2024 AfroCreatives WikiProject FESPACO campaign launch!!!

A month  ago we announced the return of AfroCreatives WikiProject and its first campaign of the year: ACWP+film 2024 FESPACO Edit-a-thon. The May 18th launch is finally here! And due to high interest, we’re extending the campaign by two weeks—until June 17th—and adding an additional set of online Wikipedia training sessions on Saturday, June 1st.  Link below for the schedule.

In the lead up to the campaign we hosted a series of Wikipedia training sessions in English, French and Arabic that saw participation from stakeholders from across the film industry (creatives, professionals, scholars, film critics) and from the Wikimedia community at large. Additional sessions on Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons are scheduled for May 18th.

The training sessions are designed to help campaign participants to unpack the best practices for documenting film and TV related subjects on English, French and Arabic Wikipedia, as well as Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons.

Since the official announcement of the campaign, additional groups have bought into our campaign, ranging from film industry organizations, public institutions and diplomatic missions that include the likes of the Federation of Heads of Nollywood Guilds and Associations, The Tanzanian Film Board, the US embassy of Brazzaville and US consulate of Lagos, and Unesco Côte d’Ivoire, to name just a few. 

Local campaign organizers

To help drive participation and provide effective guidance to  film industry participants from across the continent, The Africa Narrative (TAN) is partnering with the following African Wikimedia communities:

1. Wikimedia Morocco
2. Wikimedia Nigeria
3. Wikimedia Community of Togo
4. Wikimédiens du Bénin User Group
5. Wikimedians of Arusha User Group
6. Wikimedia Community User Group Rwanda
7. Wikimedia Community User Group Kenya
8. Wikimedia Community User Group South Sudan
9. Wikimedia Community User Group Namibia
10. Wikimedia Community User Group Botswana
11. Wikimedians of Republic of Congo User Group
12. Wikimedia Community User Group Zambia
13. Open Foundation West Africa
14. Wikimedia Community User Group Guinée Conakry
15. Wikimédiens du Burkina Faso User Group
16. Wikimedia Côte d’Ivoire
17. Wikimedia Community User Group Sénégal
18. Wikimedians of Tchad User Group

AfroCreatives WikiProject campaign hub

While editors often know precisely what contributions they want to undertake, just as often they are looking for guidance and ideas. Here’s where our introduction of English Wikipedia AfroCreatives WikiProject, French Wikipedia AfroCreatives WikiProject and Arabic Wikipedia AfroCreatives WikiProject can play a vital role.  These pages have a variety of information, such as list of Articles to Create, Articles to Improve, Stubs to Expand, and other  resources on how to take action during the campaign and beyond. A number of the lists are searchable by country, an especially valuable filter for industry stakeholders and film enthusiasts with a keen interest in their own country. Other components like the assessment table and Most Popular African film and television articles, also serve to motivate and incentivize editors. 

Working on a WikiProject is akin to a sneak peek into the entire history of a Wikipedia project. The conventions of Wikipedia make it so that the projects are typically equipped by very sophisticated tools. One would be surprised how niche and technical are the efforts behind the characteristic Wikipedia features we often take for granted.
– Assem Khidhr

You can link to the  AfroCreatives WikiProject pages and see for yourself their usefulness. They are still works in progress and will continue to be finessed over the coming weeks.

ACWP+film 2024 FESPACO Edit-a-thon prizes

We know that participants are joining the campaign because they’re passionate about African film and improving its representation and visibility, but in the spirit of bringing some competitive fun to the campaign, we’re offering an array of prizes in the form of premium Netflix subscriptions. More than just entertainment-driven prizes in alignment with the theme of the campaign, they are an acknowledgment of best-in-class film and tv related contributions on Wikipedia as well as Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons .

For a more detailed description on the prizes and schedule of events, click here.

Join us on this exciting movement to document African film and television on Wikimedia projects!