Deadline: 15th of April 2021
Visually celebrate Africa on Wikipedia
There are millions of subjects you can read about on Wikipedia. Of all those subjects, the ones 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 their knowledge and cultures reflected on Wikipedia by donating their images, videos and audio to Wikipedia.
The richness, diversity and beauty of Africa deserves to be visually celebrated on Wikipedia. YOU can help to do this. Everyone is welcome to participate!
What is Wiki Loves Africa?
Wiki Loves Africa is an annual contest where anyone across Africa can contribute media that relates to that year’s theme to Wikimedia Commons for use on Wikipedia and other project websites of the Wikimedia Foundation. Wiki Loves Africa encourages participants to contribute media (photographs, video and audio) that illustrate the specific theme for that year. Each year the theme changes. Each year’s theme is chosen by the community to be a universal, visually-rich and culturally-specific topics (for example, markets, rites of passage, festivals, public art, cuisine, natural history, urbanity, daily life, notable persons, etc).
What prizes are up for grabs?
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 last year, there will be two additional prize categories for photos and media.
The international prizes are:
- 1st prize: US$1000
- 2nd prize: US$800
- 3rd prize: US$500
Additional categories are:
- Culturally specific or traditional representations of health or wellness : US$500
- Prize for best quality video (audio and visual quality and storytelling will be taken into account): US$500
(Disclaimer: Prizes to be dispersed in a gift card or voucher format.)
Each winner will also receive a pack of goodies (proposed: a hat “I edit Wikipedia from Africa”, a branded battery, stickers)
Wiki Loves Africa 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 15th February to 15th April 2021. 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 we 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 with watermarks or embedded signatures will not be eligible.
Rule 6: Pictures or media must be categorised under Images from Wiki Loves Africa 2021 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.
