Accessing recreational spaces in Cotonou (Benin): between resilience and urban informality

Abstract

In a context marked by the scarcity of public recreational spaces in African cities, this study examines the places occupied by young people for leisure purposes in the city of Cotonou. It investigates the types of spaces and arrangements that these youths mobilize to engage in recreational activities, as well as the forms of adaptation that result. The objective is to describe the types of spaces, and the developments observed, in order to provide a useful descriptive basis for further research into the social and urban uses of these spaces. Relying on a qualitative approach that combines direct observation and documentary analysis, the research inventories informal leisure spaces identified across the city’s thirteen districts between 2023 and 2025. The collected data highlight the diversity of sites used vacant lots, streets, beachfront areas, spaces beneath pylons as well as the forms of adaptation implemented, often rudimentary but socially meaningful. The analysis, grounded in the notion of the right to the city (Lefebvre, 1968; Kébé-Gangneux, 2016), shows that, in response to deficiencies in public policy, young people concretely exercise this right by transforming urban interstices into spaces of sociability and leisure. Informality, understood here as the capacity to organize and respond to the shortcomings of the formal system, reveals spatial creativity and grassroots, citizen-driven production of the city. These practices, beyond mere pursuit of pleasure, contribute to the construction of social bonds and the affirmation of an active urban citizenship.