Supporting the WikiAfrica and Open movements across Africa
Wiki In Africa, a non-profit organisation that is based in South Africa, was founded in November 2016 and legally registered in March 2017 as a financial and legal structure that operates global initiatives in support of the WikiAfrica movement.
Our objective is to empower and engage citizens of Africa and its diaspora to collect, develop and contribute educational and relevant content that relates to the theme of Africa under a free license; and to engage in global knowledge systems by encouraging access to, awareness of, and support for open knowledge, the open movement and the Wikimedia projects, working in collaboration with like-minded organisations.
Encourage new Wikipedians
Activate, train and support a self-sustaining generation of new, dedicated and proactive Wikipedian editors from across the continent who are can generate new articles and subjects relevant to contemporary Africa
Support the donation of existing content
Encourage the donation of content that already resides in heritage, cultural, news-gathering and academic institutions across Africa to Wikipedia.
Wiki In Africa continues the work of the projects that its lead people have conceptualised and developed. The main reason behind setting up Wiki In Africa is for an organisation’s focus to be entirely devoted to the mission, and not just be a sideshow or viewed as a “project”. Another reason is to allow the NGO to grow as the work is successful and the Wikimedia volunteer communities and projects develop and mature.
This organisation has been founded as a voluntary association to maintain the movement’s flexible nature. It is hoped and expected that the membership will expand once the organisation is sustainable and as it matures.
The association
Wiki In Africa is a non-profit voluntary association that is based in South Africa. It is a financial and legal structure that operates global initiatives in support of the WikiAfrica movement.
Key dates for Wiki In Africa:
• 11 November 2016: Founding AGM meetup in Cape Town with Iolanda Pensa, Florence Devouard and Isla Haddow-Flood
• 23 March 2017: South Africa’s Department of Social Security authorises the registration of Wiki In Africa as a voluntary organisation and official NPO (187-625 NPO).
Status
• Non-profit voluntary organisation registered in South Africa
• Registration number: 187-625 NPO
Wiki In Africa's Key Documents
(Click on this linkto access Wiki In Africa's key documents.)
On this page, you will find:
The Wiki In Africa Team
Isla Haddow-Flood
Chair of the Board • Co-Executive Director
A Zimbabwean by birth, and a Capetonian by adoption, Oxford-educated Isla Haddow-Flood is a project and communications strategist who is passionate about open access to knowledge and facilitating the growth of previously under-represented or 'invisible' communities to share their stories, experiences and voices with the world.
In a career that spans working to promote Africa's filmmakers and artists, since 2011, Isla has been working to Activate Africa. Working with members of the WikiAfrica movement, she has conceptualised and instigated #OpenAfrica, Kumusha Bus and WikiEntrepreneur. She was co-lead of projects ground-breaking, Africa-focused projects such as Wiki Loves Africa (annual photographic contest) and Kumusha Takes Wiki. In 2016, Florence and Isla developed and launched Wiki Loves Women, Wikipack Africa, WikiFundi, and WikiChallenge African Schools. She also works part-time as Director of Communications for Open Education Global.
Afek Ben Chahed
Wiki In Africa Community Facilitator (FR)
Afek Ben Chahed, a 30 years old Tunisian Woman. I am a librarian and I have been a Wikimdia Tunisia UG member since 2016. I worked on many Wiki projects like the Wiki contests, Wiki Challenge Ecoles d’Afrique, Wiki Indaba.., I was the Visiting Wikimedian with Wikimedia Deutschland in 2019 and the vice president of Wikimedia Tunisia (2020-2022). I like all the different forms of art, history and food (but not sports).
Wilson Kelechi Oluoha
Wiki Loves Africa Project Facilitation
Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Wilson is a multi-lingual Information and Media Scientist with a passion for open access to knowledge and building sustainable knowledge communities.
He is a wise amateur photographer, public speaker and budding pro cyclist who joined the Wikimedia movement in 2018 through the Igbo language affiliate in Nigeria. In 2022, he founded IG WikiCommons Hub - a community of Nigerians committed to contributing content to the open knowledge movement via Wikimedia Commons.
Florence Devouard
Board Chair: Scientific Committee
• Co-Executive Director
A Wikipedian since 2002, a former Chair of Wikimedia Foundation and a founding member of Wikimedia France, Florence Devouard was born in France where she currently lives. She is a free knowledge advocate, a public speaker and a consultant. Above everything, she loves to share her knowledge of new practices and online communities. She cares for language diversity and multicultural dialogue, and is a supporter of the open-source and free knowledge movement.
Since 2013, Florence is the co-leader on projects related to Wikipedia and Africa, as part of the WikiAfrica mouvement.
In 2016, Florence and Isla decided to create Wiki in Africa and have been co-leading since then.
>> LinkedIn
>> Twitter
Nontlahla (Nonny) Ntlahla
Wiki In Africa Admin Support
Nonny Ntlahla is a young Social Dynamics graduate and currently an enthusiastic Health and Fitness student completing their Diploma. Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, Nonny is extremely passionate about the integration of Mental Health and Sports/Physical Exercise, and what that can do for social and community development. She is currently working as an Administrative Assistant for the Wiki In Africa Organisation and seeks to develop and learn skills that may be useful in aiding her passion and love for Mental and Physical Health.
Ceslause Ogbonnaya
Wiki In Africa Community Support
• WikiAfrica Hour host
Ceslause Ogbonnaya is an education enthusiast who lives in Abuja, Nigeria. He studied B.A French (Major) and German (Minor) at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and the Centre International de Recherche et d’Etude de Langues (CIREL) at the Université de Lomé, Togo, the Republic of Bénin, Cote D’Ivoire and Senegal. He co-founded Centre d’Etudes de la Langue Française Shalom (CELF SHALOM) in 2012 to help Nigerians attain high proficiency in French. He then joined Menes Konsult and the Europlaw Group, working with Vera Wang on Miss Fashion Week Africa to bring African models into the international spotlight.
Ceslause joined the Wikimedia movement in 2018, and has been actively involved in the Igbo Wikimedians User Group. He was the Igbo Wikimedians User Group's project lead for Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos (WPWP) in 2020, and won 1st prize in the Igbo Wikimedians UG for the 2020 Decolonize the Internet contest. He has been with Wiki In Africa since 2021.
Rachel Zadok
Communications Strategy • Board: Treasurer
Rachel Zadok is the author of two novels: Gem Squash Tokoloshe (2005), shortlisted for The Whitbread First Novel Award and The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, and longlisted for the IMPAC Award; and Sister-sister (2013), shortlisted for the University of Johannesburg Prize and The Herman Charles Bosman Prize, and longlisted for the Sunday Times Fiction Award. She is also the managing editor of Short Story Day Africa, a project to promote African writing using the medium of the short story. As managing editor she has published anthologies for Short Story Day Africa, among others.
She attended the Caine Prize Workshop in 2012, was a Sylt Foundation Writer in Residence and the Rhine-South Africa Fellow in 2015, and attended the Sylt Foundation’s “Transformation And Identity – Trauma And Reconciliation” workshop in Myanmar in 2018. She lives in Cape Town.
Members of the Board
Iolanda Pensa
Founder • Project Lab
Iolanda Pensa was born in Switzerland and currently lives in Milan, Italy. Beginning in high school, she’s traveled everywhere from the U.S. to the U.K. and from Russia to Africa.
An active Wikipedia contributor since 2006, Iolanda is deeply involved with the WikiAfrica project, but is also a researcher and art critic. She is currently based at SUPSI in Switzerland leading the Wikipedia Primary School SSAJRP programme. She was also the lead organiser for Wikimania Esino Lario in 2016.
Rachel Zadok
Treasurer
Rachel Zadok is the author of two novels: Gem Squash Tokoloshe (2005), shortlisted for The Whitbread First Novel Award and The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, and longlisted for the IMPAC Award; and Sister-sister (2013), shortlisted for the University of Johannesburg Prize and The Herman Charles Bosman Prize, and longlisted for the Sunday Times Fiction Award. She is also the managing editor of Short Story Day Africa, a project to promote African writing using the medium of the short story. As managing editor she has published four anthologies, Feast, Famine & Potluck (2014), Terra Incognita: New Speculative Fiction from Africa (2015), Water: New Short Fiction from Africa (2016). Migrations: New Short Fiction from Africa (2017). ID: New Short Fiction from Africa is due out in 2018. In 2014, she extended the project to include Creative Flow Workshops, and over the past two years has run workshops in ten countries on the African continent.
She attended the Caine Prize Workshop in 2012, was a Sylt Foundation Writer in Residence and the Rhine-South Africa Fellow in 2015, and attended the Sylt Foundation’s “Transformation And Identity – Trauma And Reconciliation” workshop in Myanmar in 2018. She lives in Cape Town.
Emma Kaye
Secretary
Emma Kaye is currently Executive Director of the Cape Digital Foundation. She is also the founder and CEO of Bozza a mobile platform which enables artists in Africa the ability to self publish and distribute directly to their audiences. It is the platform to discover the next generation of talent. Focused on contextually relevant content, Bozza is the digital marketplace for African media and entertainment.
Before setting out to give sustainable business direction to an African mobile brand Emma co-founded Triggerfish Animation Studios, an entrepreneurial, independent film & entertainment company based in Cape Town. In May 2007 Emma founded Gate7 a new media, content and mobility company featuring three main streams of involvement: mobile consulting in the business of entertainment and social community; full implementation capacity of mobile strategies; and ground breaking social development, utilizing the mobile platform. And in 2008 she co-founded Mobfest – Africa’s first User Generated Mobile Content platform. The first channel, a Novel Idea, was launched to provide serialised fiction written specifically for access on mobile phones.
Much awarded, Emma was elected as one of the top 50 women globally in Mobile Entertainment in 2009 and 2010, was selected by the Mail & Guardian as one of South Africa’s top business women in 2010, and in the top five most influential Women in Africa within the field of Science and Technology for 2011. She sat as a Juror of Digital Emmy Awards in February 2014. Emma graduated from Oxford Brookes University (UK) in 1991 with a BA (HONS) in Business and Computer programming.