It is found in northern areas of Africa south of the Sahara.

The African red-rumped swallow was formally described and illustrated in 1845 by the German naturalist Eduard Rüppell based on a specimen collected in the Tembien region of northern Ethiopia.

He coined the binomial name Cecropis melanocrissus where the specific epithet combines the Latin melas, melanos meaning "black" with Modern Latin crissum meaning "vent".

The subspecies melanocrissus, kumboensis and emini were formerly placed in the red-rumped swallow complex.

The taxa were re-arranged based mainly on differences in morphology.