The Wiki Loves Afrodemics 2025 campaign kicked off with an exciting onboarding training session that brought together a vibrant community of knowledge enthusiasts both within and outside the the Wiki Afrodemics Project Community. Over 80 participants registered for the session, where they were introduced to the project’s vision, goals, and the rules guiding the campaign. The onboarding laid a strong foundation, ensuring that every participant understood the importance of their role in amplifying African voices on Wikipedia and Wikidata.

Following the onboarding, the project moved into two online training sessions. These focused on the essentials, creating accounts, navigating Wikipedia and Wikidata, and making minor but impactful edits. For many, this was their first step into the world of open knowledge contribution, and it sparked a deeper interest in digital storytelling and representation.

To build on this momentum, two in-person trainings were also held. These sessions provided participants with practical, hands-on experience in article creation and improvement. The physical gatherings fostered collaboration, mentorship, and a sense of community among editors who shared a common goal: closing the knowledge gaps about African academics and researchers.

To further guide participants, a comprehensive project metapage was developed. This hub included a curated list of suggested articles to work on, detailed guidance on academics’ and scientists’ notability criteria, and an Articles for Creation (AfC) submission box. With these tools, participants were able to identify relevant topics, follow clear editorial standards, and submit drafts for review in an organized manner.

The campaign didn’t stop there. Over two months, a closely monitored edit-a-thon was conducted to ensure quality and sustainability. During this phase, participants used the AfC space to draft and refine their work before the articles were accepted into the main Wikipedia space. This process not only strengthened their editing skills but also ensured that the contributions met Wikipedia’s standards of reliability and notability.

The results were remarkable. By the end of the campaign, participants had created and improved over 250 Wikipedia articles and more than 200 Wikidata items. Each contribution added valuable knowledge to the global commons, ensuring that African academics, their achievements, and their scholarship are more visible to the world.

Wiki Loves Afrodemics 2025 is part of the Wiki Afrodemics Project. To learn more about what we do, kindly visit our metapage.