Summary
Wikidata Days IWUG and WAFTAI 2025 marked the inaugural continent-wide celebration dedicated to advancing Wikidata work across Africa. Designed for Wikimedians, open knowledge advocates, educators, linguists, and emerging contributors, the event focused on one central objective: increasing the visibility of African knowledge on Wikidata particularly in African languages.
This maiden edition convened 84 registered participants across two collaborating communities, Igbo Wikimedians User Group (IWUG) and Women Association For Technology And Innovation (WAFTAI). More than 40 participants joined the launch, and future editions aim to welcome additional communities across the continent.
The event is significant because it strengthens African representation on a global, structured knowledge platform. By improving data coverage and supporting translations.
Program Highlights and Key Takeaways
The collaboration centered on practical, high-impact Wikidata work:
- Creation of 897 Wikidata items for secondary schools in Cameroon
- Translation of over 2,000 Nigeria and Cameroon school description into Igbo, Fulfulde and Yemba
- Participants engaged in hands-on training sessions, peer-learning exchanges, and guided editing sprints.
The program demonstrated that targeted coordination can deliver concrete outcomes while building long-term community capacity.
Celebration
Meet the outstanding contributors who made our maiden campaign a resounding success. Our overall top contributor, Ngala Brain, was honored with a camera in recognition of his achievement.
Reflections: Successes and Challenges
What worked well
From an organizer perspective, the spirit of collaboration stood out. Participants were motivated, committed, and eager to learn. The task design-focusing on schools-resonated because it connected directly to communities and public interest.
Where we struggled
Despite great outcomes, the journey was not without obstacles:
- Network instability affected real-time participation. Several contributors struggled to join Zoom sessions or maintain stable connections during the campaign launch.
- Access restrictions for Nigerian participants created unexpected barriers when some could not reach the website hosting the school datasets. Even organizers were unable to determine the cause.
These challenges underscored the continued need for technical resilience, mirrored resources, and asynchronous participation models in African contexts.
Looking Ahead: An Invitation to Other African Wikimedia Communities
The organizing team envisions Wikidata Days in Africa as an expanding platform. Future editions will benefit from more voices, more languages, and diverse thematic focuses – from cultural heritage to climate data, education, and beyond.
We encourage African Wikimedia communities to consider involvement. Participation offers:
- Skills development in Wikidata and structured data
- Opportunities to strengthen local language presence online
- Pan-African collaboration and shared problem-solving
- A pathway to increase visibility of local institutions and knowledge
Moving forward, we are committed to supporting a resilient and multilingual Wikidata ecosystem that tells Africa’s story more completely-shaped by Africans, and shared with the world.
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