Wikiindaba: Why Africans Should Tell Their Stories

When people say “just Google it”, most times they mean “just Wiki it”. Because, when you google it, (whatever it is), you’ll get the closest, seemingly clearest and most diverse answer or resource from the Wikipedia page. Wikipedia, one of the world’s most widely used reference compendium, is one of the few spaces where Africans can directly write and edit their stories. This is the reason all Africans should be involved in telling their stories because stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity. In the wake of the 2021 WikiIndaba Conference, the incoming CEO of Wikimedia Foundation, the global nonprofit organization that supports Wikipedia and 12 other free knowledge projects,, Maryana Iskander, discusses why Africans should tell their stories.