June is globally celebrated as Pride Month, a time to honor the voices, resilience, and humanity of LGBT+ communities. And for us in Nigeria, it is also the time we celebrate a growing and powerful initiative that started in 2021: the inclusion of Nigerian LGBT+ narratives on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia sister projects.
This is the story of a journey that began with a realization, grew through partnership, and is now shaping a new generation of queer contributors in Nigeria.
🌱 Where It All Began
In 2021, I, Hadassah Love, an openly lesbian Nigerian and passionate LGBT+ advocate noticed a striking absence: there were no visible queer Nigerian editors contributing to Wikipedia, and worse, there were very few articles about notable Nigerian LGBT+ individuals or issues. Our stories, our identities, our activism all missing.
While searching for ways to change this, I met Ayokanmi Oyeyemi, a long-time Wikipedia editor who had quietly contributed to LGBT+ articles and even participated in the Write for the Rights event in Tunisia in 2019. With my connection to the queer community in Nigeria and Ayokanmi’s Wikipedia expertise, we forged a purposeful collaboration.
🏳️🌈 The First-Ever Wikipedia Training for Queer People in West Africa
June 2021 marked the birth of the first-ever LGBT+ focused Wikipedia training in West Africa. Held in Lagos at American Corner, CC Hub and Abuja at WHER Initiative’s office, the events gathered over 30 queer individuals to learn how to edit Wikipedia and tell their stories.
Supported by the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia LGBT+ User Group, and in collaboration with the Bisi Alimi Foundation, this inaugural training resulted in:
- Creation of 9 new articles, including those for Olumide Makanjuola, Temmie Ovwasa, James Brown, Akudo Oguaghamba, and Arinze Ifeakandu.
- Numerous edits to underrepresented Nigeria LGBT+ topics.
- A foundational community of queer wiki editors in Nigeria.
✍️ Expanding Impact: The Write for the Rights Nigeria Contest
We knew one training and focus on only queer contributors wouldn’t be enough to bridge decades of invisibility. So in September 2021, we launched the Write for the Rights Nigeria Contest; a month-long campaign inviting both queer and non-queer Nigerian editors to write and translate LGBT+ content. And for the first time with this contest, we had non-queer Nigerians contributing to LGBT+ topics on Wikipedia.
📈 Results:
- Over 66 new articles created in 11 languages.
- 500+ LGBT+ articles improved.
- 40 participants, including experienced editors like User:Eedricc, the overall winner.
- Results page here
While the contest faced challenges, including harassment of some participants pulling out like this & this and backlash in the Wikimedia Nigeria community groups, it proved the importance of visibility, resilience, and allyship. Since then, we have gone ahead to have the contest every month of June, celebrating Pride Month as in 2022, 2023, and 2024
🌍 Growing a Community: Wiki For Human Rights Nigeria
As momentum grew, we knew we needed a lasting structure as we now have over 50 trained queer community members. That’s why we created the informal user group: Wiki For Human Rights Nigeria. It’s simple mission? Focus on promoting LGBT+ topics on the Wikimedia projects in Nigeria.
We expanded to Uyo and Calabar, training over 50 queer individuals, and then extended our scope to Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata projects and trained queer persons in Benin and Ibadan.
🌟 Queerpedia Project: A Fellowship for Queer Wikipedians
To deepen our reach and and ensure broader inclusion of queer voices across Nigeria, we collaborated again with the Bisi Alimi Foundation to launch the Queerpedia Project; a 3-day residential fellowship program designed to empower LGBTQ+ individuals with Wikimedia skills. The first phase of the project was strategically held in Ibadan, Oyo State, for participants from the South West region, and in Owerri, Imo State, for participants from the South East and South South regions.
From 100+ applications, 21 were selected and trained intensively, resulting in 6 official fellows who organized step-down trainings across their communities.
📝 Articles created included: Dare Odumuye, Fola Francis, Kito, Jay Boogie, Area Scatter, Yan daudu, and many others, with many more articles edited.
With the successful coverage of Nigeria’s southern regions, we are now setting our sights on expanding the Queerpedia Fellowship to the Northern region, ensuring that no voice is left behind in our mission to foster inclusive representation across the country.
During meditation exercise coordinated by Bisi at the Queerpedia program for south west participants 
Ayokanmi training the partipants at the Queerpedia program for south west participants 
During Bisi Alimi’s session at the Queerpedia program for south west participants 
participants listen attentively at the Queerpedia program for south west participants 
participants listen attentively at the Queerpedia program for south west participants 
During a special bonding exercise at the Queerpedia program for south west participants 
participants editing wikipedia on their own at the Queerpedia program for south west participants 
During Nell session at the Queerpedia program for south south and south west participants 
Participant listen attentively at the Queerpedia program for south south and south east participants 
During Ayokanmi sessionat the Queerpedia program for south south and south east participants 
Wikimedia training at the Queerpedia program for south west participants 
Wikimedia training at the Queerpedia program for south south and south east participants 
Wikimedia training at the Queerpedia program for south south and south east participants 
Wikimedia training at the Queerpedia program for south south and south east participants
⚧️ Trans and Intersex Inclusion: The TransVisibility Nigeria Campaign
Despite our progress, we observed a gap; most of our work had focused on gay and lesbian persons with their stories. Trans and intersex individuals had not been equally represented.
In response, we partnered with FEMMEHIVE in November 2023, a trans-led organization, where we trained over 15 trans persons, and they contributed to various trans topics on the Wikimedia projects.
We also launched the TransVisibility Nigeria Challenge—a nationwide, month-long Wikimedia campaign held every November in alignment with Transgender Awareness Month. The initiative aims to address the significant underrepresentation of transgender, intersex, and gender non-conforming individuals on both Wikipedia and Wikidata. Since its inception, the TransVisibility Nigeria Challenge has been successfully organized in both 2023 and 2024, with plans underway for the 2025 edition in November.
In 2024, as part of the TransVisibility campaign, we also collaborated with another Trans organization called Harmony Caregivers, where we trained over 20 trans people in celebration of Transgender Awareness Month.
Results (2023 & 2024 combined):
- 50+ articles on transgender Nigerians created.
- 200+ items on Wikidata.
- 50+ trans and intersex participants trained.
🎉 Five Years Later: A Movement Worth Celebrating
From one training in 2021 to a vibrant community of over 100 queer Wikipedia editors across Nigeria, we’ve:
- Created and improved over 500 LGBT+ articles
- Trained over 200 queer persons
- Held 4 national contests and 2 trans-specific challenges
- Built a supportive community across WhatsApp, Meta, and physical meetups.
We now support Wikimedia LGBT+ outreach in neighboring West African countries, building from the roots we planted.
💌 Celebrate Pride with Us!
This June 2025, we invite you to join the Write for the Rights Nigeria 2025 Campaign, Nigeria version of the Wiki Loves Pride campaign, running until July 15, and help bridge the gap on Nigeria’s LGBT+ representation on Wikipedia and beyond.
🌈 Wrapping Up Pride Month in Nigeria: Wiki Loves Pride Lagos Edit‑a‑thon 2025
To wrap up this year’s Pride Month activities, we hosted the Wiki Loves Pride Lagos Edit-a-thon on June 29, 2025. The event brought together about 20 passionate participants, both newcomers and experienced editors who contributed to a wide range of articles on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia sister projects, amplifying queer Nigerian voices and histories.
The edit-a-thon was also an opportunity to train new queer participants: Ayokanmi led the session on editing Wikipedia, while Obinna facilitated a dedicated training on contributing images to Wikimedia Commons. We were especially honored to have Bisi Alimi in attendance, bringing his enduring passion for visibility and community empowerment into the room.
Beyond the edits themselves, the day was a vibrant celebration of learning, collaboration, and pride showing once again how far we’ve come, and how much more we can achieve when we come together to tell our own stories.
🙏 Thank You
None of this would have been possible without the continued support from the Wikimedia Foundation, the collaboration of the Wikimedia LGBT+ User Group, and all our community partners and allies who stood by us even in the face of pushback.
Together, we are not just editing Wikipedia, we are rewriting visibility and restoring erased histories.
And in one of the most heartwarming outcomes of our collective efforts, Bisi Alimi, a long-standing LGBT+ rights activist and one of our earliest and strongest partners, became deeply involved with Wikimedia through these projects. In April 2025, he was appointed as the first Executive Director of the Wikimedia LGBT+ User Group; a powerful and symbolic moment that reflects how far the movement has come and the future we are building together.
Happy Pride Month!
In solidarity,
Hadassah Love
Lead Organizer, Wiki For Human Rights Nigeria
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