Wiki In Africa/Wiki Loves Africa/2026 Ambassadors

Call for Ambassadors 2026

Now entering its 12-th year, Wiki Loves Africa is one of the largest photography and media contests on the African continent. It is run across the whole continent; however, some specific actions (training, communication, etc.) are held in some countries with national organisers.

Wiki Loves Africa has achieved much over 12 years:

Over 146,698 images have been entered by 12,854 competitors from up to 55 countries under a free licence (CC-BY-SA).
Wiki Loves Africa images have illustrated 32,515 pages across 437 Wikimedia projects, such as Wikipedia, Wikivoyage and Wikiquote.
33 Wikimedia communities from 26 African countries have hosted participation events, information sessions, and training workshops.
Participating communities held just under 400 participation and training events between 2024 and 2025.
The competition attracts high levels of new contributors to the Wikimedia projects – an average of 75% of participants are newbies;
The images entered to Wiki Loves Africa are viewed over 31 million times each month (March 2024)
Wiki Loves Africa's images over the 11 years have been viewed over 1.8 billion times altogether (September 2024)
A Wiki Loves Africa prize-winning image was included in the Journeys Through Our Fragile Heritage exhibition at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
Wiki Loves Africa's ISA Tool has won the Cool Tool: Eggbeater Category at Wikimania 2024 and WikiData Award for Best Multimedia Tool in November 2019.
Mohamed Hozyen, a prize winner for Wiki Loves Africa 2019, was selected for the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC), Prins Claus Fonds and Magnum Foundation Arab Documentary Photography Programme.
A Wiki Loves Africa image Firefighter, Ashton Bay, March 2017 submitted by South African photographer StevenTerblanche for the Wiki Loves Africa 2017 contest under the theme of People at Work. The stunning image was selected for 3rd position for the Picture of the Year 2021 award and depicts a courageous firefighter battling against a veld-fire at Ashton Bay, Jeffreys Bay, Eastern Cape Province, Republic of South Africa.

Since 2024, Wiki Loves Africa has provided linguistic support to participating communities through its ambassadors, and we intend to continue offering this support. In line with this, we are calling for interested volunteers to join us as linguistic ambassadors to help strengthen communication and engagement within their communities.

The theme for Wiki Loves Africa 2026 will be Rites and Rituals. The 2026 contest will take place from March 1 – April 30, 2026.

The Role – WLA Linguistic Ambassadors

We are looking for eight individuals to become Wiki Loves Africa Linguistic Ambassadors to heighten awareness of, support during, and participation in the Wiki Loves Africa contest and related activities.

The ambassadors will assist the international organizing team to manage and coordinate the project throughout 2026 and will be distributed into the following linguistic categories:

English
French
Arabic
Portuguese

We are looking for people who have proven organizing experience within their language Wikimedia community. They must enjoy good standing amongst the members of their community, have significant past participation experience in Wiki Loves Africa, and a passion for photography and other media (desirable). The roles are entirely remote and volunteer.

Responsibilities may include, but are not limited to, the following:

Translations: Translate (or facilitate community translations of) 2026 contest pages, resources, press releases, and publicity materials as provided by the international organizing team.
Social media: Assist with sharing contest information, publicity, and social media materials among members of their linguistic communities.
Office Hours support: Participate in and encourage linguistic community attendance of the Wiki Loves Africa organizer office hours.
Training sessions: Get involved in and suggest training topics based on interest and feedback from represented communities.
Jury support: Nominate jurors to assist the international team with facilitating more linguistically balanced juries to ensure equal representation and also support local communities jury (upon request).
WLA Website: Translate (or facilitate community translations of) updated contest-related webpages, including information about representative communities.

The activities may differ depending on the linguistic communities. For example:

Translation needs are high for the Arabic, Portuguese, and French communities, but not for the English community.
It may be more important to focus on translation and social media outreach for Portuguese than on local juries (as there are currently no Portuguese communities participating).

The Ideal Ambassador

Consider applying if you have the following:

Essential Skills

2+ years of experience in a Wikimedia-recognized language community (Fr, Ar, Pt, or En).
Knowledge of Wikimedia Commons, including licensing, permissions, etc.
English skills sufficient to interact with the international team.
Native language proficiency for the intended ambassador role.
Experience in facilitating groups and building communities.
Recognized and proven contributions in local language community with associated language proficiency.
Demonstrated experience contributing to social media platforms (such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and/or Instagram), and using word processors and spreadsheets.
Previous experience with Wiki Loves Africa is a bonus!

Appreciated Skills

Photography as a passion or profession.

Duration and Terms

This is a volunteer position.
12-month duration: January 2026 – December 2026
Expect 3–5 hours per week during peak periods (January – April)

Application

If you are interested in volunteering as Wiki Loves Africa 2026 Ambassador Apply here

Deadline for applications: November 30, 2026 – midnight, everywhere on Earth
Language of application: English or French