The “Knowledge is Human. Knowledge is Her” campaign celebrates the volunteers who have helped write, edit and source articles about notable women on Wikipedia.
Campaign celebrates contributors from Africa and beyond (see below).
Together, they play a vital role in ensuring that more knowledge about women appears on Wikipedia, helping to close the gender gap.
The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, today announced the launch of its "Knowledge is Human. Knowledge is Her” campaign. Coinciding with International Women’s Day, the campaign celebrates the human contributors - including those from Africa - who are working tirelessly to ensure that more content about women appears on Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is the largest encyclopedia in human history. Its more than 64 million articles are the result of generous contributions from hundreds of thousands of Wikimedians, which is the name given to its volunteer editors. Together, they compile and share information on notable subjects, citing reliable sources, according to the encyclopedia’s editorial policies and guidelines. They embody the belief that knowledge is human.
Wikipedia depends on the availability of existing published sources to verify the facts in its articles. But, because women have been left out of historical narratives and traditional sources of knowledge, many of these knowledge gaps are present on Wikipedia.
“This International Women’s Day, we are celebrating the humans that are writing women back into history, and playing a vital role in growing knowledge on one of the most visited websites,” said Anusha Alikhan, Wikimedia Foundation Chief Communications Officer. “More content about women and more women contributing to Wikipedia helps create a knowledge base that better represents our communities. By sharing these stories, we hope to inspire people everywhere to learn about these efforts and join a movement that matters to how we all see the world.”
This year’s campaign not only celebrates Wikimedia editors but also those who are helping in other ways to contribute to knowledge on Wikipedia, through organizing editing events, workshops, campaigns and other initiatives.
"We are excited to showcase the incredible work of Wikimedia contributors. Their stories range from librarians who have found Wikipedia’s Citations Needed initiative inspiring, female volunteers passionate about writing about other women in their country, or those that feel strongly about bringing knowledge from their language, or country on to Wikipedia,” said Masana Mulaudzi, Senior Manager of Campaign Organizing at the Wikimedia Foundation. “These volunteers are helping Wikipedia’s content reflect the whole world, in all its richness of culture and language. You might not know her, but you might have read her work.”
Some of the volunteers that are doing this work in Africa include:
Carol Mwaura, user:Cmwaura, from Kenya
With over 2,000 edits across Wikimedia projects, Carol is working to increase the amount of reliable articles about women on the free encyclopedia, all while supporting and inspiring the next generation of editors. Methodical about her approach, perhaps in part to being a librarian, Carol begins every “Wiki assignment” by identifying content gaps, researching reliable sources, cross-checking references, and adhering to citation guidelines. Editing quickly became her calling, specifically making information about Kenyan women more available to everyone. That is also why she translates articles into Swahili, which is spoken by 95% of the population in Kenya. Carol’s contributions have not gone unnoticed by her peers. During the #1Lib1Ref campaign in 2020, an initiative that invites librarians all over the world to add references to Wikipedia, her numerous contributions led fellow volunteers to name her one of the top 100 editors in Africa, and one of the top women editors in Kenya. Her dedication is unparalleled and she often edits on the go, while chasing an internet signal.
This year, Carol is also helping organize Wikimania 2025 in Nairobi. The annual conference invites Wikimedians from all over the world to share, connect, and learn from one another.
Goodness Ignatious, user:Olugold, from Nigeria
Goodness has edited over 16,000 edits across Wikimedia projects, created over 100 new articles in English and more than 700 on Igbo Wikipedia, helping to make content about women-related issues, Nigerian issues, and the Igbo language freely available. She is a prolific editor who is active across a myriad of Wikimedia projects. In addition to writing, Goodness coordinates events on Meta-Wiki for both new and existing volunteers who want to learn how to contribute; she organizes data points on Wikidata that can be used to add reliable information across different sites, including Wikipedia, Wikiquote (a collaborative collection of quotes), and Wiktionary, often in Igbo, increasing the availability of information in that language. A librarian by trade, Goodness focuses on sharing much of the knowledge she has gathered over the years, like the article she created on the Igbo word Ọmụgwọ. Goodness also helps the next generation of Wikimedians in Nigeria feel confident about contributing to the free encyclopedia via their mobile phones.
Agbenomba Abigaïl, user:aimeabibis, from Benin
She has made over 9,000 contributions across Wikimedia projects, including the creation of over 270 new articles on French Wikipedia, making free, reliable knowledge more accessible for speakers of that language. Her work spans a wide variety of topics, from pop culture, such as the article about Beninois-German singer-actress Victoire Laly, to politics, including an article on Beninois diplomat Arlette Dagnon Vignikin. The sense of participating in something as big and meaningful as Wikipedia is one of the reasons why she feels inspired to contribute. Besides writing, Abigail finds the time to engage and organize events where she offers training, hosts workshops, and inspires more people to edit Wikipedia. Promoting gender equality, especially within the local Benin volunteer community, is something that’s near and dear to her heart. Recently, her work with the “Gender Equality in Benin” campaign involved trying new strategies to engage more women volunteers. As part of this, they set up and ran a WhatsApp community to facilitate their involvement, with incredible results: Together the group created 660 new articles and improved 1,150 existing pages on Wikipedia.
Wikipedia’s importance has only increased in today’s world of generative AI. Almost every Large Language Model, including those that drive tools like ChatGPT, relies on Wikipedia data as their primary source for training. Wikipedia must represent all the world’s people and knowledge because of how much people use it.
Join the celebration
To learn more about the campaign and wider efforts to close the gender gap on Wikipedia, visit the Knowledge is Human. Knowledge is Her campaign page.
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