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For more than ten years, in a Sub-Saharan Africa marked either by institutional démocratisation or by authoritarian decompression-reconstruction processes, associations defined and often acknowledged as “Non-Governmental Organisations” have proliferated. Although many have speculated and expressed doubts about these African NGOs and the associative revival with which their relationships are more or less strong and clear, few have studied them “literally” before evaluating their results and confront them to explicit or implicit prescriptions. Yet, this profusion of new non-governmental organisations has emerged in similar local conditions. Based on the results of research carried out in Cotonou (Bénin) and Lubumbashi (Democratie Republic of Congo) in 1998, and concentrating on city-based NGOs, this article offers a comparative review of two “civil societies” whose vitality and identity have been strongly influenced by their local context (relationship with public authorities on the one hand, and presence of funding groups in the local development arena on the other).