This contribution aims at giving a general framework of the urbanization processes in Sub-Saharan Africa, giving a specific attention to the production of new artistic and cultural expressions which are different from the traditional forms typical in the pre-colonial era. Despite the presence of cities in different contexts since ancient times, the present urban development is unprecedented under a demographic and socio-cultural perspective. The sentiment of belonging to a clan or to an ethnic group, the gender roles or the family patterns, are rapidly changing, integrated by new identities connected to the global world thanks to the diffusion of the Web communication. Young people are the true protagonists of this transformation. They are thus inventing new hybrid forms, using media to tell the contemporary life of African cities
Keywords: Urban culture; socio-cultural transformation; new media