Hello [FNAME],
Exquisite portraits of artisans and dynamic images of Africa at producing, creating and crafting. Documentaries capturing the stories of African creatives both young and starting out, and those philosophical about a lifetime of artistic endeavour. A submersive sound journey through markets, workshops and sizzling kitchens. All this is showcased in the prize-winning images, videos and audio of this year’s Wiki Loves Africa competition, Africa Creates.
Sadly, the winners announcement is made while Wiki in Africa, and the wider African Wikimedian community, mourns the tragic and sudden loss of Wilson Kelechi Oluoha, the project and community leader of Wiki Loves Africa, who passed away in September. Wilson was crucial in organising and promoting Wiki Loves Africa. His efforts in community engagement, particularly in facilitating training and support sessions and workshops and coordinating with local organisers across Africa, were instrumental in the success of the Wiki Loves Africa project in the last two years. He was a valued and beloved member of the Wiki In Africa team, and it is in his honour that, for the 2025 contest, one of the prize categories will be renamed in tribute to Wilson, ensuring that his memory lives on in the work that he so passionately advocated for.
The theme, Africa Creates, was chosen by the African Wikimedia community to celebrate a decade of Wiki Loves Africa. For ten years, the annual "Wiki Loves Africa" contest has provided an opportunity to directly represent Africa more diversely and inclusively online. In 2024, the focus was on showcasing the rich diversity of African creativity, productivity and manufacturing in all its forms – from traditional arts and crafts to technology and digital media, and everything in between, to promote a richer, more nuanced picture of Africa's creative and production landscape.
Each year, Wiki In Africa (www.wikiinafrica.org), the international organisers of Wiki Loves Africa (www.wikilovesafrica.net) sets a thematic challenge for the global photographic community - to submit photographs that present the everyday reality of Africa. The competition has been running since 2014. Since then, the competition has encouraged the contribution of nearly 116,189 images to Wikipedia’s image bank under a free licence. Since January 2017, these images have been collectively viewed 1.8 billion times on Wikipedia articles.
This year, the Wiki Loves Africa competition called for photographers to contribute images that reflected its 2024 theme of Africa Creates as it exists within the African context. The continent-wide call and events resulted in 14,163 entries from 796 media specialists and photographers from 45 countries, 50% of which are entirely new to the Wikimedia projects (this figure also shows a steadily increasing number of entries from returning photographers, year after year). Once the competition closed in April 2024, it was the incredible task of the 5 tier jury process to pick out the winners. After an initial review of all the entries by a volunteer team of Wiki Loves Africa organisers and Wikipedians, it was up to the Wiki Loves Africa 2024 International Jury, made up of 15 professional photographers, filmmakers and media specialists from Africa and international Wikimedians who are Commons experts, to select the international winners. The quality of images (visually arresting and well framed) was a key criterion in the selection, as was the encyclopaedic value of each image.
The 2024 Wiki Loves Africa winners across three prize categories hail from five different countries.
| | Photography Prize Winners
In the Photography category, the 1st prize of USD$1000 goes to Fawzi Demmane, (Algeria), a street photographer and informal portraitist, for his image “L'artisan graveur” (pictured above) which brings the viewer into the studio of an engraver and delicately captures the artisan bent over his desk in a moment of deep concentration.
“I have always considered myself an artist whose duty is to highlight the different values that govern the daily life of Africans. I seized the opportunity to participate in this competition to showcase, through the artistic means at my disposal, "photos," the creativity and creators of Africa,” Dewane said when contacted about his win. About Wiki Loves Africa’s impact on changing the global view of Africa, Dewane took the opportunity to express his love of his chosen medium. “Without a doubt, photography is the best form of expression, which, through its visual impact, always manages to persuade, capture attention, and impress, thus influencing opinions and views of observers.”
Members of the international jury were unanimous in their praise of “L'artisan graveur” Juror Nicky Newman said, "I'm really with him [the engraver]. His concentration is beautiful. He's been doing this his whole life. It's a very intimate shot. The other images are all quite big: big landscapes, big images. You're really with him in this."
Fellow juror Michael Maggs felt “L'artisan graveur” was “A fascinating study of the close concentration of the metalwork engraver. The slips of paper, which I interpret as client orders to be completed, give a delightful insight into the artisan's business.”
The second prize for photography is jointly won by Doaa Adel Ahmed Mohamed (Egypt) for her image “تجفيف زهور عباد القمر” (Drying Moonflowers), and Germain Mutijima (Rwanda) for his image “Gusarura Icyayi”. They will each receive USD$900 prize money. | | 2nd prize joint winner “تجفيف زهور عباد القمر” by Doaa Adel Ahmed Mohamed (Egypt), Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA 4.0. –Download link | Drying Moonflowers by Doaa Adel Ahmed Mohamed (above) captures a woman sifting calendula (or moonflower) petals for impurities. Dried calendula is used in herbal medicine.
Commenting on Drying Moonflowers, international juror Marion Walton: “This captures a visually arresting, joyful image, a worker enjoying a moment of beauty in a day's work. Furthermore, the image highlights the importance of women's labour and everyday creativity on the continent.”
In joint second place, “Gusarura Icyayi” by Germain Mutijima (below) captures a tea picker in Rwanda harvesting tea leaves. When contacted about his prize, Germain said that the theme Africa Creates “is an active and productive action for Africans because it helps us to explain and expose the good deeds in Africa that have not yet reached the world.” | | 2nd prize joint winner “Gusarura Icyayi” by Germain Mutijima (Rwanda), Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA 4.0. – Download link | “This powerful composition captures the expansive, patterned fields of the plantation while also allowing us to connect for a moment with the worker who is carefully harvesting the product.” Marion Walton said of the joint second-place winner, Gusarura Icyayi.
In third place with a prize of USD$800 in the Photography Category goes to Mohamed Nageeb Nasr (Egypt) for his image “MN004” of an iron worker smelting metal in a forge in Egypt. Mohamed, a photojournalist from Qatar was also the 2nd place prize winner for Wiki Loves Africa in 2023 for his moving image “Stormy Day in Somalia”. | | 3rd prize winner “MN004” by Mohamed Nageeb Nasr (Egypt), Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA 4.0. – Download link | The international jurors admired the photography both for the intensity of the heat that makes one feel that they are in the room, alongside the interest created by the distortion of the ultra-wide angle or fisheye lens. “I'm really with [the smelter] in this experience. I can feel the heat. It's a very visceral shot. I think it's beautiful,” Nicky Newman said, while fellow international juror Geoffrey Kategerra commented, “The fire shot is so intense, like you can feel that energy in that room.” | | Video Prize Winners
There are three distinct prizes in the Video category for best Narrative video, best Reportage video and best Clip video.
In the Narrative Video category, the jury looked for videos that told a story, had a clear beginning, middle and end communicated as a sequence of edited scenes that were scripted to display classic storytelling elements such as characters, conflict and a resolution. | | Narrative Video winner “Ahmadu Bello University Zaria Students works for Africa create” by Eeman Oyiza (Nigeria), Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA 4.0.– Download link | The USD$1000 prize was awarded to Eeman Oyiza for “Ahmadu Bello University Zaria Students works for Africa create”. The narration on the video, which explores the production of textiles by students studying industrial textile design, takes the form of a spoken word poem. Of the theme, Eeman said, “Every pixel in a picture tells a story and the theme Africa Create[s] sparked up the zeal to tell a story.” But it wasn’t until Eeman remembered there were students at ABU studying industrial design and textiles that their idea clicked into place. “Each time I saw an artist I'll smile, I made several shots, took several pictures but all I got didn't give me what I wanted till mid-April, when an idea just clicked and I remembered we had students at ABU … Immediately I made a few calls and got to visit the studio. I met the student working on a scarf and he was kind enough to explain everything about the looming machine. I saw other artists beautifully creating their works. It was a beautiful sight.”
International juror, Muhammed Benloulou said he was drawn to Eeman’s prize-winning narrative video because of the originality of the idea. “The unique manner utilised to discuss the subject, a poem, captivated my attention and kept me watching the video while appreciating the footage and getting the messages.”
Reportage videos present the topic in a way that informs, educates or adds knowledge for the viewer. It is not a story, but a presentation of elements or facts. Each video could use a variety of techniques to make the information clear, including but not limited to interviews, "fly on the wall" reporting, observing of events as they unfold, or inserting data and infographics to emphasise relevant points. | | Reportage Video winner “The Master Carver and a Message - A Documentary By Green Wilfred Somoni” by Green Wilfred Somoni (Nigeria), Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA 4.0. – Download link | For the third year in a row, the international panel of jurors were impressed by Green Wilfred Somoni’s entry, which this year created a moving portrait of a master carver, and awarded him the USD$1000 Reportage Video prize. “The Master Carver and a Message is a documentary that sheds light on the life of a veteran artist in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria Dr. Pius Waritimi. It highlights what he stands for as a person and how he translates his voice through his craft to make a positive impact in society,” Somoni said of his video.
International juror Fayçal Rezkallah felt nothing else in the competition compared with Somoni’s entry. “I gave everything to this video, and for me, it is probably the best of this competition. Everything is there, the editing and synchronisation are very well managed, the lighting is perfect, and above all, the technique combines with the story, and it is a perfect harmony.”
Somoni won Best Video in both 2022 and 2023 for his works, and used his prize money on film and video equipment to further his career and skills. His work is a testament to the impact the Wiki Loves Africa project can have in supporting African creators and helping them further their career by boosting their exposure and financial resources.
Video clips are short (maximum of 1 minute) uncut or simple shots that visually show a process or how something is done. Often they are part of footage from a longer video. A clip could be raw footage, a time-lapse, or a single take. For use of clips on Wikipedia, a clip should show the subject of the article in motion. Often they include ambient sound of what is being illustrated, where the sound effect illustrates part of the process or what is being explained or illustrated. A clip can also be without sound, music or audio effects. | | Clip Video winner “Africa-creates-realisateur-charles-yao-brou-from-wiki-loves-africa-cote-divoire-fan-club” by Charles Yao Brou (Cote d'Ivoire), Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA 4.0. – Download link | Charles Yao Brou of the Wiki Loves Africa Cote d'Ivoire Fan Club won the USD$200 Clip Video prize for his 34-second video of women dyeing fabric. The Wiki Loves Africa Cote d'Ivoire Fan Club is a collective of filmmakers that gather each year to make videos for the contest and share their filmmaking skills. The fan club wonderfully showcases the sense of community that can be created around the Wiki Loves Africa contest. | | Audio Prize Winner
Soundscapes, audio stories or audio recordings can be an evocative way to tell a story without images. The power of audio is that the visuals are created by the imagination of the listener. | | Audio Prize winner “The African Anthem” by Abubakar Abdullahi Tanimu (Nigeria), Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA 4.0. – Download link | This year, the USD$800 Audio prize was awarded to Abubakar Abdullahi Tanimu for his sound journey “The African Anthem”.
Tanimu’s sound journey begins in the lively atmosphere of an African marketplace, where the bustling energy of vendors and shoppers sets the stage for the narrative. As the audio transitions, the rhythmic beats of traditional African drums guide listeners through a variety of production and creation settings, and include the sounds of workshop machinery in a bustling factory, sewing machines peddling and scissors cutting cloth, the clang of metal in a blacksmith workshop, and sounds of sizzling, frying and boiling of food in an African kitchen. Each sound scene represents a unique aspect of African creativity, immersing listeners in the process of creation. "The African Anthem," is a vibrant tapestry of African culture and the enduring spirit of creativity that defines the continent.
Tanimu was inspired by the theme. “When I heard the theme Africa Create[s], immediately what came to mind was the sounds of local manufacturing and crafts shops, fashion houses and restaurants, then the thoughts of where these masterpieces are being sold, [in] urban and rural markets, streets and most public spaces.” Recording sounds and finding free sound effects to suit his narrative was the easy part, Tanimu said of the process of creating “The African Anthem”. “The hard part was post-production, trying to mix and level and master everything together was a bit difficult because each sound is unique with no dialogue to tie them up. It was draft after draft after draft till the final piece because as soon as I heard it, it felt just right.”
Like Somoni’s documentary, Tanimu’s comments on process perfectly mirror what Wiki Loves Africa set out to capture with the theme “Africa Creates”. It wasn’t simply about finished products, but rather the process behind creation, innovation and production of good on the continent.
A special edition of WikiAfrica Hour to meet the Wiki Loves Africa 2024 Winners aired on 18 October 2024, and can be viewed on YouTube. To watch the episode, go to: https://bit.ly/WAH_39_YT
Congratulations to all the winners. | | |
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