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This paper proposes to analyze the street children phenomenon in two African cities, Yaounde (Cameroon) and Antananarivo (Madagascar). While being a public space, the street has also become the living space of a minority. How do the children live in a space open to everybody? At what point does a neutral public space change to become a street territory? To answer those questions, and apprehend the street as territory, power relations offer the best take. City dwellers react against the street children's presence in the city centre and in the streets in general, to maintain their power vis à vis that of the children. Likewise, the presence of the children in the street disrupts the urban project of the authorities. Tensions and violence ensue, and take part in urban territorialization process. Choosing the geographic angle to study street children leads to a new reading of the separation between public spaces and private spaces, of the inside/outside dialectic and of public space neutrality in the city.