« La rue » dans la ville africaine (Yaoundé, Cameroun)

In this paper I propose to analyse the street children phenomenon in two african cities, Yaounde (Cameroon) and Antananarivo (Madagascar). While being a public space, the street has also become the living space of a minority. How can the children live in a space open to everybody? Do they succeed in appropriating these public places? Are the streets transformed in territories? What are the consequences? To answer those questions, and apprehend the street as territory, power relations offer the best take. In opposition to the children’s power, city dwellers react against the street children’s presence in the city centre and in the streets in general, to maintain their power in front of the children. Likewise, the presence of the children in the street disrupts the urban project of the authorities. Tensions and violence ensue, and take part in urban territorialisation process. Choosing the geographic entry to study the street children lead to a new reading of the separation between public spaces and private spaces, of the inside/ outside dialectic and of the public space neutrality in the city.