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People with diabetes mellitus (DM) have a higher tuberculosis (TB) risk, but the evidence from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) was scarce until recently and not included in earlier global summaries. Therefore, this systematic review aims to determine the risk of active TB disease among people with DM in SSA and whether HIV alters this association.Medline, Embase, CINAHL, Web of Science, Global Health and African Index Medicus were searched between January 1980 and February 2021. Cohort, case-control and cross-sectional studies from SSA, which assessed the association between DM and active TB, were included if adjusted for age. Two researchers independently assessed titles, abstracts, full texts, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias. Estimates for the association between DM and TB were summarised using a random effects meta-analysis.CRD42021241743.Nine eligible studies were identified, which reported on 110,905 people from 5 countries. Individual study odds ratios (OR) of the TB-DM association ranged from 0.88 (95% CI 0.17-4.58) to 10.7 (95% CI 4.5-26). The pooled OR was 2.77 (95% CI 1.90-4.05). High heterogeneity was reduced in sensitivity analysis (from IThere is a strong positive association between DM and active TB in SSA. More research is needed to determine whether HIV, a key risk factor for TB in SSA, modifies this relationship.