Although Ethiopian languages have tens of millions of speakers, they barely exist on one of the most visited websites.
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The Amharic Wikipedia was started on 27th January 2004. Currently, it has more than 15,000 articles. That number might sound impressive by itself, but put it into contrast, and it becomes a disappointment.
For example, take the Polish Wikipedia. The Polish language has more than 40 million speakers, and the Polish Wikipedia has more than 1.6 million articles. The Italian Wikipedia has more than 1.9 million articles, serving between 60 and 80 million speakers of the language.
The Amharic language has more than 50 million speakers (including people who speak it as a second language), and is represented by only 15,000 articles. The Afan Oromo Wikipedia has a meager 1,600 articles, although the language has over 40 million speakers. The Tigrigna Wikipedia stands at 335 articles. It’s clear to see that the Ethiopian languages mentioned are extremely underrepresented on the website.
As a website that is visited by tens of millions of people daily, underrepresentation in Wikipedia means underrepresentation in the global knowledge base.
It goes without saying, but this isn’t Wikipedia’s doing. The site is an open platform where anyone can write and publish articles on various topics (provided that they meet the editorial standard, which isn’t too high). As a result, Wikipedia has become the go-to source of knowledge on various topics for students, casual readers, and even researchers at times. So, when a language is underrepresented, it’s usually because there is a shortage of contributors on the platform. The next logical question to ask then is why there is a shortage of contributors.
Anyone can easily infer the obvious reasons: lack of internet access, digital literacy, political and cultural sensitivity, and limited awareness and lack of community. These challenges combine to create a significant barrier to content creation. Limited internet access and digital literacy mean that many potential contributors cannot easily navigate Wikipedia or edit pages. Political and cultural sensitivities discourage users from adding information on certain topics, for fear of controversy or repercussions. Additionally, the lack of awareness about the platform, combined with a small and dispersed community of active editors, results in slow growth and minimal oversight, leaving many articles incomplete, outdated, or riddled with errors.
Another issue, which we’ve raised in a previous article, is the lack of digitization of sources. Wikipedia, being a website, requires its editors to verify their claims via digital sources. However, much Ethiopian knowledge exists in books, archives, or oral tradition, not digitized or publicly accessible. Because of poor documentation, even articles about Ethiopia in the English Wikipedia suffer from a lack of detail and rigor.
Promoting Ethiopia, its history, and its culture means increasing the country’s presence in global knowledge bases. Doing so not only helps preserve local languages and prevent them from becoming obsolete, but also ensures that these languages remain integral to academic study and the telling of Ethiopia’s story. Platforms like Wikipedia play a crucial role in expanding public knowledge, providing accessible information to millions worldwide. If we want an educated populace that understands and appreciates its country, public knowledge bases are one of the most effective tools to achieve this. And if content is lacking on Wikipedia, we must develop local alternatives. In the digital age, knowledge should never be restricted.
