
Gabon, French language in Gabon
Ghana, French language in Ghana
Guinea, French language in Guinea
Madagascar, French language in Madagascar
Mali, French language in Mali
Mauritania, French language in Mauritania
Niger, French language in Niger
Rwanda, French language in Rwanda
Senegal, French language in Senegal
Seychelles, French language in Seychelles
Togo, French language in Togo

[edit] Portuguese language

Portuguese speaking African countries.

African countries where Portuguese and African Portuguese is spoken

[edit] Spanish language

Sub-Saharan African countries where Spanish is spoken

Equatorial Guinea, Spanish language in Equatorial Guinea (French and Portuguese are also official)

[edit] French and Spanish in North Africa

In North Africa there are countries where Maghreb French or Spanish are spoken.

Algeria, French language in Algeria.
Morocco, certain areas conserve Moroccan Spanish from the Spanish protectorate, but the the French protectorate was wider.
Tunisia, French language in Tunisia.
Western Sahara, Spanish language in Western Sahara.
Note that Ceuta, Melilla and the Canary Islands are parts of Spain in Africa, but they are not usually comprised in this concept.

[edit] Italian language

Some population in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya and Somalia conserve Italian, another Romance language.

[edit] Catholicism

Countries whith an important Catholic population.

Due to the fact that France, Portugal and Spain are tradicionally Roman Catholic countries, many of the African countries they colonised also have important Catholic populations.