Wikipedia for LGBTQ+ Advocacy

A Guide for Queer Advocates in Northern Nigeria

Hello! I'm Ayokanmi

Programs Director for Wikimedia Nigeria

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Boad of Trustee member, Wikimedia LGBT+

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Linked data enthusiast.

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Wikimedia community strategist.

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Photographer.

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He/Him

ayokanmi@wikimedia.org.ng

Wiki For Human Rights Nigeria

Wiki For Human Rights Nigeria is an organization committed to bridging the gap of LGBT+ topics on Wikimedia.

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What comes to your mind????

Why Wikipedia Matters

Wikipedia receives over 6 billion visits every month, making it one of the most influential sources of information worldwide. When people search for topics related to LGBTQ+ history, rights, or communities, Wikipedia is often their first stop. This means the information on Wikipedia directly shapes how millions of people understand queer identities, struggles, and achievements.

For advocacy work in Northern Nigeria, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. Accurate, well-sourced Wikipedia articles can educate the public, counter misinformation, and preserve important stories that might otherwise be overlooked or erased. By learning to edit Wikipedia, you gain the power to ensure your community's voices and experiences are represented in the world's largest encyclopedia.

« Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.»

That’s our commitment

What then is Wikimedia?

What is Wikimedia?

The Wikimedia Trio

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. It contains millions of articles in hundreds of languages, including Hausa. Articles must be neutral, verifiable, and sourced from reliable references. This is where you can document LGBTQ+ history, activists, and organizations.

Wikidata is a free knowledge base that stores structured data. It connects information across all Wikimedia projects and can be read by machines. You can add data about queer organizations, events, and notable figures that links to Wikipedia articles and other sources.

Wikimedia Commons is a media repository for freely licensed images, audio, and video. Anyone can upload and use these files across all Wikimedia projects. You can contribute photos of events, activists, and community gatherings to increase queer visibility.

March 2000

Jimmy Donal "Jimbo"

Wales

(born August 7, 1966) is a British-

American Internet entrepreneur.

Lawrence Mark Sanger (born July 16, 1968) is an American internet project developer

began with its first edit on 15 January 2001

What is Wikipedia?

• Created on January 15, 2001.
• Free online encyclopedia that strives to share the sum of all knowledge.
• Written collaboratively by largely anonymous volunteers who write without pay from all over the world.
• Anyone with internet access can add content and improve Wikipedia articles.
• 1.5 billion unique visitors monthly as of March 2020.
• Over 54 million articles in more than 300 languages.
• It’s not a finished project! It’s always evolving!

Gaps

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• Just about 10.6% of the content that exist on Wikipedia are about Africa, according to the Guardian in 2021

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• Would you believe that the uninhabited continent of Antarctica is far covered than the entire continent of Africa?

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• And just less than 1% of the contents that existed on Wikipedia are about Nigeria.

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• While just about 15% of the articles that exist about Nigeria on Wikipedia is about LGBTQ+

Three Critical Gaps

Missing Biographies

Wikipedia has very few articles about LGBTQ+ activists, especially from Africa. Many important advocates who have fought for rights and safety remain undocumented, making their contributions invisible to the world.

African LGBTQ+ History

The rich history of gender and sexual diversity across Africa is largely absent from Wikipedia. Pre-colonial traditions, community stories, and historical figures are not represented, erasing important cultural knowledge.

Advocacy Organizations

Many LGBTQ+ organizations working across Africa lack Wikipedia articles. This limits their visibility, credibility, and ability to connect with supporters and resources internationally.

"When we write our own stories, we control our narrative. Wikipedia gives us a platform that reaches millions. For queer communities in Nigeria, this means we can ensure our histories, our contributions, and our truths are documented accurately and permanently. No one can tell our stories better than we can."

— Kasha Nabagesera

By File:We_Can_Do_It!.jpg: J. Howard Miller, artist employed by Westinghouse, poster used by the War Production

Co-ordinating Committee derivative work: Tom Morris (This file was derived from We Can Do It!.jpg:) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

By Mono (Own work) [Public domain or CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

Ways to Contribute

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Creating new articles around Nigeria LGBTQ+ topics which can be for organizations, persons or a discussion.

You can contribute in your local Language

Adding pictures to articles.

Improving the quality of articles by adding citations or sources

Proof reading and copy editing

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Importance of Contributing

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To document Nigeria LGBTQ+ history, topics, culture and heritage as a way of advocacy (ultimately projecting and creating visibility)

Capacity building opportunity for young queer persons which will help their writing, reading and research proficiency (advantage of learning how to write in an encyclopedic tone)

Document and preserve local language(s)

An opportunity to share your work and knowledge with the world

Helping to augment the biases that contribute to a colonized web

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The value of Wikipedia in today’s world

Wikipedia has gradually become a form of advocacy in today's world and as a way to foster digital skills, critical thinking, research skills, and reach a variety of learning objectives in formal and informal education initiatives.

Vanessa Nakate story:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanessa_Nakate

Initiative title

Location / Institution

Olumide Makanjuola article as a form of advocacy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olumide_Makanjuola

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Who writes Wikipedia?

What should a Wikipedia article not be?

About you, someone you know, or somewhere you work

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Personal conjecture, or written like an essay

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Unsourced, or copied word for word from another source

Screengrabs from Wikipedia, CC-BY-SA

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The fundamental principles

of Wikipedia may be summarized in

pillars

• A pillar is a symbol of strength, it ensures reliability and support.
• We use pillars to demonstrate the foundations on which something is built.
• Thousands of volunteers use their time, knowledge, and creativity to edit Wikipedia - collectively building the most accurate, complete, and accessible encyclopedia in the world.
• While it is true that there are no strict rules and no mandated hierarchy of power among volunteer editors, setting expectations that guide contribution to Wikipedia is essential.
• There are 5 fundamental principles, or pillars, by which Wikipedia operates

Wikipedia’s Pillars:

1. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia.
2. Wikipedia is written from a neutral point of view.
3. Wikipedia is free content that anyone can edit, use, modify, and distribute.
4. Editors should treat each other with respect and civility.
5. Wikipedia does not have firm rules.

Behavioral guidelines:

• Assume good faith - Wikipedia editors are encouraged to assume that people who work on the project are trying to help it, not hurt it.
• Do not disrupt Wikipedia to prove a point - Don’t spam Wikipedia, unfairly nominate articles for deletion, push rules, or create work for other people just to prove a point.
• Please do not bite the newcomers - Understand that many new contributors lack knowledge about Wikipedia policies and treat them kindly.
• Maintain etiquette - Respect contributors that have different views, perspectives, and backgrounds.

Core content policies:

• Neutral point of view

Wikipedia articles must be written from a neutral point of view, representing significant views fairly, proportionately and without bias.

• Verifiability

Material and quotations must be attributed to a reliable, published source. People reading and editing the encyclopedia should be able to check these sources.

• No original research

Wikipedia does not publish original thought or new analysis: all material in Wikipedia must be attributable to a reliable, published source.

Anatomy of a Wikipedia article

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Let’s take a closer look at the elements of a Wikipedia article and how they can help us evaluate its content.

Anatomy of a Wikipedia article

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Use the search box to look for more information without leaving Wikipedia.

Blue links allow you to explore more Wikipedia articles related to the topic. Red links indicate that the page does not exist yet but it probably should!

Anatomy of a Wikipedia article

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Certain badges on the top right corner can highlight the outstanding quality of an article after going through a structured peer review process. For example, this article is marked with a bronze star representing its status as a Featured Article - some of the best articles you can find on Wikipedia.

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Similarly, you can encounter warning banners indicating areas of improvement for an article, citations needed, or potential conflicts.

Anatomy of a Wikipedia article

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The lead section summarizes the article’s key points.

It provides students with an initial overview of the topic.

Anatomy of a Wikipedia article

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The “Talk” section shows discussions around the article’s content: disputes around facts or sources, suggestions for improvement, etc.

It shows how knowledge is constructed through informed exchanges, civil discussions, and collaboration.

Anatomy of a Wikipedia article

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If you click on the “View History” tab you can see the development of a Wikipedia article through a list of the contributions done by different volunteer editors.

Since everything is timestamped you can see how the article has evolved over time and how up-to-date the content is.

Anatomy of a Wikipedia article

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The numbers found along a Wikipedia article indicate the sources used to create it.

You can see a quick glimpse of the source by hovering the mouse over the numbers. If you click on them you will be taken to the References section where you will find all the sources listed.

Articles can be assessed according to the number and quality of sources they have.

The talkpage can also show certain quality standards based on content assessments established by the community of editors. Depending on the Wikipedia language edition you are visiting, this assessment system may vary, or sometimes not exist. On English Wikipedia, this content assessment is mainly performed by editors who are part of a WikiProject.

Article Class

Wikipedia Editing Guidelines:

1. Be bold!�Wikipedia not only allows you to add and edit articles: it wants you to do it!
2. Fix it yourself instead of just talking about it�In the time it takes to write about a problem, you could instead improve the encyclopedia.
3. Do not be upset if your bold edits get reverted�Editors are working towards making Wikipedia as goon an encyclopedia as possible, remember to assume good faith and act with civility.

Why create a Wikipedia user account?

• You can choose a username, which will be reserved just for you on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.
• You can create your own user page to collaborate, share information about yourself and your interests, or just practice editing and publishing in your own sandbox.
• You can communicate with other editors via your own talk page.
• You can edit without revealing your IP address (which can be used to trace your physical location) to the public.

What do you need to create a Wikipedia user account and user page?

• Email account (not mandatory but highly recommended!)
• Internet connection to access Wikipedia in your language of choice
• An appropriate username/pseudonym that is different from your email address
• A desire to click that “edit” button and start practicing!

Now we’ll show you how it can be done step-by-step!

Wikidata is a free, structured database that stores facts in a machine-readable format. It powers the infoboxes you see on Wikipedia articles across all languages. When you add information to Wikidata, it automatically appears in Wikipedia articles worldwide.

For multilingual advocacy, Wikidata is invaluable. Nigeria has over 500 languages, and Wikidata connects knowledge across all of them. You can add data about LGBTQ+ organizations, activists, or events once, and it becomes accessible globally.

Wikidata uses a simple structure: Items (things), Properties (characteristics), and Values (data). For example, an activist (item) has a "gender identity" (property) with a specific value.

Understanding Wikidata

Wikimedia Commons is a free media repository where you can upload and share images, videos, audio files, and documents. All media on Commons uses free licenses, meaning anyone can use, share, and adapt it. When you upload media to Commons, it becomes available across all 300+ Wikipedia language editions, including Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, and English Wikipedia. This is powerful for advocacy because you can upload photos documenting queer life, community events, or historical moments in Nigeria, and these images can illustrate Wikipedia articles worldwide. Commons helps fill representation gaps by allowing marginalized communities to contribute their own visual narratives rather than relying on outside perspectives.

Wikimedia Commons

Questions?

Answers!