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We introduce four contributions to this special issue exploring insecurity in contemporary African cities, drawing on case studies from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Somalia, and South Africa. We problematise alarmist and decontextualised discourses surrounding Africas rapid urbanisation, identifying common findings across empirically rich contributions ranging from gangs and vigilantes to migration, mobile phone technology, and community (dis)connections to basic services. We show that marginal residents traverse blurred boundaries between formal/informal, legal/illegal, and acceptable/subversive in their quotidian struggle for survival, arguing that by reifying rather than reducing structural inequalities, Africas growing cities force many into insurgent forms of citizenship. Importantly, this is rarely entirely oppositional or supportive of the state and status quo: it occupies ambiguous social space as both resistance and collusion. The complicity of some state elements in producing transgressive or informal modes of urban governance and services underlines our key conclusion: addressing Africas urban insecurity requires political change: technological and infrastructural progress alone is insufficient.

Citizenship, marginality and urban (in)security in contemporary Africa: introduction