On the night of 4 August 2012, all of the cats on the Avenue Kwame Nkrumah were grey (Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso)

As liminal space-time, the night is both threatening and a symbol of the promise of self-reinvention. After a theoretical discussion of imaginaries and attributes associated with the night, this article will guide you through a night-time walk down the Avenue Kwame Nkrumah, the main thoroughfare of Burkina Faso’s capital city, alongside the Bakoroman, or street-dwelling youth. This will both highlight the peculiar place of the Bakoroman in Ouagadougou and open this experience of the city up to analysis, from a point of view located on the fringes, out in the night.