The article is devoted to the study of language policy and its aspects, peculiarities of the emergence, development and formation of English in African countries. The authors pay attention to the problem of contacts between local languages and English in such spheres as politics, education, informal communication and social life. Various foreign classifications of English in Africa, peculiarities of the emergence of local pidgins and the phenomenon of linguistic interference are under examination. As is made clear from the article, contacts between local languages and English were historically conditioned, and the importance of English has grown over time. The most considerable function of English in the African continent is to ensure communication between many local language communities, the role of lingua franca. In fulfilling these functions, English creates opportunities for the development of local peoples and communities in Africa, undergoing very significant modifications, including the formation of pidgins and local variants resulting from linguistic interference. The comparative method and the method of linguistic analysis were used in the research. The spread of English in Africa, as well as the factors and features of this process, are studied by the authors in diachrony: the analysis and comparison of linguistic situation in the past and in the present is conducted. Particular attention is paid to the phenomena of bilingualism, multilingualism and the role of English as a mediating language, as well as the problems and peculiarities of learning English in English-speaking Africa. The theoretical significance of the work lies in the fact that the materials of this article can serve as a platform for an in-depth study of historical features and similarities of African variants of English in such disciplines as contact and comparative linguistics, sociolinguistics, political linguistics and the English language theory.