Андреева Т.А. Africans are increasingly learning Russian. Why?

Many Africans learned Russian while studying in Soviet universities, and though cooperation between Moscow and the continent declined in the years after the collapse of the USSR, Russia is now returning, and so is the language.

The ideas and values of Russia are close to the hearts of many Africans. This may explain the growing interest in the Russian language, which, according to the Pushkin State Russian Language Institute, is spoken by 255 million people worldwide as of 2022, and is the second most frequently used language for web content after English.

The Soviet Union laid a solid foundation for cooperating with African countries – in fact, without this basis, any major partnership would be impossible today. The USSR educated an entire generation of highly-skilled specialists who formed Africa’s new elites. Because of this, Africa has long considered Russia to be a provider of excellent (and inexpensive) higher education.

By Tamara Andreeva, Junior Researcher at the Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences

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