In Cameroon's capital, ordinary residents are replanting a city that asphalt and car parks have steadily eaten away, one shrub at a time.
In Yaoundé, Cameroon's capital, a grassroots movement is pushing back against the concrete creeping over the city's trees and parks. Volunteers are doing the work themselves, replanting one shrub at a time.
For Sosthène Hugues Ngono, the loss is personal. A green, quiet corner of the city once served as his go-to spot for first dates. Today he stands at the edge of that same ground, now a private car park lined with parked vehicles. For him it was never just a patch of grass. It was where he went to clear his head when life got confusing, where he met people, and where he fell in love more than once.
Stories like his show what disappears when a city trades open space for asphalt. Parks are where people breathe, gather, wander and build memories. When they go, the shade goes with them, and so do the shared spaces where a community's everyday life plays out.
The volunteers' answer is simple and stubborn: if the city won't protect its green spaces, they will help bring them back. It's slow, hands-in-the-soil work, but it keeps alive the idea that Yaoundé's future doesn't have to be all concrete. Across African cities facing rapid growth, that fight for room to breathe is one to watch.
