Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that answer the question.
Query: What countries have Swahili as an official language?
Swahili has become a second language spoken by tens of millions in three African Great Lakes countries (Tanzania, Kenya, and the DRC) where it is an official or national language. In 1985, with the 8-4-4 system of education, Swahili was made a compulsory subject in all Kenyan schools.[23] Swahili and closely related languages are spoken by relatively small numbers of people in Burundi, Comoros, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, Zambia and Rwanda.[24] The language was still understood in the southern ports of the Red Sea in the 20th century.[25][26]
In Uganda, as in many African countries, English, the language of the colonising power, was introduced in government and public life by way of missionary work and the educational system. During the first decades of the twentieth century, Swahili gained influence as it was not only used in the army and the police, but was also taught in schools. The Ganda viewed the introduction of Swahili as a threat to their political power and partly through their influence, English remained the only official language at that time. 
Uganda is ethnologically diverse, with at least 40 languages in usage. Luganda is the most common language. English and Swahili are the official languages of Uganda, even though only a relatively small proportion of the population speak English. Access to economic and political power is almost impossible without having mastered that language. Swahili, the East African lingua franca, is relatively widespread as a trade language and was made an official national language in September 2005. Luganda, a language widespread in central Uganda, has been the official vernacular language in education for central Uganda for a long time.
Approximately 242 languages are spoken in the country, but only four have the status of national languages: Kituba ("Kikongo ya leta"), Lingala, Tshiluba, and Swahili. Although some people speak these regional, or trade languages as first languages, most of the population speak them as a second language after their own tribal language. Lingala was the official language of the colonial army, the "Force Publique", under Belgian colonial rule, and remains to this day the predominant language in the armed forces. Since the recent rebellions, a good part of the army in the East also uses Swahili where it is prevalent.
Kinyarwanda is the national language of Rwanda, and the first language of almost the entire population of the country. It is one of the country's official languages alongside French, English, and Swahili. Rwandan Sign Language is used by the educated deaf population.
Over 100 different languages are spoken in Tanzania, making it the most linguistically diverse country in East Africa. The country does not have a "de jure" official language, although the national language is Swahili. Swahili is used in parliamentary debate, in the lower courts, and as a medium of instruction in primary school. English is used in foreign trade, in diplomacy, in higher courts, and as a medium of instruction in secondary and higher education, although the Tanzanian government is planning to discontinue English as a language of instruction altogether. Approximately 10 percent of Tanzanians speak Swahili as a first language, and up to 90 percent speak it as a second language.
On 6 July 2017; South Sudan choose to adopt Swahili as an additional official language, was seeking Tanzania's help to send Swahili teachers to the country as it introduces the language in school curriculum ahead of its adoption as an official language.
The official languages of Burundi are Kirundi, French and, since 2014, English. Swahili can be found spoken along the Tanzanian border and it has some official recognition by law as a language "spoken and taught" in the country.
With between 50 – 100 million speakers, Swahili is lexiconically similar to other eastern Bantu languages such as Comorian which have differing levels of mutual intelligibility. Swahili is already used unofficially in many UN organizations as the United Nations Office at Nairobi, one of the four major UN global offices (in addition to offices in New York City, Vienna, and Geneva), is located in Nairobi, Kenya. The media branch of the UN, UN News (https://news.un.org/), already includes translations into Swahili.
The Sabaki languages are the Bantu languages of the Swahili Coast, named for the Sabaki River. In addition to Swahili, they include Ilwana (Malakote) and Pokomo on the Tana River in Kenya, Mijikenda, spoken on the Kenyan coast; and Comorian, in the Comoro Islands. In Guthrie's geographic classification, Swahili is in Bantu zone G, whereas the other Sabaki languages are in zone E70, commonly under the name "Nyika."In addition, there are several Swahili creoles and pidgins: Cutchi-Swahili, Kisetla (Settler Swahili), Engsh, Sheng, Shaba Swahili (Katanga Swahili, Lubumbashi Swahili), Ngwana (Congo Swahili), Kikeya.
KSL currently has no legal status, but there is a proposal that Kenyan Sign Language (KSL) and Braille should be recognized in the country's new constitution as national and official Languages alongside English and Swahili.
In Kenya there are about 42 different languages, which have different dialects and indigenous names for money, in addition to the official National languages of Swahili and English. In English, Kenyan currency is a Shilling while in Swahili it is "Shilingi." (Indeed, all East African countries refer to their money as Shillings.)
The official languages of the Comoros are Comorian, French and Arabic. Comorian (or "Shikomoro") is a Bantu language closely related to Swahili. It is by far the most spoken language in the country, 96.9%. However, Comorian is confined almost exclusively for oral use. Before and during the colonial period, no official recognition was granted at all to Comorian. Before the French colonisation, Arabic and Swahili were the languages used by the political powers (the sultans) and by education. Arabic was the language of religion, and a language of commerce. As a result of colonisation, administration and education are now in French. The Comoros is a full member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie and of the Arab League.
While English and Swahili are official languages, Swahili also has a special status as national language. None of the country's biggest languages (Gikuyu, Luo, Kamba, Kalenjin, etc.) have any explicit legal status on the national level, however the 2010 constitution enjoins the state to "promote and protect the diversity of language of the people of Kenya."
The exact number of Swahili speakers, be it native or second-language speakers, is unknown and a matter of debate. Various estimates have been put forward and they vary widely, from 50 million to over 100 million.[8] Swahili serves as a national language of four nations: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and the DRC. Shikomor, the official language in Comoros and also spoken in Mayotte (Shimaore), is related to Swahili.[9] Swahili is also one of the working languages of the African Union and officially recognised as a lingua franca of the East African Community.[10] South Africa legalized the teaching of Swahili in South African schools as an optional subject beginning in 2020.[11]
The Mwani language, or Kimwani (pronounced ) is a Bantu language spoken on the coast of the Cabo Delgado Province of Mozambique, including the Quirimbas Islands. Although it shares high lexical similarity (60%) with Swahili, it is not intelligible with it. It is spoken by around 120,000 people (including 20,000 who use it as their second language). Speakers of "Kimwani" also use Portuguese, (the official language of Mozambique), Swahili and Makhuwa language. "Kiwibo", the dialect of the Island of Ibo is the prestige dialect. "Kimwani" (sometimes spelled as "Quimuane") is also called "Mwani" (sometimes spelled as: "Mwane, Muane") and "Ibo". According to Anthony P. Grant: 'Kimwani of northern Mozambique appears to be the result of imperfect shift towards Swahili several centuries ago by speakers of Makonde, and Arends et al. suggest it might turn out to be a Makonde–Swahili mixed language.
Kenya is a multilingual country. The Bantu Swahili language and English, the latter being inherited from colonial rule ("see British Kenya"), are widely spoken as lingua franca. They serve as the two official working languages. Including second-language speakers, there are more speakers of Swahili than English in Kenya.
Swahili is a lingua franca throughout eastern Africa and is especially prevalent in the African Great Lakes region. Swahili, known as Kiswahili by its speakers, is an official language of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, is an official language of the African Union and is officially recognised as a lingua franca of the East African Community. It is one of the most commonly spoken languages in Africa, is a compulsory subject in all Kenyan schools and is increasingly being used in eastern Burundi.
English is designated as the official language of the EAC, with Kiswahili, often known as Swahili, designated for development as the lingua franca of the community. Within the EAC, there are two countries whose official language is French: Rwanda and Burundi. Numerous local languages are also spoken: for example, there are 56 local languages spoken in Uganda and 42 local languages in Kenya. Kinyarwanda is spoken in Rwanda and Uganda. In Kenya and Uganda, the medium of instruction in all schools is English.
Swahili, a widely used language throughout the African Great Lakes region, was approved as the country's second official national language in 2005. English was the only official language until the constitution was amended in 2005. Although Swahili has not been favoured by the Bantu-speaking populations of the south and south-west of the country, it is an important "lingua franca" in the northern regions. It is also widely used in the police and military forces, which may be a historical result of the disproportionate recruitment of northerners into the security forces during the colonial period. The status of Swahili has thus alternated with the political group in power. For example, Idi Amin, who came from the north-west, declared Swahili to be the national language.
Swahili is a Bantu language of the Sabaki branch.[14] In Guthrie's geographic classification, Swahili is in Bantu zone G, whereas the other Sabaki languages are in zone E70, commonly under the name Nyika. Local folk-theories of the language have often considered Swahili to be a mixed language because of its many loan words from Arabic, and the fact that Swahili people have historically been Muslims. However, historical linguists do not consider the Arabic influence on Swahili to be significant enough to classify it as a mixed language, since Arabic influence is limited to lexical items, most of which have only been borrowed after 1500, while the grammatical and syntactic structure of the language is typically Bantu.[15][16]
Tanzania is a multilingual country. There are many languages spoken in the country, but no one language is spoken natively by a majority or a large plurality of the population. The Bantu Swahili language and English, the latter of which was inherited from colonial rule ("see Tanganyika Territory"), are widely spoken as lingua francas. They serve as working languages in the country, with Swahili being the official national language. There are more speakers of Swahili than of English in Tanzania.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a multilingual country where an estimated total of 242 languages are spoken. Ethnologue lists 215 living languages. The official language, inherited from the colonial period, is French. Four indigenous languages have the status of national language: Kituba (called "Kikongo"), Lingala, Swahili and Tshiluba.
Over 100 different languages are spoken in Tanzania, making it the most linguistically diverse country in East Africa.[9] Among the languages spoken in Tanzania are all four of Africa's language families: Bantu, Cushitic, Nilotic, and Khoisan.[9] Swahili and English are Tanzania's official languages.[9] Swahili belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo family.[10] The Sandawe people speak a language that may be related to the Khoe languages of Botswana and Namibia, while the language of the Hadzabe people, although it has similar click consonants, is arguably a language isolate.[11] The language of the Iraqw people is Cushitic.[12] Other languages are Indian languages and Portuguese (spoken by Goans and Mozambicans).
A total of 130 languages are spoken in Tanzania; most of them are from the Bantu family. Swahili and English are the two official languages of Tanzania. However, Swahili is the national language. 