Her Heritage Wiki Challenge: Art+Feminism in Ghana Month

March is recognized as Ghana Month, and as part of the Art + Feminism campaign, the Global Open Initiative Foundation (GOIF) organised Her Heritage Wiki Challenge to observe it. A month-long contest, with a simple focus: Spotlight Ghanaian women and address the lacuna in their representation on Wikipedia. The theme centred on documenting mostly, Ghanaian women in art, culture, and feminist movements. Participants worked on creating and improving articles, contributing to Wikidata and adding images to Wikipedia articles. The goal was to bring more visibility to notable women whose stories are often missing or underrepresented online.

The in-person closing workshop brought in new faces and included a live contest where new editors could practice what they had learned. This year, over 20 editors contributed, making more than 1,700 edits. All together, over 536 items were edited and over 50 new items and pages were created. The contest was in two forms: online and an offline workshop. While these numbers matter, participant engagement stood out more as support during the sessions were practical, with facilitators working one-on-one with participants and experienced editors stepping in where needed to guide new editors.

Supporting Local Language Contributions and Diversifying Editor Activity

Contribution to local language Wikipedia projects is part of GOIF’s core mission. Some participants translated profiles into Twi language and improved descriptions on Wikidata. At the same time, many editors tend to stay within familiar Wikimedia projects. To address this, GOIF continues to hold regular in-person sessions to support contributors while encouraging contributors to explore other projects including English Wikipedia.

Beyond the activities, the focus still remains on visibility. Many notable Ghanaian women do not have adequate representation on Wikipedia. Ergo, remedying this requires consistency and continued effort from Art + Feminism organisers and volunteers. As the campaign ends, the work continues. Plans are underway to improve existing articles and expand documentation on Wikipedia and Wiki Commons, particularly African arts and music.