With the goal of having more Africans taking the lead to document the African culture and creative industries, The Africa Narrative (TAN) is prioritizing three sectors through separate campaigns. The first is the AfroCreatives WikiProject+film which will be followed by ACWP+fashion and ACWP+literature in 2025 and informed from the lessons and experiences of ACWP+film.

After its first campaign in 2022, ACWP+film is resuming its activities strengthened and amplified in scope, with its first scheduled campaign conducted in partnership with The Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO), Africa’s largest film festival. The partnership ensures that African film and television professionals interact with the Wikimedia movement to combine their respective knowledge.

In addition to generating a high level of knowledge that industry stakeholders are equipped with, the tagged FESPACO edit-a-thon campaign is enabling quality resources to further document African film and television content across Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons. For example, a concerted effort of the campaign is to solicit images (of African creatives, film posters, film stills, festivals, etc) that industry players own to upload on Wikimedia Commons.

This session aims to share the journey of the AfroCreatives WikiProject+film, the partnerships with FESPACO, US department of states, Film industry guilds and film stakeholders across Africa, and collaborating local African Wikimedia communities, etc for the 2024 AfroCreatives FESPACO edit-a-thon, announcement of International winners of the 2024 campaign, achievements, lessons and prospects of AfroCreatives WikiProject.

The AfroCreatives WikiProject aims to support and mobilize creatives and professionals from the African cultural and creative industries,as well as African cultural enthusiasts to contribute and enhance knowledge on Wikipedia about Africa’s creative economy. AfroCreatives WikiProject +film is the inaugural effort that AfroCreatives WikiProject deals with. By mobilizing African film creatives, professionals, experts, and film enthusiasts, ACWP +film aims to measurably enhance information on Wikipedia about the art and industry of African film.