Learn Lingala online

Fally Ipupa, Koffi Olomide, Ferre Gola. Their songs run in clubs from Kinshasa to Paris, their lyrics are singing millions of times. What many do not know: they sing on Lingala. The language began as a trading language on the Congo River and became the Lingua Franca of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo. 

For the Congolese Diaspora, Lingala is often the soundtrack of childhood. The language that ran in the background without having learned it correctly. At Sankofa Lingua you change it in no time. You finally understand what you've been singing for years.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has four national languages: Lingala, Kikongo, Swahili and Tshiluba. Everyone dominates in another region. Lingala is the language of the Northwest and the capital Kinshasa. In the Republic of Congo, the smaller neighbouring country on the other side of the Congo River, is Lingala National Language. In Brazzaville, just a few kilometers from Kinshasa, you hear the same language. But even in the north of Angola, in parts of Gabon and even in Uganda, more and more people speak Lingala.

Today Lingala is a national language in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo. More than 25 million people speak it, although the few of them Mother tonguer are. 

In fact Lingala surprisingly easy to learn. There are no articles, no grammatical sex, hardly irregular verbs and the set structure follows the pattern Subject-Verb object, just like in German. In addition, Lingala takes generous fief words from French, English, Spanish and Portuguese. It makes the entry easier than you might think.

There's no Lingala. Lingala littéraire, the formal variantYou hear in news, in the church, in school lessons. Catholic missionaries have this version at the beginning of 20. Stage and standardized. She has seven vowels, strict grammar rules and a clear vocal harmony.

Languages	Function	Symbolism
French	Official communication, government, courts, formal education and print media	Status, prestige and education
Lingala	Informal, horizontal communication (trade, everyday life, markets, military, music)	National identity, loyalty to the state and popular culture

When you learn Lingala, you learn the basics that work everywhere. But in real conversation, in music, on social media you will hear variants that are not in any textbook. That's normal. Lingala is a living language, which is constantly evolving. That's what makes her so exciting.

Everything started with Bobangi, a bantu language of the river merchants along the Congo. When in the 1880s European colonial officials and their African aid troops came to the region, they learned Bobangi just broke. What came out was a strong simplified version of the language, a so-called pidgin. This mixed language was called Bangala and spread rapidly because the Belgian colonial army took it as a command language. Soldiers wore them in all corners of the country.

Kongoread like to speak Lingala at home. They often change between French and Lingala. If you don't speak the language, you don't notice when they change. Right there is real communication. You're in front of insider moments, though you're part of the family.

At Congolese it is so that TV news, school and institutions and much more work in French. The official Congo uses French. But then, outside these places, the language changes. In the restaurant, on the street, when the real decisions fall when talking about problems that are not official: Lingala.

Lingala has a structure that shares all Bantu languages. Nomen classes, verb conjugations, prefixes. This structure is repeated in every Bantu language. It is the system on which Swahili, Kikongo, Xhosa, Zulu are constructed. When you learn Lingala, you learn not only one language. You learn the system.