Wiki In Africa is a registered non-profit organisation based in South Africa, founded in 2016 on the foundations of the WikiAfrica movement, which has been active since 2011. For over a decade, we have been growing a vibrant, pan-African community committed to one powerful idea: that African and other underrepresented knowledge, cultures, histories, and biodiversity deserve to be as richly represented in the world’s open knowledge commons as any other.
Wiki In Africa is governed under a constitution. Our governance framework, including our Constitution, policies, and codes, is published here.
Our Mission
Wiki In Africa activates and enables communities to ensure that open knowledge platforms reflect and represent the diverse cultures, peoples, biodiversities, and histories of the African continent and other previously marginalised and disenfranchised communities with the same depth and breadth as other knowledge systems.
Our Latest Annual Reports
Below is our latest annual report. Explore the Annual Reports of the previous years here.
Our Vision: Impact Strategy 2030
In 2025, following an intensive four-month process of internal workshops, community surveys, and external strategic consultation with Skating Panda, Wiki In Africa produced its Impact Strategy 2030 — the framework guiding everything we do through to 2030.
Our programmes focus on bringing communities together, promoting open knowledge as something built and led by communities, facilitating change in how knowledge is created and shared, and ensuring that the ways of knowing of Africans and other marginalised groups are valued and respected equally.
Key Milestones
- 11 Nov 2016: Founding meeting (Cape Town, South Africa) attended by Iolanda Pensa, Florence Devouard & Isla Haddow-Flood
- 23 Mar 2017: South Africa’s Department of Social Development (DSD) officially recognises Wiki In Africa as a voluntary organisation and NPO.
- DSD Registration number: 187-625 NPO
Our Values
Wiki In Africa’s core values are the fabric of our organisation — they guide how we show up in the world, how we work with others, and how we drive those interactions. Our team aspires to the following five values in everything we do:
- Constantly Lead and Innovate — we imagine, design, and test new paths, practising courage and taking responsibility for the results.
- Africa First, But Not Only Africa — while we address representation gaps globally, we also work to ensure African cultures are represented on a global scale and actively work against bias in all its forms.
- Support the Growth of Sustainable Communities — we build programmes with skill-building and long-term capacity at their heart.
- Pursue Social, Cultural, and Linguistic Justice — we embrace the full depth of human diversity and strive to communicate across languages, cultures, and geographies.
- Strive for Excellence — we operate transparently and collaboratively, with sustainability in mind, building lasting trust with our communities and partners.
📖 Read our Core Values in more detail
Our Impact
Since 2014, Wiki In Africa’s projects have collectively activated over
- 50,410 participants and editors
- 1,550 organisers supporting 418 partnering Wikimedia groups and organisations
- 1,229,000+ content contributions to 118,000+ pages across 598 online Wikimedia Projects
- Images from our flagship programme, Wiki Loves Africa, illustrate 39,977 Wikipedia pages that collectively have been viewed a total of 2.4 billion times.
Our Strategic Pillars
From 2026, our work is organised around four strategic pillars that shape every programme and partnership:
- Activation — creating entry points and return touchpoints that build interest, momentum, and integration into the Wikimedia movement.
- Leadership & Capacity Building — making explicit our investment in people, creating longer-term sustainability.
- Enablement — the explicit and implicit support our staff and programmes provide to ensure communities thrive.
- Partnering — building relationships that strengthen and sustain the wider open-knowledge movement.
Our Projects
Our programmes are grouped around four strategic focuses:
- Representation and Knowledge Gaps — including Wiki Loves Africa, Wiki Loves Women, and WikiAfrica Environment
- Youth Activation and Open Education — including WikiChallenge Écoles d’Afrique and WikiChallenge African Schools
- Tools and Technology — including WikiFundi (offline learning) and the ISA Tool (image structured data)
- Community Cohesion and Care — including WikiAfrica Hour and WikiAfrica Cares
