BLT 2025 with Wikimedia Community Usergroup Botswana

Project coordination by:

1. Project Overview

The "Who Tells African Stories?" project, initiated by Wikimedia Botswana and Black Lunch Table, aims to address critical questions of representation, digital presence, and knowledge equity within African contexts. This initiative sparks a timely conversation around the theme: “Who tells stories and who gets left out?”. The panel discussion is significant as it invites Africans to reflect on who controls narratives about the continent and highlights why this control matters for future generations. It underscores the importance of Africans telling their own stories, linking directly to Wikimedia’s mission of free knowledge, representation, and telling our own stories.

2. Project Objectives

The core objectives of this project are to:

• Empower local communities to leverage digital platforms for documenting their own narratives.

• Bridge knowledge gaps in terms of languages, gender, and culture.

• Amplify authentic African voices and ensure Africa’s knowledge takes its rightful place on the world’s digital stage.

• Address gender disparities in storytelling and online contributions.

• Encourage active participation in Wikimedia projects to contribute to global knowledge systems.

3. Key Activities and Phases

This project has been launched through a series of key activities, with future plans for expansion:

Virtual Panel Discussion (August 30, 2025, 10:00 AM):

◦ Theme: “Who tells African stories, and why does it matter?”.

◦ Attendance: 25 participants joined the inclusive, open-invitation conversation.

◦ Panelists:

▪ Ceslause Ogbonnaya – Education Enthusiast: Advocated for reshaping narratives through learning and digital platforms.

▪ Wendile Chipo – Filmmaker: Shared the role of film in amplifying authentic African stories.

▪ Ruby D-Brown – Advocate for Women & Communities: Highlighted gender disparities, noting "There are more articles about men than women. Very few women are contributing online, and this leaves their voices missing from history".

▪ Thato Radijeng – Director & Producer: Focused on preserving cultural heritage through authentic storytelling.

▪ Candy Khohliwe – Wikimedia Botswana Project Coordinator: Moderator

Link to the Panel Discussion recording.

Awareness and Discussion (August 2025)

BTV Interview (Saturday, August 30, 2025, 19:30): Wikimedia Botswana representatives, Chandapiwa Malema and Candy Khohliwe, were featured on BTV to discuss the inspiration behind the panel, challenges faced by African contributors, underrepresented regions/languages/cultures on Wikimedia projects, and the impact of Wikimedia's notability policy on African topics.

Here is the link to the Interview here.

4. Significance and Impact

This project is crucial for Botswana and the wider continent because it addresses not only representation but also equity in global knowledge systems. It directly contributes to Wikimedia’s mission by ensuring that everyone, everywhere, can access and contribute to knowledge that reflects their lived realities. The project is a vital step towards reclaiming agency, amplifying local voices, and ensuring Africa’s knowledge takes its rightful place on the world’s digital stage. As one panelist underscored, “If we don’t document our knowledge, someone else will do it for us and we may not like the version that survives”.

Social Media

• Follow Wikimedia Botswana on Facebook (Wikimedia community user group Botswana).

Images

1. BLT Wikidata Contest 2025

Theme: Black people in the entertainment industry, sports, and culture

The BLT Wikidata campaign focused on improving structured data related to Black individuals across entertainment, sports, and cultural sectors. The campaign delivered high-volume, high-impact contributions despite a small editor cohort.

Key Results:

Articles created: 819
Articles edited: 957
Total edits: 10,400
Active editors: 13
Words added: 1.18 million
References added: 5,590
Article views: 10,200
Dashboard : here
Recording training here Passcode: KY!k8%B0

Summary:

Editors significantly expanded the representation and discoverability of Black professionals in entertainment, sports, and culture by creating and enriching Wikidata items with reliable references. This improved data quality supports better visibility across Wikipedia, search engines, and knowledge platforms that rely on Wikidata.

2. BLT Wikiquote Contest 2025

Theme: Women

The BLT Wikiquote campaign focused on documenting and amplifying women’s voices through the creation and improvement of Wikiquote pages.

Key Results:

Articles created: 698
Articles edited: 789
Total edits: 1,060
Active editors: 12
Words added: 410,000
References added: 5
Article views: 9,140
Dashboard : here
Recording training here Passcode: pEV?9qDS

Summary:

The campaign strengthened the visibility of women by curating notable quotes and improving existing content. Despite fewer edits compared to Wikidata, the articles achieved strong readership, highlighting public interest in women’s narratives and perspectives.

Combined Impact

Across both tracks, BLT 2025 achieved:

1,517 articles created
1,746 articles edited
Over 11,400 total edits
25 active editors
More than 1.59 million words added
Over 19,000 combined article views

Overall Outcome

BLT 2025 successfully advanced content equity by:

Expanding structured data on Black individuals in entertainment, sports, and culture
Amplifying women’s voices and contributions through Wikiquote
Demonstrating that small, focused editor communities can deliver significant knowledge equity outcomes