The paper is an attempt at providing some conspicuous features of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) in West and Central Africa, with highlighting the common and variable characteristics, within the region itself, and also as compared to East and South Africa. First some characteristics of urban development are presented and compared to trends in East and South Africa. Then some important factors of differentiation of UPA within the region are displayed, and in particular: (i) cities of Sahelian versus humid tropical areas; (ii) coastal versus inner cities; (iii) cities facing economic and employment crisis versus cities endowed with more income sources. The stakeholders' social and economic profiles, the nature of production, marketing and consumption systems, and the social, economic and ecological impact are sketched with the provision of examples in tropical humid Africa (e.g. Brazzaville, Bangui, Yaoundé, Abidjan, Accra), and Sahelian cities (e.g. Dakar, Maroua, Bamako, Bissau). Finally some hypotheses on differences of UPA between West/Central Africa and East/South Africa are proposed. The differences in the balance of commercial versus consumption objectives, the nature of crops and livestock, the nature of research, development and administration stakeholders and the consequences on the UPA dynamics, are brought to the fore. The paper ends with some implications for research and networking in the field of UPA in West and Central Africa.