20 African Greetings to Open Every Door

In Africa, nothing begins without a greeting. Not a transaction at the market, not a request for directions, not even an argument. Walking in somewhere without saying hello is arriving without existing. The greeting is not a formality: it is a ritual that takes its time, that asks after the family, the fields, the night just past. The traveller who has understood this has already understood everything.

Two words are enough to change a trip: "hello" and "thank you" in the language of your hosts. A hello in the local language brings out smiles, lowers prices, opens the courtyards of homes. Here are those two words in 20 languages, taken from the Jossmo audio corpus and recorded by native speakers. For each language, the hello first, then the thank you. Several of these hellos are morning greetings, the most useful ones for a traveler.

West Africa

From Senegal to Nigeria, the West African greeting is an art of the question: you ask how the person is doing, how their household is, how their work is going, and each answer calls for the next question. Take your time, that is the game.

• Wolof (Senegal): Na nga def · Jërejëf
• Bambara (Mali): A ni sɔgɔma · I ni ce
• Soninke (Mali, Senegal, Mauritania): An wuyi jamu · Nwaari
• FulFulde (the Sahel, from Senegal to Cameroon): Jam waali · An e tiyaabu
• Moore (Burkina Faso): Ne y yibeogo · Barka
• Baoule (Ivory Coast): Agni oh · Kloi oh
• Ewe (Togo, Ghana): Ŋdi · Akpe
• Yoruba (Nigeria, Benin): Ẹ ǹlẹ́ · O ṣé

If Wolof or Yoruba catch your eye, we have written full guides on both.

Central Africa

On both banks of the Congo River and all the way to the Central African Republic, the great vehicular languages carry greetings across immense territories. You will notice that Lingala and Kikongo share Mbote and Matondo: this is not a mistake, it is a heritage of the great Bantu languages of the region, Lingala having borrowed heavily from Kikongo.

• Lingala (DRC, Congo): Mbote · Matondo
• Kikongo (DRC, Congo, Angola): Mbote · Matondo
• Sango (Central African Republic): Balaö · Singuila

Cameroon: nine languages for a single country

Cameroon deserves its own section: with more than 250 languages, it is one of the most multilingual countries in the world, and a simple Douala-Bafoussam trip takes you through several linguistic areas. Greeting people in the language of the village you arrive in is more than politeness there: it is a mark of respect towards the chiefdom and the elders. To place each of these languages on the map, our guide to the languages of Cameroon draws the full picture.

• Ewondo (Centre, Yaounde): Mbə̀mbə̀ kírí · Ngǎŋ
• Duala (Littoral, Douala): Idiɓà á ɓwâm é · Nà sôm
• Bassa (Littoral, Centre): Mɛ̀ ǹyégà · mɛ̀ ǹtímá yègà
• Ghomala' (West, Bamileke country): ó tî lə́ · mòtòkwâ
• Medumba (West, Bangangte): ózíà · mə́ làptə̌
• Fe'Fe' (West, Bafang): nzɑ̌ léé è · ngə̀ pén ó
• Yemba (West, Dschang): mŋə́ tsà'tsɛ̀ · mə̀ ŋá càklì
• Bakaka (Littoral, Moungo): ɛ́'jéríɛ · msómə́
• Mboo (Littoral, West): égɛ́mbǝ̂ · ŋsalǝŋkɔ̃

What about pronunciation?

You will have noticed: many of these languages are written with tones and characters that the English alphabet ignores. That is normal, they are tonal languages, and no transcription will ever replace the ear. The good news is that a greeting is short: a few seconds of audio are enough to catch it. On Jossmo, every one of these expressions is recorded by a native speaker: you listen, you repeat, and the job is done.

And if one of these 20 languages has caught your ear to the point of wanting to go beyond hello, our guide on which African language to learn will help you turn the greeting into a conversation.