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Wiki Loves Africa 2017

Wiki Loves Africa (WLA) is an annual contest where anyone across Africa can contribute media that is relevant to their experience to Wikimedia Commons for use on Wikipedia and other project websites of the Wikimedia Foundation. Wiki Loves Africa encourages participants to contribute media (photographs, video and audio) that illustrate the specific theme for that year. Each year the theme changes and is chosen by the community from a few universal, visually rich and culturally specific topics (for example, markets, rites of passage, festivals, public art, cuisine, natural history, urbanity, daily life, notable persons, etc).

The theme for the 2014 photo contest was Wiki Loves Africa Cuisine. In 2015 the theme focused on Wiki Loves Africa Cultural Fashion and Adornment. In 2016, the chosen theme was Music and Dance.

In 2017, the theme is... People at Work

Competition scope: The theme calls for photographs, videos and audio files that document all manner of occupations undertake across the continent - formal and informal, contemporary and ancient, business-oriented and creative. There will be a special prize that will be concentrated on visually capturing women working, and another that illustrates rare, fading or threatened traditional craft, style or way of working.

The project is a two-month competition which will start on the 1st of October and end on the 30th of November 2017.

The project will be run at the entire continental level. However, some specific actions (training, communication etc.) will be held in some countries with national organisers. The project will feature a contest to select the best media at the continental level, with a ceremony and prizes as deemed appropriate.

Participating individuals

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Regardless of whether you are African or not, you are welcome to join!

Consider joining the African Wikimedians mailing list for discussion and announcement (WLAf does not have a specific mailing list).

Here are some examples of the things you may do for a start:

  • Let other people know about the contest. Your local community can include local Wikip/medians and aligned Open Movement members (enthusiasts from Creative Commons, Open Street Map, Open Data, OER, etc.). Relevant links to provide include
  • Fix pages on meta or Commons (improve the text, fix typos, translate...)
  • Help us to translate the Site Notice into those languages (as well as other relevant texts)
  • Volunteer to help on OTRS to answer questions or comments made by participants (get in touch with us if you want to be a volunteer on OTRS)
  • Help select the jury: suggest judges who might be interested in taking part in the international contest (perhaps a locally celebrated photographer, fashion designer, filmmaker or journalist). Volunteer yourself!
  • Participate in writing press releases: Help on crafting a press release template, adapt it, and send it out to your media contacts. Write blogs.
  • Help categorize and clean up uploaded photos on Commons during the contest
  • Help use images and videos in relevant Wikipedia articles
  • other suggestions ?

Participating countries

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The call for pictures and the contest will run in ALL African countries and beyond.

As part as our grant request to Wikimedia Foundation, we will be able to fund local events in a handful of countries. There is a small budget allocated for those countries for in-country communication and materials, travel costs etc.. Your team needs to decide what is appropriate for your country and context.

If you belong to the following countries and want to submit a funding request, please read eligibility criteria and suggested guidelines here and submit your propositions below

  1. Wiki Loves Africa 2017/Uganda (your request in 2016: Wiki Loves Africa 2016/Uganda)
  2. Wiki Loves Africa 2017/Tanzania (your request in 2016: Wiki Loves Africa 2016/Tanzania)
  3. Wiki Loves Africa 2017/Zimbabwe
  4. Wiki Loves Africa 2017/Malawi
  5. Wiki Loves Africa 2017/Ethiopia

For all other countries, please submit your funding request at Grants:Project/Rapid

This is in particular true for Nigeria, Cameroun, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria. Please add below a link to your Rapid Grant request. If you need any help to make the Rapid Grant Request, please talk to the other team members.

  1. Nigeria : Grants:Project/Rapid/Jamie Tubers/Wiki Loves Africa 2017 in Nigeria
  2. Cameroun : Grants:Project/Rapid/Wikimedians of Cameroon User Group/Wiki Loves Africa 2017 in Cameroon
  3. Côte d'Ivoire : Grants:Project/Rapid/Mouahé/Wiki Loves Africa 2017 in Côte d'Ivoire
  4. Ghana : Rapid Grant
  5. Tunisia : Wiki Loves Africa 2017/Tunisia and Grants:Project/Rapid/Wikimedia TN User Group/Wiki loves Africa 2017
  6. Egypt : Grants:Project/Rapid/Wikimedia Egypt UG/Wiki Loves Africa
  7. Algeria : Grants:Project/Rapid/WMDZ/Wiki loves Africa and Monuments
  8. Mali:: Grants:Project/Rapid/NfanaMali/Wiki Loves Africa

Guidelines for Participating Countries

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Below are some actions to consider working on with your team. We really look forward to working with you on this project and getting some great results! May the best photo/video/audio win!

Here is some examples of the things you may do for a start:

  • Let your community know about the contest. Your local community can include local Wikip/medians and aligned Open Movement members (enthusiasts from Creative Commons, Open Street Map, Open Data, OER, etc.). Relevant links to provide include WLA on Meta, WLA on Commons, WLA on Twitter and WLA on Facebook.
  • Think about the events, meet ups and training sessions that you can do with your community during the contest. Make sure everyone knows about it (and they are included in the press release).
  • Look for local partners: groups who might be key partners in spreading the word or hosting events.
  • If you are interested in hosting events around the project then, before the 20th of August, create a proposal and upload the proposal to this page. Suggested guidelines are here.
  • Join the African mailing list [1] (WLAf does not have a specific mailing list)
  • Provide press contact: When you know who your press person is, put their name and contacts down on this page.
  • Get together a list of media contacts in your country that you think will be interested in talking about the competition.
  • Participate in press releases: Help craft a press release template, adapt this for your country, and send it out to your media contacts. Other marketing and communication tools will be written and template created, and we will share everything with you for you to adapt and translate.
  • Help select the jury: suggest judges who might be interested in taking part in the international contest (perhaps a locally celebrated photographer, chef, filmmaker or journalist) .
  • Decide on whether you wish to host a national round of judging and prizes - if you do, you will need to organise the judges and the prizes (we can give you guidance on how).
  • Facebook has been set up - https://www.facebook.com/wikilovesafrica - please like this page - we will repost your info.
  • Twitter has been set up - http://twitter.com/WikiLovesAfrica - please follow and link your tweets about the competition to our handle.
  • other suggestions ?

To support your country's participation in the competition, we will supply the following (this list is NOT YET up to date)

  1. We are setting up a FAQ to answer general enquiries and a competition support email system to answer any requests for info, help, complaining etc.
  2. We are providing a curated page to help organise events
  3. A press release and FAQ for press (that you will need to localise for your country) and a list of talking points for you if the press contact you (end of November).
  4. Digital communication material
    1. The digital version of a leaflet presenting the project for local printing and distribution (you will have to determine how many prints and where you want to distribute it).
    2. The digital version simple A2 Poster for local printing and distribution.
    3. The digital version of stickers, badges and bumper stickers (your team should decide what you need to print and how many).
    4. A simple T-shirt design (this is not essential given the small budget, but again, is up to your team to decide).
  5. Upon request, a letter of accreditation for the team, that will help when approaching sponsors and partners to be involved. Please let us know if you need a letter like this.

Please let us know if there are other means of communication or channels you would like the competition to consider.

Fun facts for Wiki Loves Africa

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  • 40000 photos have been uploaded as a total resulting from all Wiki Loves Africa edition (2014 - 2017)
  • In 2017, under the theme People at work, 2064 users uploaded more than 18 000 photos (Source: Wiki Loves Africa statistics )
  • In 2016, thanks to our partnership with UNESCO, a Facebook, Twitter et Instagram campaign was organised using the hashtags #Unite4Heritage and #WikiLovesAfrica. UNESCO tweets marked 67257 impressions and 1008 engagements (retweets, likes et commentaires). In Instagram, posts generated 178900 impressions reaching 127900 people, while receiving 9,536 likes and commments (Source: Unesco Monthly Visibility Report, January 2017 ).
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