African Journalists Receive ‘Open the Knowledge’ Awards from ICFJ and Wikimedia Foundation

Africawide, 24 June, 2026 - The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), in partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia, are today announcing three journalists from Africa as recipients of the Open the Knowledge Journalism Awards.

The winning stories, covering migration, youth sports and maternal health, are being recognized for helping highlight meaningful stories in Africa. The Awards celebrate the essential role journalists play in creating well-researched articles that volunteer editors can use as source materials to develop content on Wikipedia. Wikipedia relies on evidence-based reporting to inform and expand its content, making journalists essential partners in building a more complete global knowledge base.

Earlier this year, African journalists living on the continent were invited to self-nominate articles they had written that help expand knowledge about Africa, with a specific focus on the areas of women and/or youth, and arts, culture, heritage, and sports. In total, 320 submissions were received from 40 African countries.

Recipients of the 2026 Open the Knowledge Journalism Awards:

• First place: Rakiya Muhammad, a freelance journalist from Nigeria, for the article "West Africa's Borderless Women: Inside the Yoruba Sisterhood Linking Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire." Published in RM Times, it documents the decades-long migration pattern of women leaving Ejigbo in southwest Nigeria for Côte D'Ivoire. Women from Ejigbo, fueled by the promise of economic opportunity, have become a dominant force in Abidjan's market and drivers of cultural ties between the two countries. According to Muhammad's story, up to 80% of Ejigbo's funding comes from its people in Côte d'Ivoire.

On receiving the news about her recognition, Rakiya Muhammad said;
"Receiving this honour renews my passion for telling stories that place African women at the heart of the narrative as active agents of development, leadership and social change," said Muhammad. "The recognition rekindles my commitment to documenting positive stories about Africa with authenticity and depth, while shedding light on the gendered dimensions often overlooked in broader discussions."

• Second place: Abiodun Adewale, a Nigerian sports reporter for The Punch, for the piece "Breaking boundaries: How Nigeria's U-19 women are rewriting cricket history." The story chronicles how the Junior Female Yellow Greens, a Nigerian women's cricket team, prepared for and performed at the 2025 International Youth Cricket World Cup. Sports coverage in Nigeria rarely focuses on cricket; Adewale's story highlights the sport's growing presence in the country.

• Special mention: Angeline Ochieng, a Kenyan-based correspondent from Nation Media Group, for the story "The converts: How reformed midwives are ending maternal deaths." Published in the Daily Nation, the article focuses on former traditional midwives in rural Kenya who have ended their practice to advocate for hospital deliveries, leading to fewer deaths and complications.

"Journalism and Wikipedia need each other," said ICFJ President Sharon Moshavi. "Wikipedia's volunteer editors rely on independent reporting to build a more complete knowledge resource, and journalists benefit from the global and multilingual reach that Wikipedia provides. These awards recognize that relationship and the African journalists who are making our digital information ecosystems stronger."

Anusha Alikhan, Wikimedia Foundation's Chief Communications Officer, said: "Wikipedia is the largest encyclopedia ever assembled, but it is far from complete. Having stories written by Africans about the issues they care about is vital to ensuring the encyclopedia is representative of many experiences and perspectives. We celebrate the three journalists who have received the Open the Knowledge Journalism Awards and thank them for making this kind of reporting possible."

Olaniyan Ishola Oulushola, Wikipedia editor, President of Wikimedia Nigeria, a group of Wikimedia volunteers in Nigeria, and Member of this year's Awards selection committee, said: "The quality and relevance of the articles received and selected in this year's awards is commendable. As a Wikipedia editor, I see in each of them an opportunity to improve information about Africa on Wikipedia. From documenting the history of women cross-border traders in West Africa to the achievements of female cricketers, each of these articles brings us a step closer to closing the knowledge gaps we are working on every day."

In January 2026, Wikipedia marked its 25th anniversary. Today, it is among the top-ten most-visited global websites, and it is the only one to be run by a nonprofit, the Wikimedia Foundation. Its 65 million articles in over 300 languages, created by nearly 250,000 volunteer editors from around the world, are viewed nearly 15 billion times every month. Yet, many topics about Africa remain missing or incomplete on the site. Currently, only 3.7% of the articles on the English Wikipedia are about Africa. This issue reflects knowledge gaps in the wider media ecosystem; new information can only be added to Wikipedia by volunteer editors if it is supported by a citation from a published, reliable source.

This year's award recipients were decided upon by a committee composed of African civil society leaders, academics, ICFJ and Wikimedia Foundation staff, and members of the Wikipedia volunteer community.

For more information, visit the Open the Knowledge Journalism Awards webpage.

About the Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. We support the people, technology, and policies that enable reliable information to be shared with the world. The Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with offices in San Francisco, California, USA. Visit our website to learn more about the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikipedia.

About the International Center for Journalists

The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) enables a global network of tens of thousands of journalists to provide the trustworthy news essential to free and strong societies. Through our new entity, Plus, we are partnering with tech powerhouse Code for Africa and systems builder PROTO to cultivate civic intelligence - information that helps people make sense of their world and act constructively to shape it. We collaborate with journalists, technologists, civil society, researchers and others to forge stronger, more effective news and information ecosystems. Learn more about our work at ICFJ.org.