African & Proud (AP)/Annual Reports/2024

The year 2024 was a remarkable period for African & Proud (AP), marked by significant achievements in empowering African contributors and preserving African knowledge and culture on Wikimedia platforms. Our major projects, Culture Connect Africa and Afroyanga Bootcamp 2.0, engaged hundreds of contributors and expanded African representation in global knowledge spaces.

Project 1: Culture Connect Africa

Timeline📅 - February 2024 – November 2024

Culture Connect Africa 2024

Culture Connect Africa is an annual flagship project by African & Proud (AP), aimed at documenting and preserving African culture, history, and arts on Wikimedia platforms. While previous projects focused on individual subprojects, 2024 marked the first time these efforts were integrated under one umbrella—connecting African narratives and contributors across the continent.

Key Achievements

✅ 12.4M Words Added – Expanding African knowledge base
✅ 70K References Added – Ensuring credibility
✅ 40.6K Articles Edited and 12.2K Created
✅ 24.5M Article Views – Global reach and impact
✅ 2.16K Commons Uploads – Rich visual documentation

See outreach dashboard 👉 here

Participation Overview

👥 Gender Participation: 62.3% Male and 37.7% Female

16% increase in female participation from 2023—showing progress toward gender balance

🌍 Age Participation: 84% of contributors aged 18–35 – aligning with AP’s mission to engage the next generation of Wikimedia contributors

Connected Subprojects

🎬 African Film & Cinema: Expanding African representation in film history
🍲 AfroCuisine X AfroFestival: Celebrating African culinary traditions and festivals. Combined African food and festival documentation. This was a one-off event and future editions may separate them based on project scope and outcomes.

Our Learning

Culture Connect Africa 2024 involved participants from over 11 African countries, a strong step toward wider continental engagement. However, we faced key challenges in supporting contributors from certain countries due to the lack of local organizational partners or contact persons. This gap affected our ability to:

Provide data reimbursements for active contributors in other African countries.
Offer training in local languages to increase participation and content quality.
Ensure consistent communication and engagement across diverse African regions.

📣 Looking Ahead

In 2025, African & Proud will focus on:

Increasing female participation and expanding representation in under-documented areas.
Strengthening partnerships with local institutions and cultural bodies.
Collaborating with the Dagbani User Group to increase participation from Ghana and better support contributors from West Africa.
Improving language support and securing additional resources to better engage contributors from more African countries.

👉 Read full report here

Project 2: Afroyanga Bootcamp 2.0

Timeline📅 - August 21st - 26th, 2024

Afroyanga Bootcamp 2.0

Afroyanga Bootcamp 2.0 was the second edition of this youth-focused initiative within the Wikimedia community. What began as a small gathering of young contributors has grown into a thriving and influential movement that empowers African youth to contribute meaningfully to Wikimedia projects.