Wiki Loves Africa 2026 in Rwanda
Template:Wiki Loves Africa header 2026
Wiki Loves Africa is an annual contest where anyone across Africa can contribute media related to that year's theme to Wikimedia Commons for use on Wikipedia and other WIkimedia projects. 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).. Everybody can participate.
This year, the Rwanda participates again for the 6th time, and you are encouraged to submit any photos about Rites and Rituals in Rwanda between 1st March and 30 March 2026. By submitting your photos to the competition, you share the Rites and Rituals of Rwanda with the rest of the world to enjoy through the internet. We will explain below how to participate, what kind of pictures is eligible.
Participate
Find a Rite or Ritual image, take a photo and upload it to Wikimedia Commons::
Find inspiration
There are different Rites and Rituals in Rwanda.
Take photos
Make as many and as good photos as you can, try different angles. Even if your photo doesn't win a prize, it will still be useful for illustrating articles on Wikipedia and the other sister projects.
Describe them
Write down what you photographed. Record the site's name, the picture ID, description, and date of photo.
Upload to Commons
Upload your images to Wikimedia Commons between 1st March and 30th of March. Create an account, if you don't have one already.Why participate?
Participate in Wiki Loves Africa, and help Wikipedia document rites and rituals of Rwanda.
Participating is fun! By photographing and sharing images of daily or seasonal rites and rituals nearby you. It's a nice challenge to improve your photography skills, and you can, of course, win some nice prizes. You stand a chance to win amazing regional prizes. The national jury will select up to 10 images that will represent Rwanda in the international finale. These images will compete for the international awards. More information about the international competition is available on www.wikilovesafrica.org .
You can also upload images that you may have taken already during one of your travels to the national competition of that country. Check if your travel destination participates in Wiki Loves Africa this year.
Instructions On How To Participate
The theme Rites and Rituals invites participants to explore the diverse ways African communities mark important life stages, honour traditions, and express their collective identity through symbolic practices. It recognises that rituals are central to cultural expression, shaping how individuals and groups connect with their past, present, and future.
The scope of the theme spans a wide variety of ritual expressions. Rites of passage, for instance, are among the most profound cultural practices. These rituals signify a person’s transition from one stage of life to another and include ceremonies such as birth and naming celebrations that welcome new life, initiation rites that mark entry into adulthood, community membership, or new responsibilities, marriage ceremonies that symbolize union and family building, and funeral rites that honor the dead, mourn loss, and reinforce cultural beliefs about life and the afterlife. Submissions in this area might capture the intimacy, symbolism, and emotion present in these milestones.
Religious rituals are also central to African life, rooted in diverse faith traditions and often deeply symbolic, repeated across generations. They include practices such as prayers, pilgrimages, fasting, ritual sacrifices, offerings, the celebration of life stages, and observances of significant religious holidays and commemorations, from Ramadan to Easter, Christmas and traditional harvest festivals such as the New Yam Festival celebrated by the Igbo people. These expressions reflect not only spiritual devotion but also shared moral and social values that build strong bonds within communities.
Cultural rituals offer another window into the heritage and identity of African societies. These traditions may include vibrant performances of dance and masquerades, oral storytelling, coming-of-age festivals, and ceremonies tied to agriculture, hunting, fishing, or crafts. They often combine costume, music, performance, and symbolism, producing striking visual and audio experiences that carry meaning far beyond their aesthetic value.
Everyday rituals document our daily routines, such as brushing teeth, combing hair, bathing, jogging, fetching water, cooking, sweeping the compound at dawn, greeting elders, or trading in markets, may seem ordinary, yet they are filled with cultural meaning. Across Africa, these practices take many forms; from North African mint tea gatherings and East African coffee ceremonies, to West African hair-braiding and Southern African communal cooking. Everyday life shows how culture lives in the smallest acts, weaving identity, connection, and tradition into the rhythm of each day.
At the civic and national level, rituals take the form of collective acts that symbolise unity, memory, and pride. Independence Day parades, military commemorations, and civic traditions such as flag-raising ceremonies or the singing of national anthems are moments when people gather to express belonging under a shared identity. These rituals reveal the ways in which diverse communities come together as one nation through symbolic acts of remembrance and solidarity.
Finally, arts and culture festivals serve as modern celebrations of creativity while retaining deep ritual elements. Through music, dance, theatre, masquerades, storytelling, visual arts, and craft exhibitions, these gatherings showcase cultural continuity and innovation. While festive in nature, they often preserve symbolic costumes, spiritual undertones, and seasonal or communal significance that link them back to ritual traditions.
In short, Rites and Rituals opens the competition to a wide range of submissions that reflect human identity and community through life transitions, spiritual practices, cultural traditions, civic expressions, and artistic celebrations. They can be rooted in tradition, contemporary interpretations or a practice that is modern or entirely new. It invites participants to document and share the ceremonies, both intimate and grand, that continue to shape the cultural heartbeat of Africa.
Below are just some ideas to explore around the theme concept....
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Competition rules
We try to keep the competition clean and simple to participate. There are only a few rules for photos to participate in the contest in Rwanda. Let's quickly go through them. Every submission should be:
- Self taken and self uploaded;
- Uploaded during March and March 2026;
- During the upload process, you give permission with a CC BY-SA licenseto re-use the image;
Next to that, there are a few practical rules:
- You should have an activated e-mail address on Wikimedia Commons;
- If the photo gets deleted for any reason, it is automatically disqualified from the competition;
- You are responsible for following the law while taking and uploading the photo.
In March, you may upload as many pictures (old or new) as you want of the Rites and Ritual that you have documented. At the end of the month, the national jury will evaluate the photographs and select the best 10 pictures in Rwanda to submit to represent in the international finale. The international jury will then announce the international winners in April.
Prizes
There are several prizes up for grabs, both nationally and internationally.
National level prizes
Photography category
1st Prize: voucher worth 100,000
2nd Prize: voucher worth Rwf 80,000
3rd Prize: voucher worth Rwf,60000
Video prize voucher worth 50000
International Prize Categories
Photography 1st Prize : USD 1000
2nd Prize : USD 900
3rd Prize : USD 700 Wilson Oluoha Prizeː USD 1,000
Media (Video, Audio, Graphics, Photo Essays):
Audio prize : USD 700
Narrative video prize : USD 1,000
Reportage video prize : USD 1000
Clip video prize : USD 200
Judging criteria
The jury will determine the winners of the international contest taking into the consideration the following criteria (in no particular order):
- Technical quality (sharpness, use of light, perspective etc.);
- Originality;
- Usefulness of the image for Wikipedia.
Images that reach a top ranking of the international finale, will typically at least fulfill the technical criteria of the ‘Featured Image’ process at Wikimedia Commons. But feel free to submit many images, and let the jury be concerned if they are good enough.