OSS Cameroon OSS CameroonHacktoberfest 2026
🎉 3 – 31 OCTOBER 2026

Hacktoberfest Cameroon 2026

Hacktoberfest Cameroon is a month of contributing, building and meeting up around open source — organised by OSSCameroon, with Atori Space and partner hubs.

4 weeks. 4 sprints. Multiple hubs. One open-source community.Learn on Saturday. Build all week. Show what you made.

Register See the full programme Browse the Contribute Track
5Saturdays — 3 to 31 October
3Tracks — Contribute, Build, Open AI
~30Candidate projects, Contribute Track
3Awards at the finale, 31 October
Organised by OSSCameroon Atori Space Partner hubs
The month at a glance

Five Saturdays, one build-up

Saturdays set the pace, Telegram connects the community, hubs provide places to meet, and the work continues all week.

1
3 October

🌱 START

Learn how to contribute.

2
10 October

🛠 CONTRIBUTE

Work on something useful.

3
17 October

🤖 EXPLORE

Explore AI × Open Source.

4
24 October

🔥 SHIP

Finish what you started.

5
31 October

🎉 SHOW

Show Cameroon what we built.

Concept

~20% programmed content, 80% hacking

Saturdays are for learning, kicking off sprints, finding a team, getting help and showing progress. The work then continues all week — from home, Atori Space or the other hubs.

🌍

Telegram OSSCameroon

Live sessions, workshops, panels, announcements and national coordination. Join the group →

📍

Atori Space & hubs

Hacking, mentoring, meals, meetups and local Show & Tell.

🏠

Remote

Contribute and build from home, with support from the community.

🎉

Finale — 31 October

Bringing together projects, contributors, communities and partners.

Participant tracks

Choose a track — switch anytime

Every participant picks a track and can switch during the month.

Track 01

🛠 Contribute Track

Contribute to existing open-source projects: code, documentation, translation, design, tests, bug reports or community improvements.

Track 02

🚀 Build Track

Build a new open-source project as a team that meets a real need, then publish a first usable version.

Optional

🤖 Open AI Challenge

Build a useful open-source project with open-source AI technology or an open-weight model. AI is never required to take part in the month.

Final programme

3 to 31 October 2026

Each week opens with a Saturday in the hubs and on Telegram, then continues as a sprint until the following Saturday.

WEEK 1 — START

Discover & Contribute

3–9 October +

Saturday 3 October — Kickoff & First Contribution

TimeActivityFormat
10:00–10:20Opening: programme, hubs, tracks, challenges and partners🌍 Telegram Live + 📍 Hubs
10:20–11:20Workshop: Your First Open Source Contribution🌍 Telegram Live + 📍 Hubs
11:20–12:30Project discovery, track selection and team forming📍 Hubs + 🏠 Online
12:30–13:30Lunch and networking📍 Hubs
13:30–13:50Sponsor Engineering Spotlight: Show us what you build🌍 Telegram Live + 📍 Hubs
13:50–17:00Open Hacking: contributions, mentoring and pair programming📍 Hubs + 🏠 Online
17:00–18:00Local Show & Tell📍 Each hub

Sprint 1 — First Contribution · 4–9 October

Goal: make a first meaningful contribution in public.

  • Contribute Track — find an issue, talk with the maintainers and open a first contribution.
  • Build Track — form the team, create the repository, write the README and define the first issues.

A contribution can be code, documentation, a translation, a test, a design or a useful bug report.

WEEK 2 — CONTRIBUTE

Build for Your Community

10–16 October +

Saturday 10 October — Contribution Day

TimeActivityFormat
10:00–10:45Workshop: From Issue to Pull Request🌍 Telegram Live + 📍 Hubs
10:45–11:15Open Source Project Pitches: about 5 projects × 5 minutes🌍 Telegram Live + 📍 Hubs
11:15–13:00Open Hacking📍 Hubs + 🏠 Online
13:00–14:00Lunch and networking📍 Hubs
14:00–14:20Sponsor Engineering Spotlight🌍 Telegram Live + 📍 Hubs
14:20–17:00Open Hacking and mentoring📍 Hubs + 🏠 Online
17:00–18:00Local Show & Tell: What did you ship this week?📍 Each hub

Sprint 2 — Build for Your Community · 11–16 October

Build an open-source tool that solves a problem around you. Optional challenge.

Possible themes: education, culture, transport, environment, developer tools, African languages, accessibility, open data and public services.

  • Build Track — pick a problem, agree on a realistic scope and build a first prototype.
  • Contribute Track — keep contributing to existing projects and respond to the first reviews.
WEEK 3 — EXPLORE

AI × Open Source

17–23 October +

Saturday 17 October — Open Source AI Day

TimeActivityFormat
10:00–10:45Panel: AI × Open Source — What Changes Now?🌍 Telegram Live + 📍 Hubs
10:45–11:45Hands-on workshop: Building with Open Source AI🌍 Telegram Live + 📍 Hubs
11:45–13:00Open Hacking📍 Hubs + 🏠 Online
13:00–14:00Lunch and networking📍 Hubs
14:00–14:20Sponsor Engineering Spotlight: How We Use Open Source AI🌍 Telegram Live + 📍 Hubs
14:20–17:00Open Hacking — AI projects or any other OSS project📍 Hubs + 🏠 Online
17:00–18:00Local Show & Tell📍 Each hub

Panel topics include: open source vs. open weights, AI-generated code, PR spam, accountability, licensing, training data, attribution and the impact on maintainers.

Sprint 3 — Open AI · 18–23 October

Build something useful with open-source or open-weight AI — and make your project open source. Optional challenge.

Possible themes: African languages, education, agriculture, culture, accessibility, developer tools, public services and open data.

Contribute Track participants carry on contributing to any open-source project as usual.

WEEK 4 — SHIP

Finish What You Started

24–30 October +

Saturday 24 October — Open Source Build Day

TimeActivityFormat
10:00–10:30Quick workshop: Make Your Project Contributor-Ready🌍 Telegram Live + 📍 Hubs
10:30–10:50Sponsor Engineering Spotlight🌍 Telegram Live + 📍 Hubs
10:50–13:00Open Hacking📍 Hubs + 🏠 Online
13:00–14:00Lunch and networking📍 Hubs
14:00–17:00Open Hacking and demo prep📍 Hubs + 🏠 Online
17:00–18:00Local Show & Tell and finale selection📍 Each hub

Sprint 4 — Ship Week · 25–30 October

No new challenge this week. It's for finishing and shipping.

Build Track

  • finish the product;
  • add a README, a licence and CONTRIBUTING.md;
  • improve documentation, tests and CI;
  • ideally, release a v0.1;
  • prepare a 5-minute demo.

Contribute Track

  • finish your pull requests;
  • respond to reviews;
  • fix, test and document;
  • prepare a short write-up of what you learned, even if the contribution isn't merged yet.
31 OCTOBER — SHOW

Cameroon Open Source Festival

Saturday 31 October · Grand finale +

The finale is first and foremost a builders' festival: participants show what they built, contributed and learned during the month. It takes place at a partner venue.

Demo format

  • 5-minute demo;
  • 2 minutes of questions;
  • focus on what was actually built, contributed or learned during the month.

Awards

First-Time Contributor Outstanding Open Source Contribution Open Source Project Award
Contribute Track · working list, 24 September 2026

African open-source projects to contribute to

A curated shortlist so contributions are useful, not random — instead of searching GitHub cold, pick a project below and start from a maintained issue.

🚧 Draft, pending maintainer confirmation. These are prospects OSSCameroon is reaching out to — not yet the official Featured Projects catalogue. A project only becomes Featured once a maintainer confirms they'll review PRs and issues are prepared.

Top 10 — first to contact

🇨🇲Jobsika
GoFrontendDockerBeginner → Intermediate

Cameroon-focused project, clear local relevance, contributor setup documented and many open issues.

🇨🇲OSSCameroon Website
TypeScriptAPIScrapingBeginner → Advanced

OSSCameroon can directly mentor contributors and create well-scoped issues before the event.

🇨🇲Place
WebEventsDocsBeginner → Intermediate

Cameroon event-discovery application with a concrete user-facing scope.

🇨🇲js-generator
JavaJavaScriptTestingIntermediate → Advanced

Strong technical project for contributors who want deeper engineering work.

🇨🇲Lewa
PythonAfrican scriptsBeginner → Intermediate

Combines software contribution with African language and cultural impact.

🌍Local Service Atlas
Civic techGeospatialBackendBeginner → Advanced

Designed around civic infrastructure and has a broad contribution surface.

🌍CHAOSS Africa
CommunityDocsMetricsBeginner → Intermediate

Already has experience onboarding contributors around Hacktoberfest.

🇰🇪platform-client-mzima
TypeScriptMapsi18nIntermediate

Mature African open-source product with active releases and a substantial issue backlog.

🇰🇪Africa's Talking — Java SDK
JavaSDKTestsIntermediate

Contribution to a real production SDK used by developers building communications products.

🌍Africa Mining Watch
PythonDataMapsIntermediate

Strong Africa-specific open-data use case with room for data and engineering contributions.

First contact target: secure 5–8 confirmed Featured Projects — a mix of 3–4 Cameroon projects, 2–3 from other African communities, at least one beginner-friendly, one data/documentation project, and one advanced engineering project.

Full pool — 30 candidates across 8 communities

Beyond the top 10, these organisations are also in scope for outreach.

OSSCameroon8 repositories · 🇨🇲 Open Source Community Africa3 repositories · 🌍 OpenGov Africa2 repositories · 🌍 Code for Africa6 repositories · 🌍 Africa's Talking4 SDK repositories · 🇰🇪 Ushahidi2 repositories · 🇰🇪 CHAOSS Africa3 repositories · 🌍 Masakhane2 repositories · 🌍 NLP

See all 30 repositories, with links

Every candidate, grouped by organisation +

OSSCameroon — Cameroon

RepositoryContribution areasStatus
osscameroon/jobsikaGo, frontend, Docker, docs, testingPriority
osscameroon/websiteTypeScript, API, frontend, scraping, docsPriority
osscameroon/js-generatorJava, JavaScript generation, tests, docsPriority
osscameroon/placeWeb, events, UX, docs, testingPriority
osscameroon/lewaWeb/Python, African writing systems, contentPriority
osscameroon/caparledev-botTypeScript, automation/botValidate activity
osscameroon/camerappsTypeScript, Cameroon apps directoryValidate activity
osscameroon/blogWeb, content, documentationValidate scope

Open Source Community Africa

RepositoryContribution areasStatus
oscafrica/osf-websiteWeb, UI, event websiteAsk OSCA for issues
oscafrica/oscafrica.org-v2TypeScript, community websiteAsk OSCA to prepare issues
oscafrica/chapters-directoryTypeScript, chapter/community dataValidate scope

OpenGov Africa

RepositoryContribution areasStatus
OpenGovAfrica/oga-local-service-atlasCivic tech, geospatial data, backend, frontendPriority
OpenGovAfrica/oga-contributor-dashboardNext.js, TypeScript, Prisma, PostgreSQLStrong candidate

Code for Africa

RepositoryContribution areasStatus
CodeForAfrica/africa-mining-watchPython, data, maps, analysisPriority
CodeForAfrica/apiPython, APIs, dataValidate issue suitability
CodeForAfrica/probeviewTypeScript, Grafana, monitoringDevOps/SRE candidate
CodeForAfrica/pesacheck-uiNext.js, TypeScript, UIFrontend candidate
CodeForAfrica/PromiseTrackerTypeScript, civic techValidate bandwidth
CodeForAfrica/sensors.AFRICA-ESP32-Quectel-FirmwareC, ESP32, firmware, IoTAdvanced / hardware

Africa's Talking

RepositoryContribution areasStatus
AfricasTalkingLtd/africastalking-javaJava SDK, APIs, tests, docsPriority
AfricasTalkingLtd/africastalking-pythonPython SDK, APIs, tests, docsStrong candidate
AfricasTalkingLtd/africastalking-node.jsNode.js SDK, APIs, tests, docsStrong candidate
AfricasTalkingLtd/africastalking-rubyRuby SDK, APIs, tests, docsLanguage diversity

Ushahidi

RepositoryContribution areasStatus
ushahidi/platformBackend REST API, PHP, DockerIntermediate → Advanced
ushahidi/platform-client-mzimaTypeScript, frontend, maps, i18nPriority

CHAOSS Africa / African Open Source

RepositoryContribution areasStatus
chaoss/chaoss-africaCommunity, docs, metrics, contributor experiencePriority
chaoss/AFOS-AfricanOpenSourceReact/TypeScript, Tailwind, discoveryValidate bandwidth
chaoss/AFOS-APINode.js, Express, MySQL, testsBackend candidate

Masakhane — African Languages / NLP

RepositoryContribution areasStatus
masakhane-io/afriscience_mtPython, machine translation, African languagesResearch/ML
masakhane-io/masakhane-nerNLP, datasets, African languagesResearch/data

Find a project by skill

First contributionOSSCameroon website, Place, Lewa, CHAOSS Africa, OSCA chapters directory
Frontend / TSOSSCameroon website, Place, OSCA, Ushahidi client, PesaCheck UI
BackendJobsika, OpenGov Africa, Code for Africa API, AFOS API, Ushahidi platform
GoJobsika
Javajs-generator, Africa's Talking Java SDK
PythonAfrica's Talking Python SDK, Code for Africa, Masakhane
Node.jsAfrica's Talking Node SDK, AFOS API
Data / civic techOpenGov Africa, Africa Mining Watch, PromiseTracker
DevOps / SRECode for Africa Probeview, Jobsika Docker setup
Embedded / IoTsensors.AFRICA ESP32 firmware
AI / NLPAfriScience-MT, MasakhaNER
Docs / non-codeCHAOSS Africa, Lewa, SDK docs, community websites
Languages / i18nLewa, Masakhane, Ushahidi localisation

Quality over quantity

Hacktoberfest Cameroon explicitly discourages mass-generated PRs, cosmetic edits made only to raise a contribution count, unsolicited large refactors, AI-generated changes the contributor can't explain, duplicate issues, and pressuring maintainers to merge.

Useful contributions, respectful collaboration, and long-term participation in open source.

During the week

Hack from Home, Hack from Atori

Saturday sets the pace — the work continues all week, wherever you are.

🏠

Hack from Home

Participants can work from home and use the OSSCameroon Telegram group to:

  • find a project or a team;
  • ask for help;
  • share their progress;
  • set up pair programming;
  • prepare their weekly demo.
#Projects#Looking-for-Team#Help#Show-Your-Work#Announcements
📍

Hack from Atori

Throughout October, Atori Space becomes a Hacktoberfest House, with a permanent open-source table, a Contribution Board and a QR code to the OSSCameroon Telegram group.

Open Hack Evenings

Tuesday · 18:00–21:00 Thursday · 18:00–21:00

No talks or workshops: bring your laptop, work, ask for help and meet other contributors. Other hubs can run their own sessions.

Show & Tell — local to each hub

Each presentation lasts about 3 minutes and answers one question:

What did you ship or learn this week?

A rejected PR, a blocker or an important lesson is worth presenting too. Each hub then picks one or two standout contributions, which may be invited to the finale.

Get involved

Join the Telegram community, bring your project into the Contribute Track, or open your hub's doors for an Open Hack Evening.

Join Telegram