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The PALOP, highlighted in red

Members of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP).

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. It is a branch of CPLP. In Portuguese the group is commonly referred to by the acronym 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]

Five of these 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. However, Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony, converted Portuguese into the country's third official language, aiming to be allowed into the CPLP.^[3]

The PALOP countries achieve many interchange protocols with Portugal,^[4] the European Union^[5], as well as Brazil, and other entities, and receive aid from them in the fields of culture, education, and Portuguese language development and preservation.

PALOP countries

• Angola
• Cabo Verde
• Guiné-Bissau
• Equatorial Guinea
• Mozambique
• São Tomé e Príncipe

See also

• CPLP
• Geographic distribution of Portuguese
• Portuguese in Africa

External links

• Banco de Portugal: Economic Trends of the Portuguese-Speaking African Countries and East-Timor (2006-2007)

References