On the 18th of July, 2023, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Wikimedia User Group Nigeria to begin a partnership that aims to bring unique African stories to the world.
The deal was signed in the new Wikimedia Nigeria office in Lagos. Present were Mr. Olaniyan Olushola, Chair of the Board of Trustees of Wikimedia Nigeria Foundation; Mr. Isaac Olatunde, Secretary to the Board of Trustees; and Mr. Ayokanmi Oyeyemi, the Program Director of the organisation, as well as Temi Olateru, one of our co-founders.
Wikimedia Nigeria User Group is a recognised affiliate partner of the larger Wikimedia Foundation, an organisation geared towards the collection and development of educational and informational content under a free license or in the public domain, for the benefit of people around the world. Essentially, like us at Retna, they believe open source access to content from various parts of the world is a net good for better stories and understanding of each other.
We’ll be providing access to over 30,000 freely licensed photographs, created by Retna’s contributors. Within Wikimedia Commons, these pictures will breathe life into stories and enhance the visibility of African content.
We believe that our partnership with Wikimedia Nigeria will allow us to take the spread of African creativity and stories to a new level, by giving our over 3000 users access to an even larger audience. As we are all about championing local talents and preserving their creative legacies, while simultaneously nurturing cultural representation, this gives us a new ample opportunity to platform the unique stories and viewpoints African creators experience.
We hope that, with this partnership, we will pave the way for the emergence of a new generation of African creatives and hopefully immortalise Africa’s heritage for generations to come. And beyond the artists, brands and businesses gain too, improving global brand standards through access to genuine African media, while supporting African talent on a worldwide stage.
We kicked off this partnership by supporting the Wiki Loves Earth 2023, a fitting starting point. It provided us an opportunity to share some of Nigeria’s most beautiful monuments through the lenses of our Retna contributors. For those intrigued by this collaboration, the gateway to participation awaits. Submit your freely licensed content by July 31st, 2023, through a dedicated link on our website to stand a chance of winning N150,000.
We’ve partnered with WikiMedia to help you tell better stories