African Language Digital Activism

@WikimediaNG This indeed will help in preserving Nigeria's heritage and showcase them to the international community.

WIKIMEDIA NIGERIA ONBOARDS 12 FELLOWS FOR THE INAUGURAL EDITION OF WIKIHERITAGE FELLOWSHIP IN LAGOS STATE Lagos, Nigeria – July 18, 2025 The WikiHeritage Initiative, a 12-week hybrid sessions, is designed to empower Nigerian youth and transform public archival materials into freely accessible digital content. The inaugural edition is organised by Wikimedia UG Nigeria (registered as Wikimedia Nigeria Foundation) in collaboration with a strategic partnership with Fellowship and an archival Institutions in Nigeria. The initiative, which aims to be replicated nationwide through collaboration with mission-aligned archival institutions, begins in Lagos State with the onboarding of 12 successful fellows (across diverse disciplines), selected from over 500 applicants, on July 21, 2025. The inaugural edition is a collaboration between Wikimedia User Group Nigeria, the Young Innovation Leaders (YIL) Institution, and the Lagos State Records and Archives Bureau (LASRAB). The WikiHeritage Fellowship is designed to equip young Nigerians with hands-on experience in digitisation, archival documentation, and open knowledge sharing. The pilot phase focuses on historical records housed at LASRAB, with plans to expand the project to other state and national archives across Nigeria. The Fellowship will address the longstanding challenge of making pre-Internet public materials, including handwritten letters, typewritten reports, historical maps, photographs, and government records, accessible online. These documents, often preserved in paper or microfilm formats and housed in archives or libraries, remain largely invisible to the digital public, affecting both national representation and research quality. The project will not only aim to digitise but also democratise access to Nigeria's story, which still sits on dusty shelves and is undocumented online, and make it available for research and educational purposes, thereby improving visibility and demystifying some of the incorrect narratives about the country. Fellowship Highlights * Comprehensive Training in leadership values, mentoring skills, archival ethics, digitisation standards, and content curation * Cross-functional Teams comprising content curators, digital archivists, and Wikipedia contributors Partnerships with LASRAB and YIL for institutional support and leadership development * Open Licensing (CC BY-SA 4.0) to ensure public reuse and academic access * Cross-platform Publishing on Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata, and Wikisource Timeline of Activities The WikiHeritage Fellowship is divided into three phases, each designed to build technical expertise, foster collaboration, and promote long-term engagement. * Pre-Fellowship Phase: June 16 – July 18, 2025. * Public call for applications. July 1 – July 11 * Screening and selection of candidates. July 12 – July 15 * Confirmation of selected fellows. July 15-18t * Official onboarding of the 12 fellows in Lagos on July 21 * Fellowship Implementation: July 21 – October 13, 2025 Fellows will participate in a structured training and be categorised along specific skill sets for the project execution cycle: * Phase 1: Leadership & Innovation Training: July 22 – August 6 * Phase 2: Archival & Digitisation Workshops: August 7 – August 21 * Phase 3 Wikimedia Contribution Training: August 22 – September 6 * Reporting: Documentation: September 10 – September 24 We will execute the project through collaborative, multidisciplinary teams guided by Wikimedia mentors and institutional partners. Showcase & Fellowship Close-Out: September 26 – October 13, 2025 * Fellows will present their digitised works and Wikipedia contributions to a panel of professionals from diverse backgrounds. * Public engagement events and exhibitions will be held. * Graduating participants will be inducted into the WikiHeritage Alumni Network, serving as national ambassadors for cultural preservation. About Wikimedia Nigeria Wikimedia User Group Nigeria (registered as Wikimedia Nigeria Foundation) is a local affiliate of the global Wikimedia movement (owner of Wikipedia). It is committed to promoting free and open knowledge in Nigeria through Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikisource. Follow Wikimedia Nigeria on: X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook: @WikimediaNG Instagram: @officialwikimediang Tiktok: @wikimediang Facebook: Wikimedia User Group Nigeria LinkedIn: Wikimedia User Group Nigeria 🌐 Meta Page: meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiHerit… For Media Enquiries and collaboration, Please Contact: Olaniyan Olushola President, Wikimedia UG Nigeria 📧shola@wikimediang.org 📞 +234 816 735 2512

It was our pleasure to team up with @dagbanliwiki to support local language speakers curious about using digital platforms to promote the Dagbani language in digital spaces. Find out more on @Wikimedia diff blog: diff.wikimedia.org/2025/06/05/dag…

@DutchieVs @broseph_stalin What's the name of this AI then

For those confused why the US state and Silicon Valley are having a meltdown on twitter today. China released multiple AI models that are 50x more efficient than the best American AI models and made them open source, ruining the AI market

🔴 EN HIGA 2025 is just around the corner! Have you applied yet, or do you know someone who might want to join this amazing event? ✨ Please watch and share this our HIGA2025 presentation video and help us reach more people passionate about minoritised languages revitalization

The next Digital Humanities Colloquium will feature guest speaker, Francois Meyer, who will tackle the challenges of subword segmentation in Natural Language Processing (NLP) for the Nguni languages.

Register here: bit.ly/48BVMqn

@AndishiAfrica @RFJ_Swahili @SwahiliGarage @BantuLanguages @ncle_ioe @PanSALB @AfriLanguages @EALCS_Journal @nalrc Amharic

🌍 This World Literacy Day, fellow Africans, would you invest in learning additional African languages? Which African languages would you want to learn? #WorldLiteracyDay #LearnAfricanLanguages #CulturalDiversity #AfricanUnity #LiteracyForAll #AfricansRising

Calling South African languages digital activists! Together with partners @PukuBooks @SiyaMasuku & Bokone Bophirima Lit Focus Festival, we invite you to present or attend this online mtg celebrating South African linguistic diversity online bit.ly/languageactivi…

Ghanaian Languages Wikimedia Meetup happening now at Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Guest House Conference Hall in Northern Ghana,Tamale @Wikimedia @risingvoices @Ghpidginwiki @wikitongues @DagaareWiki @GureneWikimedia @artandfeminism @FanteCommunity @Moore_Wikimedia

The excitement continues in Tamale! 🎉 Check out our engaging sessions as we strengthen #ghanaianlanguages online. Let’s keep the momentum going and work together to preserve our linguistic heritage. @dagbanliwiki @FanteCommunity @wikitongues @openknowledgegh @risingvoices

We are excited to be partnering with Ghanaian Languages Wikimedia Community for their upcoming Community Meetup 2024. We are working with them to offer a one-day workshop about language digital activism meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ghanaian_… #GLWC2024

"The sword devours now one and now another” means that in a war it's impossible to know who will be killed and who will survive. Nigerian Fulfulde has “the sword has no in-law,” molding it after a common Fulfulde saying ”death has no in-law.” tips.translation.bible/tip_verse/2sam…

10 most populous Languages in Guinea which Languages Africa languagesafrica.com has professional resources in Translation & AI Data collection. 1.Fulfulde 2.Malinke 3.Susu 4.Kissi 5.Kpelle 6.Toma 7.Guerze 8.Maninka, Eastern 9.Maninka, Western 10.Loma

Rising Voices is pleased to be partnering with the Ghanaian Languages Wikimedia Community to offer a one-day in-person Indigenous language digital activism workshop in Tamale, Ghana on July 19th as part of the Ghanaian Wikimedia Languages Meet-Up. rising.globalvoices.org/language-digit…

NOW OPEN! FIFAfrica24 Call for Session Proposals and Travel Support Applications @cipesaug cipesa.org/2024/05/fifafr…

SILICON Practitioners Program Application 2024 - Awards of up to $7,000 will be granted for advancing one or more Digitally Disadvantaged Language, living or historic, with projects to be completed virtually. Deadline June 21, 2024 docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…

🚀 Exciting News Alert! Happening today... You can join us this afternoon from 3pm for our discussion on Generative AI in Africa. Register via bit.ly/gdss-ai-webinar #AI #DLI2024 #IndabaXGhana24 #GDSS24 #GhanaNLP #NLP #3isummit

Plan early and sign up for this important session before all the spots are taken @GhanaNLP - signup link in poster. See you at the @ghdatascience Indabax summit in a couple weeks

[Job Opportunity] @GlobalVoices seeks a Lingua Director, to oversee multilingual projects and initiatives. Deadline to apply April 26, 2024 globalvoices.org/2024/04/08/glo…

After the government's recent decision to reopen schools, we have resumed our Eduwiki training at Eloi secondary school. Our focus is on introducing students to open knowledge platforms such as Wikimedia and kiwix.