ThePortuguese-speaking African countries (Portuguese:Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa;PALOP), also known asLusophone Africa, consist of six African countries in which thePortuguese language is an official language:Angola,Cape Verde,Guinea-Bissau,Mozambique,São Tomé and Príncipe and, since 2011,Equatorial Guinea.[1] The six countries are formercolonies of thePortuguese Empire. From 1778 until independence, Equatorial Guinea was also a colony of theSpanish Empire.
In 1992, the five Lusophone African countries formed an interstate organisation called PALOP, a colloquial acronym that translates to "African Countries of Portuguese Official Language" (Portuguese:Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa).[2] The PALOP countries have signed official agreements withPortugal,[3] theEuropean Union[2] and theUnited Nations,[4] and they work together to promote the development of culture, education and the preservation of the Portuguese language.[1]
In 1996, together with Portugal andBrazil, the Portuguese-speaking African countries established theCommunity of Portuguese Language Countries (Portuguese:Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa, abbreviated to CPLP),[5] whichEast Timor later joined in 2002 and Equatorial Guinea in 2014.
In 2016, it was projected that by the end of the 21st century, Africa would be home to the majority of Portuguese speakers worldwide.[6]
Equatorial Guinea adopted Portuguese as its third official language in October 2011.[7] Originallya Portuguese colony before it was sold to Spain in 1778 as part of peace arrangements involving also thecolony of Sacramento in theSouthern Cone of the Americas, Equatorial Guinea has adopted Portuguese as the country's third official language in order to be allowed into theCPLP, despite its limited historical and cultural commonalities with the other countries.[8]
Equatorial Guinea was traditionally not considered part of the PALOP, and it was not a founding member of FORPALOP in June 2014, a recently created institution that includes the PALOP, a forum for political-diplomatic cooperation to deepen historical friendship ties and solidarity between these African states. Portuguese is sparsely used throughout the country. However, it was admitted into the CPLP in 2014, and it subsequently became FORPALOP's sixth member.[9]
| Country | Population[10] | Area (km2) | GDP (nominal) per capita | Percentage of Lusophones |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Angola | 35,678,572 | 1.247.000 | 1.953,53 | 71% |
 Cape Verde | 587,925 | 4.033 | 3.293,23 | 87% |
 Equatorial Guinea | 1,468,777 | 28.050 | 14.637,01 | Unknown |
 Guinea-Bissau | 2,095,887 | 36.126 | 795,12 | 57% |
 Mozambique | 20,069,738 | 801.590 | 466,557 | 60% |
 São Tomé and Príncipe | 204,454 | 963.5 | 526,7 | 91% |
| Total | 60,105,353 | 2,117,762 | 21,672,147 |
These five African countries are former colonies of the Portuguese Empire, which collapsed shortly after theCarnation Revolution military coup of 1974 inLisbon. The strains of thePortuguese Colonial War overextended and weakened thePortuguese dictatorship and precipitated the overthrow ofAntónio de Oliveira Salazar's regime.[11] Younger military officers, who were disillusioned by a war that was far-off and taxing, began to side with the pro-independence resistance against Portugal and eventually led to the militarycoup d'état on April 25, 1974.[11]
The long-lasting rule of the Portuguese colonial empire had varying effects on the African states even after they gained independence in the 1970s. The legacy of Portuguese empire-building pervades thepostcolonial discourse that attempts to explain the development of the modernnation state in Lusophone Africa and shed light on its failures.
The Lusophone Compact is an initiative championed by theAfrican Development Bank to accelerate inclusive, sustainable, and diversified private sector growth in the Portuguese-speaking African countries. The primary objectives of the Lusophone Compact activities are to deploy technical assistance tools and programs, leverage the risk mitigation tools available to the parties and leverage the financing tools available to the parties.[12][13][14]
