Commons:Wiki Loves Africa 2026/Media
Wiki Loves Africa (WLA) is an annual contest organised by Wiki In Africa and conducted across Africa's Wikimedia movement. The contest encourages people across Africa to contribute media (photographs, video and audio) that document and reflect their culture, daily activities and environment on Wikimedia Commons for use on Wikipedia and other project websites of the Wikimedia Foundation. Wiki Loves Africa particularly encourages participants to contribute media that illustrate a specific theme for that year.
Each year the theme changes and could include any universal, visually rich and culturally specific topic (for example, markets, rites of passage, festivals, public art, cuisine, natural history, urbanity, daily life, notable persons, etc).
11 years of Wiki Loves Africa
[edit]
Wiki Loves Africa particularly encourages participants to contribute to media that illustrates a specific theme for that year. Each year the theme changes and could include any universal, visually rich and culturally specific topic (for example, markets, rites of passage, festivals, public art, cuisine, natural history, urbanity, daily life, notable persons, etc). The project is run across the whole continent. However, some specific actions (training, communication, etc.) are held in some countries with national organizers.
Wiki Loves Africa has achieved much over 11 years:
Over 146,698 images have been entered by 12,504 competitors from up to 55 countries under a free licence (CC-BY-SA).
- Wiki Loves Africa images have illustrated over 37,726 pages across 437 Wikimedia projects, such as Wikipedia, Wikivoyage and Wikiquote.
- 55 Wikimedia communities from 34 African countries have hosted participation events, information sessions, and training workshops.
- Participating communities held just under 400 participation and training events between 2014 and 2025.
- The competition attracts high levels of new contributors to the Wikimedia projects – an average of 71.6% of participants are newbies;
- The images entered to Wiki Loves Africa are viewed over 31 million times each month (Mar 2024)
- Wiki Loves Africa’s images over the 11 years have been viewed over 1,36 billion times altogether (Jan 2025)
- A Wiki Loves Africa prize-winning image was included in the Journeys Through Our Fragile Heritage exhibition at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
- Wiki Loves Africa’s ISA Tool has won the Cool Tool: Eggbeater Category at Wikimania 2024 and WikiData Award for Best Multimedia Tool in November 2019.
- Wiki Loves Africa’s ISA Tool developer Eugene Agbor Egbe won the Wikimedian of the year: Tech contributor of the year category at Wikimania 2025 for the work done on ISA Tool.
- Mohamed Hozyen, a prize winner for Wiki Loves Africa 2019, was selected for the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC), Prins Claus Fonds and Magnum Foundation Arab Documentary Photography Programme.
- A Wiki Loves Africa image Firefighter, Ashton Bay, March 2017 submitted by South African photographer user:StevenTerblanche for the Wiki Loves Africa 2017 contest under the theme of People at Work. The stunning image was selected for 3rd position for the Picture of the Year 2021 award and depicts a courageous firefighter battling against a veld-fire at Ashton Bay, Jeffreys Bay, Eastern Cape Province, Republic of South Africa.
International team
[edit]The Wiki in Africa team
[edit]Wiki Loves Africa was created by Florence and Isla in 2014. In 2025 it is hosted and run at the international level by the Wiki In Africa team. Regional Ambassadors connect the contest and international team with the local Wikimedia communities. Wikimedia communities across Africa host local information and training events, photography shoots, video workshops and uploading sessions. There have been over 400 such events hosted by over 34 local teams over the last 11 years.
Hilary
Is the facilitator of the Wiki Loves Africa. He is a Wikimedian from Nigeria who has been actively involved with the movement via Igbo Wikimedians User Group, Igala Wikimedia Community and Heritage Conservation Integration. He is the community lead for a community for wikimedians interested in contributing free knowledge through Wikimedia Commons. You can reach him on his talk page or via email 
Anthere
Florence Devouard has been a wikipedian since early 2002. She is formerly Chairwoman of Wikimedia Foundation as well as a co-founder of Wikimedia France. She cares very much for diversity, international participation, and multilingualism.
So late 2012, she decided to refocus her attention to diversity (or lack there-of) and co-created projects with Isla Haddow Flood with the explicit goal of getting more African editors and more African-related content onto Wikimedia project.
In the following years, Florence has conceptualised, instigated and been the co-lead on a number of projects related to Wikipedia and Africa, including as Wiki Loves Africa. In 2017, she co-founded Wiki In Africa, a South Africa based association along with Iolanda Pensa and Isla Haddow-Flood to host some of those initiatives, and ever since then co-lead the association with Isla.
Islahaddow
A Zimbabwean by birth, and a Capetonian by adoption, Oxford-educated Isla Haddow-Flood is a writer, editor and project and communications strategist who is passionate about harnessing communication technology and media platforms for the advancement of open access to knowledge; specifically, knowledge that relates to and enhances the understanding of Africa via the Open Movement (and especially Wikipedia).
Since 2011, Isla has been working to Activate Africa. Working as a member of the WikiAfrica movement, she has conceptualised, instigated and been the co-lead on a number of projects related to Wikipedia and Africa, including as Wiki Loves Africa. She lives in Simon's Town, South Africa, is the Director of Communication for Open Education Global and co-leads Wiki In Africa.
Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, Nonny graduated from Stellenbosch University with a degree in Social Science, specialising in Psychology and Political Sciences. Complementing her academic background, she holds a Health and Fitness Diploma and possesses a deep-seated passion for the intersection of Mental Health and Sports/Physical Exercise, recognising their potential for catalysing social and community development.
Rachel Zadok is an editor, writer and designer and the author of two novels: Gem Squash Tokoloshe (Pan Macmillan, 2005), shortlisted for The Whitbread First Novel Award and The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, and longlisted for the IMPAC Award; and Sister-sister (Kwela Books, 2013), shortlisted for the University of Johannesburg Prize and The Herman Charles Bosman Prize, and longlisted for the Sunday Times Fiction Award. She is the managing editor of Short Story Day Africa, a project to promote and develop African writers using the medium of the short story, and as such has published seven anthologies of African short fiction.
She is also the communications manager for Wiki in Africa and the project manager for Inspiring Open, a podcast series of Wiki Loves Women, a project of Wiki in Africa.
Wiki Loves Africa Ambassadors
[edit]This is an elite group of individuals who will be doing the sensitive task of providing linguistic and administrative support for the Wiki Loves Africa project life cycle. Their tasks include but not limited to:
- Translations
- Social media
- Office Hours to support
- Training sessions
- Jury support
The 2026 ambassadors are:
Ola one of the Wiki Loves Africa Arabic Ambassadors, a Sudanese Wikimedian since 2018, co-founder of Sudan Community, Wikimedia Community User Group Sudan. She is contribute mainly in Arabic Wikimedian and support Sudan Community recruiting new user training to support growth and visibility as a user group.
Duaa Khidir is one of the Wiki Loves Africa Arabic Ambassadors, a graduate of linguistics and translation. She started her journey with Wikipedia in 2020, through Kateb Maktub, an initiative that aims to enrich online content on Arab authors.
After volunteering with Kateb Maktub she continue to dedicate her time, with WM of UE UG, to research for volunteers to create, edit and translate content in Wikipedia, in hopes of creating a sustainable community of contributors.
She is the communications and community outreach coordinator for Wikimedians of UAE User Group.
King ChristLike is one of the Wiki Loves Africa English Ambassadors, and a dedicated Wikimedian since 2020. He's a member of the Wiki Loves Monuments International team (WLM-i), Igbo Wikimedians User Group, Wikimedia User Group Nigeria, WikiProject Medicine, and the Volunteer Support Network (VSN). He’s an administrator on the Igbo Wikipedia and Igbo Wiktionary, a technical contributor, jury member for photography contests, and event organizer with several impactful projects. He remains committed to quality content, mentorship, indigenous language and heritage preservation, and directly supporting Wikimedia communities and projects.
Baluku Brian is a Wiki Loves Africa English Ambassador from Uganda. He has been affiliated with the Wikimedia Community User Group since 2021, where he serves as a board member since February 2025. Since 2022, he has trained and mentored both new and experienced editors. He is an event organiser for photographic competitions and writing campaigns across various Wikimedia projects. You can explore his contributions and event activities on the Outreach Dashboard. You can reach out to him via his talk page or via his Email
Coulibaly Abdoul-Rahim is a member of Wikimedia Cote d'Ivoire User Group and winner of the Zenman Award for Best Contributor 2024-2025. He has been involved in Wikimedia projects for over two years and has published more than 190 articles on French Wikipedia. He worked as a Wikimedian in residence with Code for Africa (July–December 2025) and successfully participated in the #100wikidays challenge on French Wikipedia from October 2024 to January 2025. You can reach out to him via his talk page or via his Email.
Dadrik is a member of Wikimedia Cote d'Ivoire User Group and winner of the Zenman Award for Best Contributor 2023-2024. He has been involved in Wikimedia projects for over two years and has published more than 200 articles on French Wikipedia. He worked as a Wikimedian in residence with Code for Africa (July–December 2025) and successfully participated in the #100wikidays challenge on French Wikipedia from september 2024 to december 2024. He is an administrator on the French Wikipedia. He organized Wiki Loves Africa 2025 in Ivory Coast, and his country won two international awards. He also received the Wikimedia Foundation's Newscomers Award and an award from Wikimedia France. You can reach out to him via his talk page or via his Email.
How the competition is organised
[edit]The project is a two-month competition which will start on the 1st March 2026 and end on the 30th April 2026. The project runs across the entire continent, however there are local and national groups of Wikimedians that have volunteered to host specific actions (training, upload events, communications, etc.) in their countries. In addition, there are several groups of individuals within Africa, and Wikimedia groups outside Africa that are (and encouraged to be) involved.
The project is a contest where, after the contest closes, the best media at the continental level are selected and prizes are awarded. An international jury will determine the best entries for the continental competition. Where there are local organising groups, they will decide to organise (or not) judging and local prizes for their country.
Wiki Loves Africa was created and developed, and is managed by the principals at Wiki in Africa, it is funded by the Wikimedia Foundation. Actions and activities in each country are supported by the Wikimedia community in the form of Usergroups and volunteers across Africa.
Communications links:
Discussion channels:
2026 Winners and prizes
[edit]There will be several winners. The Wiki Loves Africa 2025 international prizes categories are:
Photography:
- 1st Prize : USD 900
- 2nd Prize : USD 700
- 3rd Prize : USD 600
- Wilson Oluoha Prize : USD 1,000
- Photo Essay Prizeː USD 300
Media (Video, Audio):
- Best audio prize: USD 700
- Wiki Loves Africa video prize - Narrative: USD 900
- Wiki Loves Africa video prize - Reportage : USD 900
- Wiki Loves Africa video prize - Clip : USD 200
In addition, some of the local national teams will host national ceremonies and national prizes.
Local teams can decide to award separate national prizes at their discretion. Please review the Countries page to see what is happening where and what prizes are available at a local level.
Press contacts
[edit]Global contacts
[edit]- South Africa: Isla Haddow-Flood:isla
wikiinafrica.org - France: Florence Devouard: fdevouardanthere.org
Contacts of Organisers per Country
[edit]Please note: this list has recently been updated based on available confirmations from community members. While many contacts have been reviewed, a few individuals did not respond and may no longer be available. We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.
- Algeria: At present, there are no confirmed media representatives listed for this country. If you are based in this region and would like to be considered for future media engagement opportunities, please contact us or update your details here on this page.
- Benin: Fawaz Tairou: fawaz.tairou@gmail.com
- Botswana: Candy Khohliwe: ckhohliwe@gmail.com
- Burundi: Gilbert Ndihokubwayo: gigi.kadi@gmail.com
- Cameroon: Lexy_Tchuileu: atchuileu@gmail.com
- Chad: Ahmat Matary: ahmatmatary@gmail.com
- Côte d'Ivoire: Konan N'Da N'Dri: ndandrik@gmail.com
- Democratic Republic of the Congo: At present, there are no confirmed media representatives listed for this country. If you are based in this region and would like to be considered for future media engagement opportunities, please contact us or update your details here on this page.
- Ghana: Gabriel Joe Amuzu: amuzugabrieljoe@gmail.com, Bright Ayisi: wikigrapher@gmail.com
- Guinea: At present, there are no confirmed media representatives listed for this country. If you are based in this region and would like to be considered for future media engagement opportunities, please contact us or update your details here on this page.
- Haiti: At present, there are no confirmed media representatives listed for this country. If you are based in this region and would like to be considered for future media engagement opportunities, please contact us or update your details here on this page.
- Kenya: Faith Mwanyolo: faithchugu@gmail.com
- Mali: At present, there are no confirmed media representatives listed for this country. If you are based in this region and would like to be considered for future media engagement opportunities, please contact us or update your details here on this page.
- Morocco: At present, there are no confirmed media representatives listed for this country. If you are based in this region and would like to be considered for future media engagement opportunities, please contact us or update your details here on this page.
- Nigeria: Ayokanmi Oyeyemi: ayokanmi@wikimedia.org.ng, Musa Umar: umarmusaahmad77@)gmail.com, Obiageli Ezeilo: oby.ezeilo@gmail.com, Mikael Sodiq Adesina: jerrykufang22@gmail.com and Musa Vacho77: umarmusaahmad77@gmail.com
- Republic of the Congo: Kano Tchapi: kanotchapi@wikimedia.cg
- Rwanda: At present, there are no confirmed media representatives listed for this country. If you are based in this region and would like to be considered for future media engagement opportunities, please contact us or update your details here on this page.
- Senegal: Adjo Essenam: essenam.fumey@gmail.com, wikimedia.usergroupsn@gmail.com
- Sudan: Maram Ali Ahmed: sd.wikimedia@gmail.com, marmaroma@gmail.com
- Tanzania: Antoni Mtavangu: antonicmtavangu@gmail.com
- Togo: At present, there are no confirmed media representatives listed for this country. If you are based in this region and would like to be considered for future media engagement opportunities, please contact us or update your details here on this page.
- Tunisia: نعيم قربوسي: grabssi12@gmail.com
- Uganda: At present, there are no confirmed media representatives listed for this country. If you are based in this region and would like to be considered for future media engagement opportunities, please contact us or update your details here on this page.
- Zambia: At present, there are no confirmed media representatives listed for this country. If you are based in this region and would like to be considered for future media engagement opportunities, please contact us or update your details here on this page.
Documents
[edit]2026 Posters and Visual Kit
[edit]Social media posters (jpgs) in 3 languages
English
[edit]Poster
Social Media
Arabic
[edit]Poster
Social Media
French
[edit]Poster
Social media
Logo
[edit]
2026 Theme Colors
[edit]#C4463B
R185, G227, B234
C26, M0, Y7, K0
#f1615f
R241, G97, B95
C0, M77, Y58, K0
#f7941e
R113, G67, B97
C55, M80, Y40, K21
#e5d41c
R9, G143, B130
C77, M7, Y41, K21
#8dc63f
R255, G221, B76
C0, M11, Y81, K0
#02679a
R62, G53, B62
C67, M69, Y53, K51
..
2026 Media mentions
[edit]- Rites and Rituals take center stage at Wiki Loves Africa 2026 launch in Wiki Niger Delta Heritage Collective
- Wiki Loves Africa 2026 in Wiki Niger Delta Heritage Collective, news feature on radio (Wave FM)
Other links
[edit]- Media Kit for organizers: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Loves_Africa_2026/Communication/Twelve_Years_of_Wiki_Loves_Africa