List of English words of Niger-Congo origin

This is a list of English language words that come from the Niger-Congo languages. It excludes placenames except where they have become common words.

Bantu origin

 * banjo – probably Bantu mbanza
 * basenji – breed of dog from the Congo
 * boma – probably from Swahili
 * bwana – from Swahili, meaning an important person or safari leader
 * chimpanzee – loaned in the 18th century from a Bantu language, possibly Kivili ci-mpenzi.
 * dengue – possibly from Swahili dinga
 * goober – possibly from Bantu (Kikongo and Kimbundu nguba)
 * gumbo – from Bantu (Kimbundu ngombo meaning "okra")
 * 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' (often used in South African English)
 * isango – Zulu meaning gateway
 * jumbo – from Swahili (jambo or jumbe or from Kongo nzamba "elephant")
 * kalimba
 * Kwanzaa – recent coinage (Maulana Karenga 1965) as the name of a "specifically African-American holiday", abstracted from a Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, meaning "first fruits [of the harvest]".
 * lapa – from Sotho languages – enclosure or barbecue area (often used in South African English)
 * macaque – from Bantu makaku through Portuguese and French
 * mamba – from Zulu or Swahili mamba
 * marimba – from Bantu (Kimbundu and Swahili marimba, malimba)
 * okapi – from a language in the Congo
 * safari – from Swahili travel, ultimately from Arabic
 * sangoma – from Zulu – traditional healer (often used in South African English)
 * tilapia – Possibly a latinization "thiape", the Tswana word for fish.
 * tsetse – from a Bantu language (Tswana tsetse, Luhya tsiisi)
 * 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".
 * vuvuzela – musical instrument, name of Zulu or Nguni origin
 * zebra – of unknown origin, recorded since c. 1600, possibly from a Congolese language, or alternatively from Amharic.
 * zombie – likely from West African (compare Kikongo zumbi "fetish", Kimbundu nzambi "god")

Non-Bantu West African origin

 * azawakh - probably from Fula or Tuareg. A breed of dogs from West and North Africa
 * banana – West African, possibly Wolof banana
 * bongo – West African boungu
 * buckra – "white man or person", from Efik and Ibibio mbakara
 * chigger – possibly from Wolof and/or Yoruba jiga "insect"
 * cola – from West African languages (Temne kola, Mandinka kolo)
 * djembe – from West African languages
 * jazz – from West African languages (Mandinka jasi, Temne yas)
 * jive – possibly from Wolof jev
 * juke, jukebox – possibly from Wolof and Bambara dzug through Gullah
 * kwashiorkor – from Ga language, Coastal Ghana meaning "swollen stomach"
 * Marímbula, plucked musical instrument (lamellophone) of the Caribbean islands
 * merengue (dance) possibly from Fulani mererek i meaning to shake or quiver
 * mumbo jumbo – from Mandingo name Maamajombo, a masked dancer
 * mojo – from Kongo “moyo” meaning “spirit”
 * obeah – from West African (Efik ubio, Twi ebayifo)
 * okra – from Igbo ókùrù
 * sambo – Fula sambo meaning "uncle"
 * tango – probably from Ibibio tamgu
 * tote – West African via Gullah
 * vodou – from West African languages (Ewe and Fon vodu "spirit")
 * yam – West African (Fula nyami, Twi anyinam)