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A senior research fellow at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Dr Chika C Mba, has emphasised the urgent need for Africans to embrace and preserve their cultural identity, warning that neglect and abuse of African traditions directly contribute to poverty and social breakdown.
Speaking at the official launch of the Africa Wiki Challenge (AWC) 2025 in Accra on May 23, Dr Mba praised the initiative for encouraging Africans to document and celebrate their history, knowledge, and identity. However, he called for a more independent African-led platform.
“The Wiki challenge is good, it is interesting. As Chinua Achebe said, Until the lions are able to tell their stories, the story of the hunt will always glorify the hunter,” he noted.
“It is important to tell our own stories, but the question is, on what platform?”
He questioned the reliance on global platforms like Wikipedia, suggesting the need for alternatives that are not rooted in colonial frameworks.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have it as a Wiki challenge, but something independent that is not tied to the colonialist,” he added.
Dr Mba also critiqued the continued adoption of Western customs at the expense of African traditions. Using marriage ceremonies as an example, he urged Africans to stop referring to indigenous unions as “traditional marriages” and to abandon the practice of hosting both traditional and Western-style weddings.
“The abuse of our own culture and identity leads directly to poverty and impoverishment,” he said.
“Why should you spend double, on a traditional marriage and a white wedding? That’s another person’s culture and it is expensive.”
Lawyer and activist Mawuse Oliver Barker-Vormawor, a Senior Partner at Merton & Everett LLP, warned about the global structures that perpetuate the exploitation of African nations and people.
“The world is structured in a way where we are perpetually exploited, and it’s difficult to even see it; that blindness is perhaps the most dangerous part.”
Echoing the call for African storytelling, Dr Toni Luck, Co-founder of the Diaspora African Forum (DAF), encouraged participants in the Wiki challenge to dig deep into their roots and begin chronicling personal and community histories.
“Start going to the villages and ask your grandmothers, grandfathers, aunties, and uncles to tell their stories, they have stories to tell, stories that go back long before slavery.”
This year marks the Fifth edition of Open Foundation West Africa (OFWA)’s annual Africa Wiki Challenge (AWC), a Pan-African writing and content contribution contest on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons aimed at increasing the visibility of African stories and knowledge on global digital platforms. This annual project is aimed at addressing the underrepresentation of African content online, leveraging Wikipedia and its sister projects.
The theme each year aligns with the African Union’s theme for the year. This year’s challenge theme is ‘Reclaiming Our Narrative: Justice for Africans and the Diaspora through Reparations’.
The competition is open to Africans and people of African descent. Participants of AWC are encouraged to create new articles or enhance existing African content online, centering on the theme. The articles should therefore be related to justice, reparations, and historical redress for Africa and the diaspora. Images and media can also be uploaded to Wikipedia Commons to enhance African content.
This year’s edition is expected to mobilize thousands of participants across the continent to write, upload, and share African narratives in their own voices.
