Following the Bishop's Synod for Africa (1994), the exhortation Ecclesia in Africa opens up several concrete possibilities for implanting the Church on African soil. The present article sketches the main characteristics of such an implantation. Ecclesial basic communities are presented as centres of ecclesial communion, inculturation and commitment, in which is to be fostered the emergence of instituted lay ministries, with a special view to evangelisation and catechesis. The A. stresses the transition from a mission Church to a missionary Church, where the Africans themselves take up the responsibility of the rooting of the Church in a continent in crisis, awaiting reconciliation.