Africa has a rich tradition of storytelling, literature, oral history, ideas, and cultural expression. Yet many African voices and quotations remain underrepresented in online knowledge spaces. To help address this gap, the Wikimedia community in Nigeria launched Wikiquote Nigeria 2026 – Voices of Africa, a campaign focused on increasing the visibility and accessibility of African voices on Wikiquote.
The campaign commenced on 11 July 2026, bringing together contributors around a shared goal: documenting African quotations and making them accessible as part of the world’s free knowledge.
Campaign Achievements
One of the highlights of the campaign was an in-person training in Ilorin, organised in collaboration with The Story Nook and Lounge Book Club. The training brought together 35 participants, including the organisers and a representative from Wikimedia Nigeria. It provided an opportunity for both new and existing contributors to learn about Wikiquote and take their first steps towards contributing.
Participants were introduced on how to edit Wikiquote, how to find and source quotations, and how to create Wikimedia accounts for those who were new to the movement. For new contributors in particular, the training provided a practical introduction to how they could move from simply consuming information online to actively contributing to free knowledge.
Connecting books, stories and free knowledge, The collaboration with The Story Nook and Lounge Book Club added a literary dimension to the campaign. Books and storytelling have always played an important role in preserving ideas and experiences. Bringing a book club community together with Wikimedia contributors created an opportunity to connect an interest in reading and literature with digital knowledge creation.
The training in Ilorin therefore became more than an editing session. It was a space where participants could learn, interact, ask questions, and explore how they could help preserve African voices online.
Why “Voices of Africa”?
The campaign was created in response to the underrepresentation of African thinkers, writers, activists, scientists, political leaders, creatives, and other notable voices on Wikiquote. The project also seeks to encourage multilingual contributions and strengthen digital participation among Nigerian youth, students, academics, and creatives. Its project plan includes themes ranging from African literary figures and nation builders to Pan-African thinkers and contemporary voices.
This approach recognises that Africa’s contribution to knowledge cannot be represented by a single type of voice. It includes literature, politics, philosophy, science, activism, art, entrepreneurship, culture, and everyday experiences.
From training to contribution
Following the training, participants were encouraged to apply what they had learned by contributing to Wikiquote. The campaign used the Wikimedia Event Dashboard and the Wikimedia Hashtags Tool to track contributions and provide accurate results. These tools supported the organisers in monitoring participation and contributions throughout the campaign. Using these tools also helped demonstrate an important part of Wikimedia’s collaborative model: contributions can be made by individuals, but tools and community processes help bring those individual efforts together and show the collective impact.
Celebrating Winners
The campaign also provided an opportunity to recognise participants for their contributions. which was announced on the 27th of August 2026.
Top contributors/Winners
Confidence24 : 1st position
Evaristus07 : 2nd Position
KenMercy : 3rd Position
Draxler0788 : New editor prize/award
Organizing Team
Mercyjamb123 – Program team
Eyinjuseun – Program team
Ayokanmi – Programs Director, Wikimedia User Group Nigeria
Bibisuccess – (Interim Project Officer, WUGN)
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