Which language(s) is most useful for backpacking Africa?

Question

I'm looking to backpack Africa in a few years, so I'd like to start learning a language that would the most useful/widely spoken. There are a few conditions I've conjured up though:

• the language should be spoken where English is not commonly spoken (else I would simply default to English, and rendering years of studying pointless)
• emphasis is given on languages in countries that can be visited. I realize that Africa is not as developed for tourism like SE Asia and South America are, so if certain countries are outright difficult to get to without paying a local guide, knowing locals, or paying exorbitant amounts of money, then it may not be so beneficial learning that language. Another reason why a country may not be able to be visited the presence of a major war -- though fully understand this is not at all predictable, I would be basing it just on current situations. I also state major because in lesser conflicts, certain parts of a country may still be accessible. This was the case when I visited Turkey.
• emphasis given on a language that is not broken up into many dialects. To clarify, initially I thought learning Arabic would be most useful, but upon further research, it doesn't seem like the best idea because of how many [incommunicable] dialects of Arabic there are (though reading and writing is still useful).

I realize the constraints may be a bit too strong, but any help is appreciated!

Answer 1

French seems like an obvious choice: Spoken (to some extent, don't expect everybody to be able to communicate with you!) in 20+ countries, not much overlap with English, mostly standardized and easy to learn for English speakers (compared to Arabic or local languages), not limited to a specific region (unlike, say, Swahili which does enjoy some use as a lingua franca but only in a few countries).

There is also quite some overlap between French and Arabic so while the former might not necessarily afford the same level of cultural understanding, it is a practical alternative for everyday communication in North Africa.

I believe that Portuguese is more widely understood in Lusophone countries than French is in Francophone countries (in part due to more extensive schooling by the Portuguese prior to independence) but that's only a handful of countries (Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau) so it would not be as useful continent-wide.

Answer 2

Emphasizing countries that is worth visiting, you can very roughly use the following guideline:

Eastern sub-Saharan Africa: (Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda etc.) Swahili, although most Swahili countries speaks English as well.

Western sub-Saharan Africa: (The Congo's, Camaroon, and further west) French In many of the French speaking African countries there are quite a large portion of the population that does not speak English, making French well worth the effort of study.

And everywhere else you should come right in English.