Audiovisuals of Yoruba Indigenous Vocations

Audiovisuals of Yoruba Indigenous Vocations is a project designed and implemented by the Yoruba Wikimedians User Group to document, and preserve Yoruba indigenous vocations that are going into extinction with the advent of technology. The project is support by the Wikimedia Foundation. The primary aims of the project is to create the material for use on Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia and for other educational purposes outside of Wikimedia projects.

Yoruba indigenous vocations are often associated with family. In Yorubaland, each of the extended families are known for a particular vocation(s). These vocations are inherited and passed from generation to generation. Members of the same family rarely learn a different vocation. Some of these vocations are gender-specific. Examples of such vocations are "Agbede" (goldsmithing) and "Ode" (hunting) are unique to male and Idiri (hair-making), and Ikoko-mimo (pottery) are commons for women. The Yoruba people sometimes give their children names that reflect their vocations. Name such as Ayangalu for drummers, and Ogunwale for hunters are typical examples.

With the advent of technology, these chains of vocations have been distorted and children no longer practice their family vocations. Nowadays, when the father died, no child is interested in continuing the vocations, and this makes them endangered and put these vocations at high risk of going into extinction.

To document, and preserve the knowledge of Yoruba indigenous vocations, the Yoruba Wikimedians User Group with support from the Wikimedia Foundation is recording audiovisual of the Yoruba indigenous vocations for use on Wikipedia articles, and for other educational purposes . The documented materials are hosted on Wikimedia Commons, and uploaded to YouTube under a Creative Commons License.

About the Yoruba people[edit]

The Yoruba people are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabits parts of Nigeria, Benin and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yorubas are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yorubas constitute more than 47 million people in Africa, are a few hundred thousand outside the continent, and bear further representation among members of the African diaspora. The vast majority of the Yoruba population is today within the country of Nigeria, where they make up 15.5% of the country's population according to CIA estimations, making them one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa. Most Yoruba people speak the Yoruba language, which is the Niger-Congo language with the largest number of native or L1 speakers.

Project goals[edit]

The primary goals of this project includes but not limited to the following;

To document, and preserve the knowledge of Yoruba indigenous vocations
Provide audiovisuals of Yoruba Indigenous vocations under free license for use on Wikipedia
Create audiovisuals of Yoruba Indigenous vocations under free license for educational purpose
Promote indigenous knowledge
Promote diversity, inclusion, and equity in knowledge sharing
Bridge contents gaps on Wikimedia projects.

Project core team[edit]

Isaac Olatunde - Project manager: Isaac Olatunde is a native speaker of Yoruba language, Yoruba Wikipedia sysop, expert in copyrights, open knowledge advocate, and project manager with experience in volunteers management and retention. He was a former member of the Individual Engagement Grant Committee and Project Grant Committee, Wikimedia Foundation. Isaac is the founder of the #WPWPCampaign, and member of the WMF's Leadership Development Working Group. In 2020, he was nominated as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
Tunde Oladimeji – Producer/Director: Oladimeji is a versatile and notable Nigerian documentary filmmaker, actor, director and television presenter, known for pioneering documentary film in indigenous language in Nigeria. Oladimeji is the producer of Yoruba Heritage Documentary series. One of the documentary series, Ibadan was nominated in the best documentary category at the 2020 Africa Magic Viewers' Choice Awards. He would be responsible for managing the audiovisuals production from pre-production stage to post-production stage.

Mikaeel Sodiq - Production Manager: I hold a Bachelor's degree in Adult education with specialization in Yoruba language. I am an online Yoruba content creator for facilitating learning of Yoruba by ceeating cartoon illustration for toddlers, youth and adult on the internet using digital Imagining and Reclaiming methods see: Abínibí Digital Concept on YouTube . I am the President of the Yoruba Wikimedians User Group. I am a production manager for at least two awareness campaign videos, Afrocuration Campaign video produced in collaboration with the Moleskine Foundation and a Short Wikipedia Documentary for Wikipedia 20. I am going to be in charge of all the logistics planning, including hotels booking, car hiring, locations management, production crew management, and the time-management at every location.
Dansu Peter - Documentation officer: Dansu Peter is a Yoruba language expert and active member of the Yoruba Wikipedia with over 200 articles created on Yoruba Wikipedia. He holds a Bachelor of Art degree (BA) in Yoruba and he will be working on this project as a production assistant.
Olaniyan Olushola – Advisor: Olushola is a financial management expert and former asset management consultant to the First Bank of Nigeria. Shola is the Chair, Wikimedia Nigeria Foundation Inc., and a member of the WMF's Affiliations Committee. He has lead and managed over 50 Wikimedia programs/projects that focus on advocacy, community organising, capacity building, partnership-building and volunteers management. He is the producer of several Wikimedia advocacy radio show. He is the project manager of the Nigerian Language Oral History Documentation Project

Production crew[edit]

Tunde Oladimeji - Producer & Director
Mikaeel Sodiq - Executive producer
Dansu Peter - Executive producer
Isaac Olatunde - Supervising producer
Bayo Ajibola - Cinematographer
Olabode Lawal - Editor
Bayo Ajibola - Sound recordist
Adijat Moboluwaduro - Chants
Olabode Lawal - Montage
Toba Jegede - Backing tracks
Fadare Faniyi Tayo - Location Manager
Olaniyan Olushola - Advisor

Funding[edit]

The project was funded from the Yoruba Wikimedians User Group 2022 - 2023 Annual Activities Plan fund by the Wikimedia Foundation

Work plan and timeline[edit]

Work plan & timeline
Month(s)	Location(s)	Activities	Resulting deliverables	Remarks
1st July 2022 - 10th July 2022	Lagos	Production meetings, elucidation protocol design, shoot days scheduling	Every arrangement will have been finalized	Done
12th – 20th August 2022	Lagos	Video production (shooting) & post-production (editing, color correction, sound mixing, subtitling; etc.)	20 quality video produced (2–5 mins).	pending
28th August 2022	Lagos	Uploads to Commons	The video is uploaded to Commons	pending
4th September 2022	Lagos	Video promotion on social media and among community members	Video promoted	pending

Communication plan[edit]

We have designed a simple communication plan to manage all communications relating to this project.

Communication type	Objectives of communication	Medium	Frequency	Audience	Owner
Production meeting	Review of production date Script review Review of choice of actors	In-person	one-off	Mr Macaroni Isaac Olatunde Mikaeel Sodiq Peter Dansu Other crew members	Project manager (Mikaeel Sodiq)
Post-production meeting	Recap of the scope of the video Recap of deliverable Conclusion on final delivery date Final review of the planned location Discussion on colour grading, graphics, post-treatments Agreement on file format	Online	one-off	Mr Macaroni Isaac Olatunde Mikaeel Sodiq Dansu Peter Editor Other crew members	Project manager (Mikaeel Sodiq)
Video Licensing	Type of releasing license Commission work agreement format	In-person	one-off	Mr Macaroni Isaac Olatunde Mikaeel Sodiq Peter Dansu	Project manager (Mikaeel Sodiq)

Deliverables[edit]

Deliverables
File type	No. of files	Format	Duration	Approximate size on GB or TB
Video	20	WebM or .ogg	2 – 5 mins	15 - 20 MB