Wikipedia:WikiProject Africa/Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 in Africa

Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 was an international photo contest about "monuments" (in a broad meaning of the word), organized by Wikimedia chapters and some independent group of editors of the WMF sites. It was first held in 2010 in the Netherlands, then in 2011 it was held in 18 European countries. 2011's edition also officially entered the Guinness World Records as the largest photography competition thanks to the 167,000 pictures which were collected; 2012 showed an astonishing number of over 350,000 photos taken by more than 15,000 people in 36 countries was reached.

Wiki Loves Monuments in Africa
In 2012 Wikimedians of Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa took part to the contest. This is a report about their experiences. The contents of the 3 Africa countries this year participate to the WikiAfrica project.

WLM 2012 in Ghana
Ghana's participation was made possible thanks to the work of some particularly active wikimedians, who are also trying to carry out the planning of a local Wikimedia chapter. The pictures upload during last September are 122. Ghana was the first among the African countries to select and announce publicly the winners. This is a selection of their pictures.


 * Ghana’s material cultural heritage
 * Images for 2012 from Ghana
 * Details and stats about the pictures in the above category
 * Hurray from Ghana - "we finally made it", a post by Elke on the WLM official website

WLM 2012 in Kenya
Kenya did not want to break this appointment too, maybe also because a "Wikipedia Takes Nairobi" event was planned earlier this year but it did not take place; several people were involved, including members of the brand new chapter. Among them there was Dmunene, which told us what the event meant for him.

''<<It was quite an interesting experience for me. I wished I had done more. I personally don't own a camera so I had to rely on Wikimedia Kenya's camera that I borrowed for a day to take the photos. I came across a few monuments that I never knew existed, such as the Global Forest, the Peace Pole, & the National Monument. [...]

''One of the challenges I faced was that I had to rely on my memory to get to the location of where the monuments were. The Peace Pole, for example, that I stumbled upon on my way out of the compound where the Jomo Kenyatta statue is located. It was by luck that I came across it.>>''

He also expressed the hope that next year universities and other higher education institutions can be involved in such a fun and useful activity.

The gallery underneath features some pictures among the 91 which took part to the competition. A different shot of the statue won the national round.


 * Sites and monuments in Kenya
 * Images for 2012 from Kenya
 * Details and stats about the pictures in the above category

WLM 2012 in South Africa
South Africa surely deserves kudos for how the participation to the contest was handled, although it certainly benefited from the contribution of their local chapter which is the first one in Africa (very young though, being officially recognized in March 2011). Let's start mentioning the official website of the initiative, which is very clear and informative; there you can learn also about the hard work it took to track down and make available the list of monuments. It also features a page about local prizes,, with a specific section which will award pictures of Western Cape. The official Facebook page also reports about upload marathons being held in many cities to help contestants place their works onto Wikimedia Commons.

Se also a story from a contestant, Leo za1.

<<As a professional photographer, I tend to do quite a bit of travelling.

''I went on a road trip (spanning 2000km) from Johannesburg to Jeffreys Bay (near Port Elizabeth) and back, capturing 142 monuments on the way. We came across some very interesting monuments and people who were willing to share their stories relating to the monuments they were occupying. Some of the South African monuments are in fact privately owned homes.'' ''Of particular interest was a house in 38 Bree Street, Cradock in the Eastern Cape. The owners of this historical building were exceptionally friendly and invited us to have a look around their home which they were in the process of renovating. [...]''

It was really a load of fun searching for these monuments as it was almost like a treasure hunt and I will definitely participate in future competitions.>>

Of course, celebrating the Heritage Day during the very same month helped the country reaching pretty good results, like the 28th place in the participating countries'ranking with 1,860 photos from 129 users. Choosing some pictures among the most beautiful ones was not that easy. The three winners can now be found on the website mentioned above.


 * List of heritage sites in South Africa
 * Images for 2012 from South Africa
 * Details and stats about the pictures in the above category