This special issue of the Project Management Journal presents a collection of six articles on managing projects in Africa. Providing a window into the important project activity taking place there, these articles extend both the empirical and theoretical understanding of the African project context and contribute to improving practice. Each article makes a unique contribution to either our understanding of the African project context or project management in general, and sometimes to both.  After an introduction to the African project context at the start of the 21st century, the articles explore: • three different countries as well as multinational projects; • for-profit, public sector, and development aid projects; • infrastructure and information and communication technology; • project governance as well as project management; and • partnering challenges.