The Bantu languages, technically the Narrow Bantu languages, constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages. Bantu languages are spoken largely east and south of the present day country of Cameroon; i.e., in the regions commonly known as central Africa, east Africa, and southern Africa. Parts of the Bantu area include languages from other language families (see map).

The Bantu language with the largest total number of speakers is Swahili. It has over 80 million speakers across eight countries and this number is growing.^{[citation needed]} But most of its speakers use it as a second language; Swahili is the mother tongue of only five million people.^{[citation needed]} According to Ethnologue, Shona is the most widely spoken as a first language; there are 11 to 15 million speakers, depending on definition. Zulu comes second with 10 million.