Welcome to the WikiAfrica movement newsletter!
It has been so busy during 2018 ... here are just some of these activities that have occurred in the WikiAfrica world on the African continent and overseas. While this newsletter is compiled by Isla Haddow-Flood, Florence Devouard and Christine Welthagen at Wiki In Africa, the news covers details of activities of Wikipedians across Africa as a whole. Enjoy!
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Wiki Challenge African Schools: winning Schools announced
This year, the WikiChallenge African Schools took place in October and November 2017 and involved four countries: Tunisia, Madagascar, Mali and Guinea. All together, 33 primary schools participated and 40 texts were submitted by the children of the schools. We were all very impressed with the creativity of the children and their strong commitment.
However, as in all competitions, we must choose a winner! We have to admit that it was very difficult to choose.
The wining articles by country are:
The special Jury Prizes are:
We would like to thank again all participants and congratulate the winners.
The schools used WikiFundi as a collaborative platform to create the texts. WikiFundi was made available to the schools through the Orange Foundation's Digital Kits. After production, the texts were uploaded on Vikidia. The images and videos were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons and the best texts will be added to Wikipedia.
WikiChallenge African Schools was conceptualised by Wiki In Africa’s Florence Devouard and Isla Haddow-Flood as a fun and exciting way for children across Africa to be introduced to how knowledge is created, by creating Vikidia articles. The project is in collaboration with the Orange Foundation and Wikimedia CH.
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students in Tunisia
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Island Antsoheribory imagined by a student
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Students from Dougabougou, getting ready for the challenge!
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Students and their teacher in Mali, with their tablets.
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Incredible photos win Wiki Loves Africa 2017
The Wiki Loves Africa photo competition took place from the 1st of October 2017 until the 30th of November. This year, the chosen theme was People at Work, which proved to be an awesome theme that really fired the imagination. 18,046 pictures were contributed by 2,613 people. This is such an incredible participation! The new concept of photos essays was launched in 2017 raised a lot of interest not only from local teams but also from the general public.
The winning entries were announced at Wiki Indaba in Tunis, in March 2018. You can read all about the winners in the article on the website. An article that explores the motivation of the winning photographers has been featured on the Wikimedia Foundation blog. Below are some of the contribution statistics for the competition over the four years it has been running.
| Year |
Countries |
Uploads |
Images used
in the wikis |
Uploaders |
Uploaders registered
after competition start |
| 2014 |
47 |
5975 |
1009 (16%) |
882 |
740 (83%) |
| 2015 |
48 |
6978 |
592 (8%) |
733 |
588 (80%) |
| 2016 |
49 |
7465 |
335 (4%) |
857 |
688 (80%) |
| 2017 |
55 |
18046 |
1159 (6%) |
2613 |
2312 (88%) |
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Africa's Wikimedians gathered at WikiIndaba Tunis
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WikiIndaba is the regional Wikimedia conference for Africans both within and in the diaspora. The third
The first edition took place in South Africa in 2014, the next one was in Ghana. In 2018, the Conference took place in Tunis, Tunisia between the 16th and the 18th of March at the Hotel El Mouradi Gammarth. The aims of the Conference is to build capacity for African Wikimedians, to foster growth of the coverage and involvement of Africa in Wikimedia projects and finally to connect African Wikimedians both within the continent and in the diaspora.
Wiki in Africa members (Isla and Florence) naturally attended WikiIndaba :) and provided insights to the community with regards to Education (WikiChallenge project), Tech (WikiFundi) as well as revealed Wiki Loves Africa winners ! Read this longer post about Wiki Indaba.
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Wikimania 2018 taking place in Cape Town, South Africa
Wikimania is the annual conference celebrating Wikipedia and its sister free knowledge projects. Hundreds of volunteers and Free Knowledge leaders from around the world gather to discuss issues, report on new projects and approaches, and exchange ideas.
Wikimania 2018 is going to be held in Cape Town from the 18th of July to 22nd July and will specifically focus on the gaps - gender, cultural, demographic and knowledge - and strategies for reducing them.
All are welcome, whether you are an expert, enthusiast, beginner, or just curious! Registration is now open.
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WikiFundi rollout and 2.0
WikiFundi provides an offline editable environment that is a similar experience to editing Wikipedia online. WikiFundi allows for training on, and contribution to, Wikipedia when technology, access and electricity outages fail or are not available at all.
WikiFundi was developed by Wiki In Africa in 2016 through support from Wikimedia CH and funded by the Orange Foundation. In January 2017 it was launched at Wiki Indaba Accra. Since then, the little box has assisted Wikipedia-related activity in 13 countries across Africa through three projects:
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Wikipack Africa – where it assists the outreach work of Wikipedians in Algeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda
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WikiChallenge African Schools – a writing challenge part of the Orange Foundation’s Digital Schools Project in Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, and Tunisia.
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WikiAfrica Schools – an education project, currently in its pilot phase at secondary schools in South Africa, that is a collaboration with the Moleskine Foundation.
Using feedback provided by its first users, Wiki in Africa looked for new funding to lead WikiFundi to the next stage... and got it (thanks to the Wikimedia Foundation)!
In the next few months, we will be working on WikiFundi 2.0, and expect the new version to be released in mid-2018. Stay tuned!
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