English words of African origin

• azawakh – probably from Fula or Tuareg. A breed of dog from West and North Africa
• banana – adopted from Wolof via Spanish or Portuguese
• banjo – probably Bantu mbanza
• basenji – breed of dog from Central Africa – Congo, Central African Republic etc.
• boma – from Swahili
• bongo – West African boungu
• buckra – "white man or person", from Efik and Ibibio mbakara
• – from Swahili, meaning "husband, important person or safari leader"
• chigger – possibly from Wolof and/or Yoruba jiga "insect"
• chimpanzee – loaned in the 18th century from a Bantu language, possibly Kivili ci-mpenzi.
• cola – from West African languages
• dengue – possibly from Swahili dinga
• djembe – from West African languages
• ebony – from Ancient Egyptian hebeni
• fanimorous - from Yoruba "fani mọ́ra" meaning "to attract people to you"
• gerenuk – from Somali. A long-necked antelope in Eastern Africa
• gnu – from Khoisan !nu through Khoikhoi i-ngu and Dutch gnoe
• goober – possibly from Bantu
• gumbo – from Bantu
• impala – from Zulu im-pala
• impi – from Zulu language meaning "war, battle or a regiment"
• indaba – from Xhosa or Zulu languages – "stories" or "news" typically conflated with "meeting"
• jazz – from West African languages
• jenga – from the Swahili word for "build"
• jive – possibly from Wolof jev
• juke, jukebox – possibly from Wolof and Bambara dzug through Gullah
• jumbo – from Swahili
• kalimba
• Kwanzaa – a recent coinage for the name of an African American holiday, abstracted from the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, meaning ":wikt:kwanza|first fruits "
• kwashiorkor – from Ga language, coastal Ghana, meaning "swollen stomach"
• kijiji – from Swahili for "village", "hamlet" or "small town"
• lapa – from Sotho languages – '"enclosure" or "barbecue area"
• macaque – from Bantu makaku through Portuguese and French
• mamba – from Zulu or Swahili mamba
• marimba – from Bantu
• marímbula – plucked musical instrument of the Caribbean islands
• merengue – possibly from Fulani mererek i meaning "to shake or quiver"
• mojo – from Fula moco'o "medicine man" through Louisiana Creole French or Gullah
• mumbo jumbo – from Mandingo name Maamajombo, a masked dancer
• obeah – from West African
• okapi – from a language in the Congo
• okra – from Igbo ókùrù
• safari – from Swahili travel, ultimately from Arabic
• sambo – Fula sambo meaning "uncle"
• sangoma – from Zulu – "traditional healer"
• tango – probably from Ibibio tamgu
• Tilapia – possibly a latinization "tlhapi", the Tswana word for "fish"
• tote – West African via Gullah
• tsetse – from a Bantu language
• :wikt:ubuntu|ubuntu – Nguni term for "mankind, humanity", in South Africa since the 1980s also used capitalized, Ubuntu, as the name of a philosophy or ideology of "human kindness" or "humanism"
• – from West African languages
• vuvuzela – musical instrument, name of Zulu or Nguni origin
• yam – West African
• zebra – of unknown origin, recorded since c. 1600, possibly from a Congolese language, or alternatively from Amharic
• zombie – likely from West African, but alternatively derived from Spanish sombra "shade, ghost"