If you’ve ever searched for Nigerian history online, tried to find photographs of 1900s Lagos, or looked for primary sources about African independence movements, you’ve probably noticed something. There’s just not much knowledge there.
It’s not that African knowledge doesn’t exist. Our libraries hold centuries of newspapers and archival materials. We have archives that preserve government records, photographs, and manuscripts, museums that house artefacts that tell stories stretching back millennia, and universities that produce research and scholarship daily.
The problem isn’t existence, it’s access.
And this is the Challenge we are addressing
Across Africa, vast collections of cultural heritage materials remain locked away. These collections of heritage materials sit in poorly built storage rooms and are managed by institutions that lack the equipment, training, or bandwidth to make them available online. They’re caught in copyright confusion that prevents well-meaning librarians from sharing what should be freely accessible.
Meanwhile, the world learns about Africa primarily through content created and controlled elsewhere. We have students writing papers on African history that rely solely on sources from European or American archives. Wikipedia articles about African cities use photos taken by foreign tourists. Researchers studying African social movements work with materials held thousands of miles from the communities they document.
This is a fundamental structural problem. When African knowledge remains inaccessible to Africans, we lose control of our own narratives, and when our heritage isn’t part of global knowledge platforms, we’re systematically erased from how the world learns, researches, and remembers.
At Free Knowledge Africa, we’ve spent years working on pieces of this puzzle. We’ve digitised newspapers, trained Wikimedia contributors, built partnerships with libraries and archives, and more recently, launched PublicDomain.ng to make Nigerian materials freely accessible.
But individual projects, no matter how successful, can’t solve a continental challenge.
That’s why we’re launching something bigger.
Introducing the Access to African Knowledge Hub (AAKH)
The Access to African Knowledge Hub is a structured institutional network that connects African knowledge institutions: libraries, archives, museums, universities, and cultural centres, with the tools, training, and partnerships they need to digitise, open, and share their collections responsibly.
Think of AAKH as the missing infrastructure and a bridge between African institutions and global open knowledge ecosystems. The support system that helps a small university library in Accra do what major institutions in London or New York can do: make their collections discoverable, accessible, and usable by anyone, anywhere.
Instead of asking institutions to work harder, we are giving them the framework to work together.
How AAKH Works
AAKH operates on a simple principle that what one institution struggles with alone becomes manageable when shared across a network.
For Institutions, We Provide:
Digitisation Support – Help identifying public domain materials, structuring metadata, and uploading collections to open source platforms with proper licensing. You don’t need expensive equipment or deep technical expertise. We’ll show you what’s possible with what you have.
Capacity Building – Training in copyright and public domain, open licensing workshops, Wikimedia editing programs, and digital strategy guidance tailored specifically to African institutional contexts. We understand the challenges you face because we’ve faced them too.
Visibility & Representation – Your collections reach global audiences through coordinated campaigns and structured integration into Wikipedia and Wikidata. We help you go from hidden archive to cited source.
Collaboration & Funding – Support for consortium grant applications, cross-institutional programming, and shared research initiatives. Small institutions become competitive when they work together.
Policy & Advocacy – Guidance on open knowledge policy aligned with cultural and heritage frameworks at national and regional levels. We help you navigate the “should we?” questions and the “how do we?” implementation.
Who Can Join
AAKH welcomes anyone committed to expanding equitable access to African knowledge:
Institutions: Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums, Universities, Cultural Centres, Research Institutes, Heritage Organisations
Individuals: Researchers, Archivists, Librarians, Academics, Digital Practitioners, Heritage Professionals
We have three membership categories designed to meet institutions and individuals where they are:
Institutional Members get full access to strategic consultation, training programs, project participation, collaborative funding opportunities, and an institutional profile within the AAKH network.
Affiliate Members (smaller organisations and grassroots groups) access workshops, network participation, and collaboration opportunities, providing a meaningful entry point for organisations still building capacity.
Individual Members (researchers, archivists, librarians, academics) receive training access, participation in thematic initiatives, and connection with a continental network of open knowledge professionals.
What Makes AAKH Different
This isn’t another project that does things to African institutions or for African institutions. This is infrastructure by and with African institutions.
We understand context. We know what it’s like to work with intermittent internet. We’ve navigated unclear copyright environments, pitched open access to sceptical leaderships and built digitisation workflows with minimal budgets. We’re not bringing solutions designed for Harvard and hoping they work in Lagos. We are building from African realities.
We prioritise sustainability. AAKH isn’t a one-time grant project that disappears when funding ends. We’re building institutional networks, training trainers, embedding practices into workflows, and creating the kind of interdependence that sustains itself.
We’re part of global movements. AAKH connects African institutions directly to Wikimedia platforms, Creative Commons frameworks, and international open heritage networks. This way, you will not be isolated but become a part of the world’s largest free knowledge ecosystem.
We think continentally. A library in Lagos can learn from an archive in Nairobi. A museum in Dakar can partner with a university in Cape Town. We’re building the connections that make collective action possible.
Our Vision is to have a Repaired Knowledge Ecosystem in Africa
Right now, the African knowledge ecosystem is broken because the infrastructure doesn’t exist to connect the pieces
- Collections exist, but aren’t digitised
- Institutions want to share but lack training
- Materials are public domain, but copyright confusion prevents action
- Communities want access, but don’t know collections exist
- Passionate individuals work in isolation without support networks
AAKH works to repair this ecosystem by building the missing connections. When institutions join the network, they get more than just services, but become part of an infrastructure. They learn from each other, share resources, and advocate together. And what might have seemed impossible alone now feels manageable together.
Our long-term goal is ambitious, but we believe it is achievable, and that we will become the leading institutional gateway enabling African knowledge institutions to participate fully in global open knowledge infrastructure, ensuring the African record is never again absent from the platforms where the world learns.
What This Means in Practice
What does AAKH membership actually look like?
For a university library, you join as an institutional member. We help you identify public domain materials in your special collections, maybe newspapers from the 1970s, photographs of campus life, or government documents. We train your staff in digitisation best practices using equipment you already have. You are guided through uploading to Open platforms or your Institution’s repository with proper metadata. AKHH connects you with Wikipedia editors who can use these materials in articles. Six months later, materials that sat unseen in your basement are being cited in research papers worldwide, and your institution gets credit.
For a community archive, you join as an affiliate member. Your organisation is small, your resources are limited, but your collection is valuable, containing oral histories, local photographs, and community newspapers. We provide workshops on copyright, help you apply for small grants through AAKH’s consortium model, and connect you with larger institutions for mentorship.
For a librarian passionate about open access, you join as an individual member. You get access to training programs that build your skills in digital curation and Wikimedia platforms and are connected with peers across the continent facing similar challenges. You participate in coordinated upload campaigns. When you advocate for open access at your institution, you are not speaking alone but backed by a continental network.
As a researcher, you join as an individual member to access African primary sources for your work. Through AAKH, you discover collections you didn’t know existed, connect with archivists who can help you access materials, and contribute your expertise to improving metadata and discoverability. You help make the materials you need accessible to others facing the same challenges.
How to Get Involved
If you represent an institution (library, archive, museum, university, cultural centre):
We want to hear from you. Whether you’re just starting to think about digitisation or you’ve been doing this work for years, there’s a place for you in AAKH. Becoming a founding member means you’ll help shape how this network develops.
If you’re an individual (librarian, archivist, researcher, digital practitioner):
Your expertise and passion are exactly what AAKH needs. Join us to connect with peers, access training, and help build a continental open knowledge infrastructure.
Become an Individual or Institutional Member
If you’re not sure yet, that’s completely fine. Sign up to receive updates, ask us questions, or just follow along as we build. We’re happy to have conversations about what AAKH could mean for your specific context.
