| Official languages | Portuguese |
| Established | 1996 |
| Member states | 5+1 |
The Portuguese-speaking African countries are a group of five African countries where the Portuguese language is the official language: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe. Together with Portugal, Brazil and East Timor, these countries form the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. In Portuguese the group of African countries is commonly referred to by PALOP, a colloquial acronym which means African Countries of Portuguese Official Language (Portuguese: Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa), also translated as "Portuguese-Speaking African Countries".[1][2]
These five African countries are former colonies of the Portuguese Empire, which came to an end in the 1970s shortly after the Carnation Revolution military coup of 1974 in Lisbon. Equatorial Guinea, a Spanish colony between 1778 and 1968, was originally a Portuguese colony between 1474 and 1778. With Portuguese creoles and pidgins still spoken today, it annonced its intention to add Portuguese as the country's third official language, hoping thus to finally be allowed into the CPLP, even though it shares to a limited degree only the historical and cultural background of the other countries.[3], thus becoming technically a member of the PALOP.
The PALOP countries have many interchange protocols with Portugal[4], the European Union[5] and Brazil, as well as other entities, and receive aid from them in the fields of culture, education and Portuguese language development and preservation.
The PALOP countries consist of:
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