The phrase "african background" is correct but should be capitalized as "African background" in written English.
You can use it when referring to someone's cultural or ethnic heritage related to Africa.
Example: "Her African background has greatly influenced her artistic style and perspective."
Alternatives: "African heritage" or "African roots".
I'm from a South African background and there's this phrase – ubuntu – "I am because we are".
Kamel had grown up in the south of the country, in a family of North African background.
The couple employed mentors with an "African background" to connect with Zahara, who was adopted in Ethiopia in 2005.
She was picked out, probably because of her East African background and interest in coding, assigned to SOE and spent most of the war on North African operations.
His stirring statement of intent is, as always, said quietly in an accent which is a soft blend of his Kenyan and South African background.
There was a stage when I was younger, in primary school, and a lot of people who came from an African background weren't as proud of it.
The demonstrators were mostly Hispanic, but they included people of Asian, European and African backgrounds.
This may or may not thrill every England supporter, even those familiar with the South African backgrounds of his fellow Saracen forwards Mouritz Botha and Matt Stevens.
In spring 1995, Ali Touchent, an Algerian agent, began to gather and incite a network of disaffected young men from north African backgrounds to commit terrorist attacks in France.
Suggestions of an African or Sudanese gangs crisis are strongly disputed by Victoria police, who tell Guardian Australia that while young people of African backgrounds are overly represented in some high-harm crime, they only represent a small portion of offenders.
There'll be more trouble in France among unemployed young people from Arab and African backgrounds.
