By Khalifa Hemed
Published August 6, 2020

The third Prize has gone to A Mess by Summer Kamal Eldeen Mohamed Farag of Egypt who won the second prize in the 2019 edition of the contest.An annual competition of photography and videography aimed at encouraging Africans to document lifestyle across the mother continent has announced the winners of the sixth edition of the event.

Wiki In Africa, the organisers of the 6th Wiki Loves Africa photographic and media competition, say they received 16 982 images ‘that broadly capture the 2020 theme of Africa on the Move! (transport)’ from 1904 people that the judging panel–photographers from across Africa and Wikimedia specialists from around the world–considered and selected the winners.

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“The quality of images was a key criterion in the selection, as was the encyclopedic value of the image, and also that it was visually arresting and well framed. Of equal importance was the quest to ensure that the unexpected was featured. As a project, Wiki Loves Africa is focused on obliterating the ‘single story of Africa’ by visually displaying the myriad of experiences that make up daily life on the continent. In this case, the thousands of images represented Africa in all its dichotomy through the theme of transport, from donkeys and potholed roads to high-speed trains, cargo and ferry boats,” a media statement signed by Isla Haddow-Flood and Florence Devouard, says.

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The Traditional Culture Prize, that Wiki in Africa says 'represents ancient traditions within a modern context', has gone to Salt transport by a camel train on Lake Assale (Karum) in Ethiopia by Olivier Siret.So which photos and video clips won and what aspect of transportation mode do they capture?

The video category prize, that Wiki in Africa says is to ‘encourage quality video submissions to the competition’,has gone to “Bouba Kam’s Le Transport Lagunaire à Abidjan (STL) réalisé par Bouba Kam’s that displays an unexpected element to transport in Africa by taking us on a ferry ride across Abidjan’s Ébrié Lagoon.”

The Traditional Culture Prize, that Wiki in Africa says ‘represents ancient traditions within a modern context’, has gone to Salt transport by a camel train on Lake Assale (Karum) in Ethiopia by Olivier Siret.

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The third Prize has gone to A Mess by Summer Kamal Eldeen Mohamed Farag of Egypt who won the second prize in the 2019 edition of the contest. She says she took the photo during lockdown ‘because I like to shoot from the top when there are suitable configurations’.

The second prize winner is Bread Delivery Bicycle by Abd Elhamid Fawzy Abd Elhamid Tahoun from Egypt.

What motivated Tahoun to take this shot?

“The boy attracted me for his great effort during work at midday,” he says. “Then I noticed the light and shadow and decided to take the shot.”

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The second prize winner is Bread Delivery Bicycle by Abd Elhamid Fawzy Abd Elhamid Tahoun from Egypt. The winner of the first prize, also from Egypt, is My Homeland (Lake Burullus, Egypt) by Mohamed Ahmed Yousry.

How did Yousry come to create this winning image?

“I heard a lot about the virgin islands scattered along Lake Burullus. One particular image of an island called Shakloba haunted me. It might be the stunning image I saw on Facebook or the strange name of the island. But either way, curiosity got the best out of me and my travel companions and we decided to explore the island,” he tells Wiki in Africa. “Shakhloba is one of over a dozen small, mostly uninhabited islands in Lake Burullus. The magnificent lake, the largest in Egypt’s Delta, is located in Kafr El-Sheikh governorate. Lake Burullus has a very rich landscape. It is nestled in the green fields of the Delta, bordering it from the south, with Nile’s Rosetta branch towards the east and the Mediterranean to the north. Fishing is very important for the local people here. The traditional boats— markebs and faloukas —are still used. Fishermen use traditional techniques (various kinds of nets) and take advantage of the reeds.This photo summarized the life in this place…Fishers and their homeland in a small island in Lake Burullus, Egypt.”

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The winner of the first prize, also from Egypt, is My Homeland (Lake Burullus, Egypt) by Mohamed Ahmed Yousry.Wiki in Africa, a South African-registered Non-Profit Organisation that says it ‘focuses on bridging the digital divide by encouraging the contribution of African content to global educational platforms, such as Wikipedia’, says the Wiki Loves Africa competition invites both amateur and professional photographers and filmmakers to ‘share the world they see every day; life recorded and observed from within their own communities. Their contribution forms a collection of royalty-free images about Africa, a continent that is often the subject of an external gaze and many subsequent stereotypes’.

Over the last six years, Wiki in Africa says, the contest has donated more than 64 000 photographs to Wikimedia Commons for potential use on Wikipedia.

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Wiki Loves Africa contest has over the past six years generated more than 64 000 photographs to Wikimedia Commons for potential use on Wikipedia. “The competition was conceptualised and is managed by Florence Devouard and Isla Haddow-Flood of Wiki In Africa as a fun and engaging way to bridge the digital divide by rebalancing the lack of visual representations and relevant content that exists about Africa on Wikipedia,” the organisers of the Wiki Loves Africa contest say. “The competition is funded by the Wikimedia Foundation and supported in-kind by UNESCO and a host of local partners in individual countries. The images donated are available for use on the internet and beyond, under the Creative Commons license CC BY SA 4.0.”

The winners walk away with US$1000 (first prize), US$800 (second prize) and US$500 (third prize and traditional culture and video categories).