WikiAfrica Hour #43: Decolonising knowledge on Wikipedia

In WikiAfrica Hour’s 43th Episode, aired live on 26th February  2025, guest host Achal Probhala discussed what we mean by decolonising knowledge, why it is important that we document this on Wikimedia projects, what established knowledge decolonisation projects inside (and even outside) Wikimedia we should be paying attention to, and how we can improve existing initiatives, and encourage others to do the same.

Decolonising is showing another perspective of how we can translate knowledge, of how we can unlearn and how we can learn, of how we can bring new discourses to the forefront, and that is what we did with once upon a time exhibition. — Chantal Edie Ntube

I think decolonizing knowledge is a share of the responsibility. So it’s really a responsibility of each of us to build the knowledge that can really take into account and in consideration different perspectives and really looking for truth or an acknowledgement. — Iolanda Pensa

This WikiAfrica Hour episode’s guest host is Achal Probhala , a public health activist who works against medicine monopolies in India, Brazil and South Africa. Formerly, he spent several years working against copyright monopolies, as well as supporting new models of open knowledge and scholarship. As a former Wikimedia Foundation Advisory Board member (2006-2018), he worked closely inside the Wikimedia movement, and in 2011, initiated a project around oral citations, addressing one of the challenges facing Wikipedia..

Our guests include:

• Iolanda Pensa: a wikipedian and researcher. She organized in 2016 “Wikimania Esino Lario”, she is chair of the Wikimania Steering Committee, former chair and now national coordinator for GLAMs of Wikimedia Italia. Leader of De-colonising knowledge on wikipedia in Switzerland.
• Asuru Lutherking Petercan: a research assistant in architectural history and heritage preservation. contributing to open source platforms, training more professionals to contribute and also starting an architectural heritage community to join in the contribution of Heritage architecture and GLAM related knowledge in Nigeria.
• Sandra Schmitt Soster: Sandra Soster is the GLAM and Culture Manager of Wiki Movimento Brasil since 2022. She holds a PhD degree of Architecture and Urbanism by University of São Paulo (USP).
• Chantal Edie Ntube: has a BSC in History, a Masters I in Political Sciences, and an HND in HSC from Reading in the UK. Co-creator of once upon a time symposium in Yaounde Cameroon.

In Focus Section:

The WikiAfrica Hour In Focus segment was a recorded inspiring open interview with Sandra Soster (one of the guest speakers) to shed light on her journey in the open wikimedia movement especially on GLAM projects. 

This WikiAfrica Hour episode aired live: check out our Website or the WikiAfrica Hour meta page to watch this or previous episodes.  All WikiAfrica Hour episodes are available on YouTube.