This issue explores the changing dynamics of African cities in the face of contemporary challenges. Through a series of five different but interconnected articles, it examines how emerging urban practices, based on resilience and innovation, are redefining urban spaces across the continent. Africa's rapidly expanding cities, with some of the highest population growth rates in the world, face complex challenges such as rapid urbanization, social inequalities, food security, lack of adequate infrastructure and adaptation to climate change. However, they are also hotbeds of creative initiative and local innovation, turning challenges into opportunities. Thus, urban practices need to adapt in the face of multifaceted challenges to reinvent the city in fast-changing urban Africa.