Portuguese language in Africa Portuguese language in Africa Portuguese is spoken in a number of African countries and is the official language in six African states: Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe and Equatorial Guinea. There are Portuguese-speaking communities in most countries of Southern Africa, a mixture of Portuguese settlers and Angolans and Mozambicans who left their countries during the civil wars. A rough estimate has it that there are about 14 million people who use Portuguese as their sole mother tongue across Africa, but depending on the criteria applied, the number might be considerably higher, since many Africans speak Portuguese
Portuguese Mozambicans more white emigration and settlement to the region, and Mozambique had 370,000 Portuguese settlers, who improved its economy, by the 1960s. It was during this time that António de Oliveira Salazar led Portugal, in which several thousands of Portuguese citizens fled to other countries, especially neighbouring Rhodesia and South Africa as well as Brazil and the United States. Blacks and some "mestiços" and whites revolted against Portuguese rule in 1974. The return to liberal democracy in Portugal led to the independence of its overseas colonies in 1975. By July 1975 around 80,000 Portuguese Mozambicans were left in the country from