WikiAfrica Hour #46: Organize, Lead, Sustain: The Power of Wikimedia Bodies

Behind every Wikimedia project is a network of passionate individuals—and the structures that help them thrive. In this episode, we explore the types of collaborative groups that power the Wikimedia movement, from User Groups to Thematic Organizations and Chapters. Why are these bodies so essential, and how do they help communities organize themselves around shared goals, whether local or thematic? We  unpack the steps to start a group, how to choose the right structure, and why some regions have many groups coexisting.

Our guests share ideas for building capacity, attracting leaders, and evolving from grassroots efforts into stable organizations. We also discuss practical insights on funding—from Wikimedia sources to external partnerships—and how communities sustain themselves financially and strategically. Finally, we dive into the challenges of long-term sustainability and what it takes to keep governance structures healthy, adaptive, and impactful over time.

This WikiAfrica Hour episode’s guest host is Delphine Ménard: She began contributing to Wikimedia projects in 2004, and her involvement soon expanded beyond editing to include roles in community governance and organizational development. She served as the Wikimedia Foundation’s Chapters Coordinator and held board positions with both Wikimedia France and Wikimedia Deutschland, as well as on the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC). She recently was appointed to the newly formed Global Resources Distribution Committee (GRDC).

“It’s COVID that brought me to be involved in Wikipedia work. And that was in 2020, that’s my first year when I participated in one rep in the Africa, Africa librarianship week. And that’s how I came to understand there are actually people behind Wikipedia. There are actually volunteers that contribute knowledge to this global, global open source. And then from that, I then started to follow up, many, many trainings, many, many workshops. And I attended a conference, the wiki double conference, that was in Uganda, that was online. And then from there, I met a lot of people. So I like it’s not only the librarian that worked on this thing. So people, it’s a pool of people that were working on this” – Martin Hipangwa

““What we were  trying to do was to add more women of Igbo origin, notable women of Igbo origin, into the Igbo language Wikipedia. And while we were at it, we had this project for six months. We had invited a lot of people, mostly women, because, we’re all women, and then, towards the end of the six months, we’re like, we have a lot of followers. Now, what do we do with these people? Like, do we just tell them we are done with the project, and you can go or we have to brainstorm, and we’re like, we can actually start a user group, a language user group. And we had to start making research on how to start off a user group. We applied to Affcom as at them, we’re in doing interviews and some back and forth with corrections, were granted the user group right in May 2018” – Tochi Precious

Our guests include

• Tochi Precious: Co-founder & Executive Director of Igbo Wikimedia Organization, and Wikimedian in Residence at Wikitongues. She’s a member of the Language Committee and a Board Member at Wiki in Africa and African & Proud.
• Harriet Bayel: She serves as the Community Lead of the GOI Foundation and is a member of the Affiliations Committee. From 2021 to 2023, she also served as a member of the Regional Grants Committee for Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Martin Hipangwa: He founded Wikimedia Community User Group Namibia, which strives for the advocacy of digital literacy skills and open-access knowledge platforms such as Wikipedia and its sister projects in Namibia.
• KOFFI Kangah Donatien: Discovering Wikipedia in 2012, he co-founded the Wikimedia Côte d’Ivoire User Group. His commitment extends internationally as a trainer and member of the Wikifranca microgrant committee. He also collaborates with several African communities and organizes the French-speaking Wikiconvention 2023 in Abidjan.

In Focus Section: Highlights from Wiki Loves Africa 2025 

The In focus section for WAH Episode 46 was an interview with Hilary Ogali,Wiki Loves Africa facilitator and Dappa Solomon who organised many events for WLA 2025 in Nigeria. In this In Focus section, Hilary will highlight the most prominent moments and achievements of WLA 2025 and Dappa will share his experience on organising WLA for the first time but with success and give some tips to others who may want to organise and participate. 

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.