All African Universities in Wikidata?

U.C.I. Students Bar, Ibadan 1962 (Wikimedia Commons, NSAG Van Dis Collection, CC-BY-4.0)All over Africa, the numbers of higher education and research institutions have increased quite substantially in recent decades, and since 1990, private knowledge institutions have flourished. This development can be visualised in Wikidata, a free and open knowledge base that can be read and edited by both humans and machines. See, for example, the timeline of Kenyan universities at the bottom of this page.
 
However, research results and data visualisations in Wikidata are as good or bad, as complete or incomplete as Wikidata itself is on a specific subject. Inspired by the Leiden online conference Africa Knows! (2020-2021), the ASCL Library has started to enrich Wikidata records about African universities. The library focuses on adding missing fields that are essential for the data visualisation of Wikidata search results, such as a university’s geolocation or date of establishment, and on identifiers that are crucial for linking (library) databases.
 
Wikidata is a community effort, which means that the ASCL Library did not have to start from scratch. It built on information already added to Wikidata by other volunteers. The library’s additions can then in turn be complemented by others in the Wiki community. You too can help by checking whether your alma mater or African partner university is represented to your satisfaction in Wikidata and Wikipedia. Consider offering your photographs of African universities to Wikimedia Commons.
 
Library reading room, University of Nsukka 1962 (Wikimedia Commons, NSAG Van Dis Collection, CC-BY-4.0)Donations of photographs of African universities are quite common. Last year three former students of the Dutch African Student Society (NSAG) donated photographs to the African Studies Centre Leiden and Wikimedia Commons, taken when they were traveling across Africa in 1961-1962. The purpose of their trip was to establish contacts with African students and they therefore visited ten African universities. Their photos offer a unique glimpse into student life in Africa in the 1960s and into the establishment of national universities immediately after independence. Enjoy browsing the NSAG collection.
 
Please contact the ASC Leiden Library if you are interested in contributing to contributing to Wiki projects on African higher education. 
 
Ursula Oberst
 
Timeline of Kenyan universities via Wikidata
 

Posted on 1 March 2021, last modified on 9 March 2021