“Wiki Loves Africa” A Photographic, Video and Audio Contest

Out of the millions of subjects you can read about on Wikipedia, those that relate to Africa have the least coverage. This is due to a number of reasons, but some are linked to the fact that many people do not know that they can have the knowledge of their continent and cultures reflected on Wikipedia by donating their images, videos and audio to Wikimedia.

The richness, diversity and beauty of Africa deserves to be visually celebrated on Wikipedia.

2024 Theme: Africa Creates

• The theme Africa Creates, celebrates the creation, manufacture, and/or production of items, objects, commodities, and products by Africans across the continent. As a theme, Africa Creates encompasses the creation of art in all forms: craft, fashion, film, dance, literature, textile design and fabrication, beverages, or street or restaurant food, using traditional methods or modern processes of manufacture. It could also document the creation, manufacture, or processing of items for sale or production in factories at an industrial scale, such as food processing, beverage production, manufacture of ceramics, clothes, and household items, and industrial manufacture, for example, smelting works, industrial engineering, or glass production.
• Africa Creates is interested in the process of creation rather than the final product and aims to celebrate and capture human ingenuity as it happens. The focus of the photographer, filmmaker, or audiophile should be on capturing the process of creation or manufacture, not on the final product itself. If the final product is featured, please do not make it the central focus of the image.
• The highlight of winning submissions will be focused on media that depicts the process (of creation or manufacture) and not on the finished work itself.

Prize Information

• There are several prizes up for grabs, both nationally and internationally. For national prizes, please see what events are being held locally in your country.
• At the international level, there are 3 main prizes for Wiki Loves Africa, and as with every year, there will be two additional prize categories for photos and media.
• The international prizes are:
• Photography:
  • 1st prize: US$1000
  • 2nd prize: US$900
  • 3rd prize: US$800
• Media (Video, Audio, Graphics, Photo Essays):
  • Best audio: US$ 800
  • Wiki Loves Africa video prize – Narrative: USD 1,000
  • Wiki Loves Africa video prize – Reportage: USD 1000
  • Wiki Loves Africa video prize – Clip: USD 200
  • Jury Prize: USD 800

Competition Rules

• Rule 1: All photos must be taken by the person submitting them. Unless, they are uploaded during a registered mass upload session. Your image must have your name, username or nom de plume on the uploaded file.
• Rule 2: Entries will only be accepted if uploaded between the 1st March to 30th April 2024. You can enter media that was taken at any time, even historic photographs (as long as you own the copyright on these photographs or they are in the public domain), but they must be uploaded during those dates. Photographs that are already on Commons and re-uploaded are not eligible.
• Rule 3: Participants must be registered on Wikimedia Commons and be contactable. Please enable e-mail on Wikimedia Commons when registering so they can contact you if your image is chosen for a prize.
• Rule 4: All entries submitted to the contest must be under a free licence (or in the public domain). In most cases, the photo will automatically be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 (CC-BY-SA 4.0). Read more about the cc-by-sa license here.
• Rule 5: Images that are less than 2 mb or have watermarks or embedded signatures will not be eligible.
• Rule 6: Pictures or media must be categorised under Images from Wiki Loves Africa 2024 to be eligible.
• Rule 7: To be considered for the video prize, the file must be uploaded in a video format (.ogg, .ogv, or .webm) that is accepted on Wikimedia Commons. Please note that the audio and visual quality and storytelling will be taken into account for your file to be eligible for a prize.

Ineligibility

• Photographs that are already on Commons (this means re-uploading is not allowed).
• As the images will be hosted on Wikimedia Commons, all entries must fall within Commons scope. Any that do not will be disqualified and may be deleted without notice.
• Images with watermarks, timestamps or image credits on the picture itself or any other kind of editing which associates the image with the uploader are not eligible.

For more information, visit Wikimedia Commons.