The drive to share and document knowledge in the vernacular across the African continent has gathered momentum over the past couple of years, thanks to the growing WikiAfrica movement and AfroCuration events. After several iterations across Southern Africa, AfroCuration, which consists of a Wikipedia edit-a-thon and linguistic workshop, made its way to West Africa during the last weekend of May, adding Ghanaian indigenous languages into the mix.
Established in 2019 by the Moleskine Foundation and through the WikiAfrica Education program, AfroCuration seeks to encourage Africans to document their stories in their own local languages by adding entries into Wikipedia. “It started with this very genuine cultural and intellectual interest, and then it transformed over the years,” CEO of the Moleskine Foundation Adama Sanneh told OkayAfrica. “By bringing together the world of creativity and culture to the world of knowledge production, we created a program that is about inspiring young people from Africa to transition from passive knowledge consumers into active knowledge producers.”
Since its inception, AfroCuration has held events in Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, in partnership with various culturally influential organizations. For its first event in Ghana, AfroCuration partnered with nonprofit independent internet radio station, Oroko Radio, and the Twi User Language Group, to produce content on African authors. “Oroko Radio is about empowering through conversation, collaboration, and community,” says co-founder Kikelomo Oludemi. “One of our key objectives is reclaiming and recentering narratives from the African diaspora artist communities.”
