Deadline:
April 30, 2026
Location(s)
Online
Overview
Wiki Loves Africa (WLA) is an annual contest where anyone across Africa can contribute free media that is relevant to their experience to Wikimedia Commons for use on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia communities (Wikimedia movement), and also make this shared media freely available for the Humankind.
Details
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 and is chosen by the community from a few 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).
When: The project is a competition which takes place from March 1st till April 30th 2026.
Theme: Wiki Loves Africa particularly encourages participants to contribute media that illustrate a specific theme for that year. Each year the theme changes and could include any universal, visually rich and culturally specific topic (for example, markets, rites of passage, festivals, public art, cuisine, natural history, urbanity, daily life, notable persons, etc).
- In 2026, the contest theme will be Rites and Rituals
Earlier, the contest theme were
- 2025, Farm to Plate;
- 2024, Africa Creates;
- 2023, Climate and Weather;
- 2022, Home and Habitat;
- 2021, Health and wellness;
- 2020, Transportation;
- 2019, Play;
- 2017, People at work;
- 2016, Music and Dance;
- 2015, Cultural Fashion and Adornment;
- 2014, Cuisine.
Where: The project is run at the entire African continent level. However, every year, specific actions (training, communication etc.) are held in some countries with national organisers.
Opportunity is About
Eligibility
Candidates should be from:
Description of Ideal Candidate
Competition scope: examples to get inspired
The theme calls for photographs, videos and audio files that document all manner of occupations undertaken across the continent - formal and informal, contemporary and ancient, business-oriented and creative.
Competition rules
Images submitted to the Wiki Loves Africa contest may win prizes! There are a few rules to respect for the images to be eligible.
- Rule 1: All photos must be taken by the person submitting them. They can be uploaded by you or uploaded during a registered mass upload session. Your image must have your name 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 historical 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.
- Rule 3: Images with watermarks or embedded signatures will not be eligible. All entries submitted to the contest will automatically be licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 (CC-BY-SA 4.0) (or those in the public domain). Read more about the cc-by-sa license here.
- Rule 4: All eligible pictures will be categorised under Images from Wiki Loves Africa 2020, this will be automatically assigned during the upload process. (Feel free to add other relevant categories and descriptions to make the images more usable on the projects.)
- Rule 5: Participants must registered on WIkimedia Commons and be contactable. Please enable e-mail on Wikimedia Commons so we can contact you should your image be chosen for a prize.
- Rule 6: To be considered for the video prize, the file must be uploaded in the video format (.ogg, .ogv, or .webm) that is required for Wikimedia Commons. Please note audio and visual quality and storytelling will be taken into account for your file to be eligible for a prize.
Notes on video
Other files, such as audio and video, are welcome. For videos, please submit files in the following formats:
- .ogg
- .ogv
- .webm
Due to complex intellectual property rights issues, Wikimedia Commons can not accept video content that is submitted in any other format.
Dates
Deadline: April 30, 2026
Cost/funding for participants
Prizes
At the end of the contest, some national organizers host local ceremonies and prizes (some others do not). This is up to local teams to decide if they want to host ceremonies.
In any cases, there is a global jury, and global selection of international winners (usually between 3 to 6), with prizes.
The 2025 international prizes still to be announced. Below are the 2024 Prizes and categories for reference
Photography:
- 1st Prize: USD 1,000
- 2nd Prize: USD 900
- 3rd Prize: USD 800
Media (Video, Audio, Graphics, Photo Essays):
- Best audio prize: USD 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
Each winner might also receive a pack of branded goodies.
Un-save Opportunity
Internships, scholarships, student conferences and competitions.
