Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Audio-visual documentation of endangered Igbo dances in Nigeria./Final Report

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Final Learning Report

Report Status: Accepted

Due date: 2023-06-30T00:00:00Z

Funding program: Wikimedia Community Fund

Report type: Final

Application Midpoint Learning Report

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General information[edit]

This form is for organizations, groups, or individuals receiving Wikimedia Community Funds or Wikimedia Alliances Funds to report on their final results. See the midpoint report if you want to review the midpoint results.

  • Name of Organization: N/A
  • Title of Proposal: Audio-visual documentation of endangered Igbo dances in Nigeria.
  • Amount awarded: 24250 USD, 23000 NGN
  • Amount spent: 9534000 NGN

Part 1 Understanding your work[edit]

1. Briefly describe how your proposed activities and strategies were implemented.

We made field trips to rural communities located in 5 states in south east nigeria namely Imo, Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu states where we worked with traditional chiefs, indigenous people, native dancers, native drummers, knowledge experts, cultural custodians, dance troupes, and senior citizens to produce 16 audiovisuals, audio pronunciations of the names and 25 images of igbo dances. After the field trips, the content went through post-production and then final produced content archived on Wikimedia Commons, Internet Archive, Wikisource and YouTube. Community members from the Igbo Wikimedia and Wikimedia Nigeria Imo State Network were mobilized to create igbo wikipedia articles, wikidata items and use produced content on relevant articles and wikidata items. We are working with the Igbo Wikimedia community, relevant Wikimedia communities, institutions and Africa Tech Radio to create visibility and use for the project.

2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you felt were effective in achieving your goals?

In the proposal stage, we didn't put into consideration the need for food, drinks and local transportation for the different dancers, dance groups and community members who will be convened outside of their festive seasons to perform and tell stories of the different dances. We also didn't foresee the importance of initiating strong advocacy in the Implementing communities to garner their support for the need for preserving this endangered cultural heritage prior to the scheduled dates of the field trips. With this understanding, we had a 1-month entry point visit to the communities to get them to buy-in into the purpose of the project and prepare towards a selected date for the field trip in each of the communities which fed into our field trip schedule document. We had to adopt these strategies realizing that the project would fail without them. As with most original first-time projects, there are alot of considerations that are missed at the proposal stage that will be necessary for the success of the project. Hence, in order to cover the cost of the entry point visits, food, drinks and transportation for dancers/dance troupes which was not included in the budget at the proposal stage, we reduced the number of dances to 18 in order to use the cost of the remaining 12 dances to cover for the entry point visits, food, drinks and transportation for dance troupes, many of which had more than 10 people in each troupe.

3. Would you say that your project had any innovations? Are there things that you did very differently than you have seen them done by others?

The 1-month entry point visits were an innovative approach that helped us to interact with the communities where the project was implemented. As Alex Stinson had shared in his blog post (https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/04/12/an-organizers-perspective-part-ii-how-do-movement-organizers-help-us-reach-broader-audiences/), “If you are going to successfully invite a group of people you don’t know well to dinner: the first thing you need to do is visit their house, see how they serve dinner, figure out the conversations they are having, and create a welcoming invitation that meets their expectations.” We realized how difficult it would be to work with our audience with diverse perspectives if we do not create room to know them, identify who, where, when and how to work together. We realized that we need to work with different kinds of people such as the influencers and doers in varying roles understanding where and when they should be needed. It was an opportunity to engage in strategic conversations to identify who holds the story and is willing to share it.

4. Please describe how different communities participated and/or were informed about your work.

In the participating Igbo communities, the 1-month entry point visit was a great opportunity to share about the project and co-create on the suitable approach for the field work. During the field trips, we had the chance to significantly advocate for the need to preserve not just the performances of traditional igbo dances but also the stories behind them in the digital space under an open license especially for future generations. This awareness was received mostly by few youth dancers who knew and paid more attention to the dance performance than the story. Among them were also those who were opportune to listen and learn about the stories behind some of the dances. In addition, this rekindled a sense of great importance for a community who have not performed their traditional dances in the past 15 years to remobilize their community towards reviving the dormant culture.

In the wikimedia communities, we made sure to share with community members and leaders of the partnering communities of every stage of progress all through the project. This was done mostly through posts, fliers, project trailers, podcasts and a diff post about the project especially during the community engagement stage of the project. We also shared this during the Africa Day 2023 commemoration by Wikimedia UK in collaboration with the Igbo Wikimedia Community. We also submitted a session for Wikimania 2023 and possibly in WikiIndaba 2023. We are overwhelmed with joy about how community members are finding inspiration from the project and reacting with their support to create visibility through diverse partnerships. Outside of the Wikimedia community, we are working with Wikitongues to document in the US Library of Congress, and Africa Tech Radio to produce podcast series to share the work done as well as a YouTube channel to reach more audience. Within 10 days of starting a YouTube Channel for the project, the audiovisuals received 1135 views and 10 subscribers and are still counting.

5. Documentation of your impact. Please use the two spaces below to share files and links that help tell your story and impact. This can be documentation that shows your results through testimonies, videos, sound files, images (photos and infographics, etc.) social media posts, dashboards, etc.

  • Upload Documents and Files
  • Here is an additional field to type in URLs.

6. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with the support of this Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals.

Our efforts during the Fund period have helped to...
A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups Strongly agree
B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community Strongly agree
C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups
D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives Strongly agree
E. Encourage the retention of editors
F. Encourage the retention of organizers Not applicable to your fund
G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement. Agree

7. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your efforts helped to bring in participants and/or build out content, particularly for underrepresented groups?

N/A

Part 2: Your main learning[edit]

8. In your application, you outlined your learning priorities. What did you learn about these areas during this period?

The notability criteria on English Wikipedia poses a challenge for documenting underrepresented cultural heritage topics. Capturing the oral, pictorial and audiovisual forms of these cultural heritage offers great potential to limit the knowledge gap on the topic on wikimedia projects. It also provides the opportunity to reach indigenous people particularly those with little or no access to the internet or platforms to tell their stories underrepresented in the digital space. This strategy opens consideration for utilizing other wikimedia projects such as Wikidata, WikiSource and local language wikipedia to preserve this knowledge while laying a strong foundation for increased awareness through non-wikimedia platforms to create a possibility of writing about them on English Wikipedia in the future. Through this project, we have successfully confirmed and documented 16 indigenous dances in the form of audiovisuals, images and audio pronunciations of the names of the dances. We have also learned that there are differences in the organized structure of communities, groups and individuals in upholding this cultural heritage. Some of these dances are also evolving in terms of names and structure of performance over time and space.

9. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities?

We were surprised to see the level of effort it takes in a particular location to produce the audiovisuals, audio recordings and images. We had underestimated this in a bid to save cost and did not see the need to separate the role of the photography from the audiovisual and audio recording thereby affecting the number of quality images we captured. This dance project is unique in itself requiring coordination with the dancers, drummers, their movement, use of space, constant adjustment of the mic and possible interference from the public on ground to witness and share in the joy of the performances. This was compounded by the time of the season which was a raining period and required us to be flexible at different points in time. We also didn’t realize the period of time it would take to engage dancers, dance groups and community members in the production activities including waiting time as a result of the rain. The performance is another factor we didn’t expect to require a lot of energy and time from the dancers especially for the dances having acrobatic displays as well as how transportation support from their homes to the scene of the performance would be important in their participation.

10. How do you hope to use this learning? For instance, do you have any new priorities, ideas for activities, or goals for the future?

In the future, we would consider hiring a photographer separately from the cinematography team and having additional people accompany the core team to the communities in the field trips. We would also opt to do the field trips outside of the rainy season and/or possibly obtain an internal space for the dance performances. In addition, we will want to ensure the inclusion of cost for entry point visits, food, drinks and transportation for the dancers, dance troupes and community members in the budget.

11. If you were sitting with a friend to tell them one thing about your work during this fund, what would it be (think of inspiring or fascinating moments, tough challenges, interesting anecdotes, or anything that feels important to you)?

We were inspired by the amount of care and love the team showed for the project despite the challenges. But what was more overwhelming was the amount of work we did together as a community from the advisors, partnering wikimedia communities, partnering groups/organizations to the individual Wikimedians raising awareness for the project. We soared together as a team and nothing would beat that.

12. Please share resources that would be useful to share with other Wikimedia organizations so that they can learn from, adapt or build upon your work. For instance, guides, training material, presentations, work processes, or any other material the team has created to document and transfer knowledge about your work and can be useful for others. Please share any specific resources that you are creating, adapting/contextualizing in ways that are unique to your context (i.e. training material).

  • Upload Documents and Files
  • Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
N/A

Part 3: Metrics[edit]

13a. Open and additional metrics data

Open Metrics
Open Metrics Description Target Results Comments Methodology
of audiovisuals produced The narration of will value systems, culture, beliefs, lifestyle and the environment of the people where the production is done. 56 N/A The grant was approved for producing 30 audiovisuals but was reduced to the produced number in order to cater for the entry point visits, logistics of dance troupes and community members such as transportation, food and drinks not factored in the initial budget N/A
of audiovisuals uploaded to Wikimedia commons, Internet Archive, and Library of Congress. The preservation and transfer of culture and knowledge to other generations. We will have a one stop digital repository where educators and researchers can access information about these dances. 56 114 This includes 57 files (16 audiovisuals, 25 images and 16 audio recordings) uploaded to Wikimedia Commons and 57 files (16 audiovisuals, 25 images and 16 audio recordings) uploaded to Internet archive. We are still in the process of archiving on the US Library of Congress. N/A
of training and capacity development. Possible replication of the project and ability to work on preserving endangered culture by trained participants in the future. 30 25 This includes the number of community members engaged in the community engagement stage of the project from 2 Wikimedia communities in Nigeria. We were partially funded and had to reduce the number of participants to accommodate the available approved funds. Outreach dashboard

https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/AID_Project,_Igbo_Wikimedia_Usergroup,_Wikimedia_Nigeria_Imo_State_Network/The_Audiovisuals_of_Igbo_Dances_Contest

of Edit-a-thons The projection of the culture and tribe of the Igbo group to people beyond their language and tribe by reusing the contents on Wikipedia pages. 5 2 This includes the language wikipedia impacted through the project such as Igbo and english wikipedia. N/A
Social Media Awareness Project visibility will be attained through awareness on relevant platforms. N/A 1394 This includes 259 views on internet archive and 1135 views on YouTube since upload as at May 30 2023 N/A
Additional Metrics
Additional Metrics Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Diversity of participants brought in by grantees N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Number of people reached through social media publications N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Number of activities developed N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Number of volunteer hours N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

13b. Additional core metrics data.

Core Metrics Summary
Core metrics Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Number of participants The number of participants in all activities including cultural leaders, native dance performers, staff of partnering organizations, and other knowledge experts. They are going to be mostly new participants and a few returning ones. 100 1000 This includes traditional chiefs, indigenous people, native dancers, native drummers, knowledge experts, cultural custodians, dance troupes, and senior citizens from 5 Nigerian states who we interacted with during the entry point visits, and the field trips that performed or witnessed the performances N/A
Number of editors The number of editors in all activities including a mix of new and returning editors from wikimedia Usergroup Nigeria, Igbo Wikimedia Usergroup, wikimedia hubs in Southeastern Nigeria, and other language wikimedia communities that will be interested in participating. We hope that 10 out of this 30, will be new editors. 30 25 This includes the number of community members engaged in the community engagement stage of the project from 2 Wikimedia communities in Nigeria. Outreach dashboard

https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/AID_Project,_Igbo_Wikimedia_Usergroup,_Wikimedia_Nigeria_Imo_State_Network/The_Audiovisuals_of_Igbo_Dances_Contest

Number of organizers The number of organizers in all activities including advisors, coordinators, trainers, facilitators and planners. 13 17 The number of organizers in all activities including advisors, coordinators, trainers, facilitators and planners. N/A
Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project
Wikimedia Project Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Wikimedia Commons Minimum of 56 audiovisuals uploaded to wikimedia commons 56 32 This includes 32 files (16 audiovisuals and 16 audio recordings) of 16 dances uploaded to Wikimedia Commons Commons Category of audiovisuals, Images and audio recordings https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Audiovisual_of_igbo_dances_project_(AID)
Wikidata Minimum of 56 wikidata items created or improved. 56 26 This includes wikidata items created for the 16 dances and 10 dance instruments Dashboard - https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/AID_Project,_Igbo_Wikimedia_Usergroup,_Wikimedia_Nigeria_Imo_State_Network/The_Audiovisuals_of_Igbo_Dances_Contest
Wikimedia Commons Minimum of 100 images uploaded to wikimedia commons. 100 25 This includes 25 files (images) of dancers, instruments and costumes of 16 dances uploaded to Wikimedia Commons Commons Category of audiovisuals, Images and audio recordings https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Audiovisual_of_igbo_dances_project_(AID)
Wikipedia Igbo Wikipedia. Minimum of 100 articles created or improved. 100 21 16 Igbo wikipedia articles created or translated and 5 English wikipedia articles improved. Dashboard - https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/AID_Project,_Igbo_Wikimedia_Usergroup,_Wikimedia_Nigeria_Imo_State_Network/The_Audiovisuals_of_Igbo_Dances_Contest .
N/A N/A N/A 16 The number of audiovisuals uploaded and pages created on wikisource Wikisource category -

https://wikisource.org/wiki/Category:Audiovisual_of_igbo_dances_project_(AID)

14. Were there any metrics in your proposal that you could not collect or that you had to change?

No

15. If you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results, please describe and add any recommendations on how to address them in the future.

N/A

16. Use this space to link or upload any additional documents that would be useful to understand your data collection (e.g., dashboards, surveys you have carried out, communications material, training material, etc).

  • Upload Documents and Files
  • Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
N/A

Part 4: Organizational capacities & partnerships[edit]

17. Organizational Capacity

Organizational capacity dimension
A. Financial capacity and management This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
B. Conflict management or transformation This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
C. Leadership (i.e growing in potential leaders, leadership that fit organizational needs and values) This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
D. Partnership building This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
E. Strategic planning This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
F. Program design, implementation, and management This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
G. Scoping and testing new approaches, innovation This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
H. Recruiting new contributors (volunteer) This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
I. Support and growth path for different types of contributors (volunteers) This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
J. Governance This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
K. Communications, marketing, and social media This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
L. Staffing - hiring, monitoring, supporting in the areas needed for program implementation and sustainability This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
M. On-wiki technical skills This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
N. Accessing and using data This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
O. Evaluating and learning from our work This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
P. Communicating and sharing what we learn with our peers and other stakeholders
N/A
N/A

17a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.

Peer to peer learning with other community members (but that is not continuous or structured)

17b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.

Lack of training that fits contextual needs and interests, Lack of knowledge of available capacity building opportunities

18. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your organizational capacity has grown, and areas where you require support?

N/A

19. Partnerships over the funding period.

Over the fund period...
A. We built strategic partnerships with other institutions or groups that will help us grow in the medium term (3 year time frame) Strongly agree
B. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to bring in more contributors from underrepresented groups Strongly agree
C. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to build out more content on underrepresented topics/groups Strongly agree

19a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.

Volunteers from our communities, Partners proactive interest

19b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.

Limited funding period

20. Please share your learning about strategies to build partnerships with other institutions and groups and any other learning about working with partners?

The partnership with the local communities, knowledge experts, indigenous people, dance troupes, wikimedia communities, wikimedians and relevant organizations is crucial to the success of the project. Acknowledging the role of every partner and managing their different perspectives at different points is also necessary. So learning to be a good listener and creating a sense of belonging for all partners on the project from the beginning will ensure everyone has the right space to bring in their contributions adequately.

Part 5: Sense of belonging and collaboration[edit]

21. What would it mean for your organization to feel a sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement?

Receiving varying forms of relevant support such as provision of funds, mentorship, collaboration, communicating about work done and flexibility in funding period helps bring a sense of belonging in the free knowledge movement.

22. How has your (for individual grantees) or your group/organization’s (for organizational grantees) sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?

Increased significantly

23. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.

N/A

24. How has your group/organization’s sense of personal investment in the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?

Increased significantly

25. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.

N/A

26. Are there other movements besides the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement that play a central role in your motivation to contribute to Wikimedia projects? (for example, Black Lives Matter, Feminist movement, Climate Justice, or other activism spaces) If so, please describe it below.

N/A

Supporting Peer Learning and Collaboration[edit]

We are interested in better supporting peer learning and collaboration in the movement.

27. Have you shared these results with Wikimedia affiliates or community members?

Yes

27a. Please describe how you have already shared them. Would you like to do more sharing, and if so how?

We have shared through publishing a diff post, podcasts, trailer and Africa Day 2023 learning space organized by Wikimedia UK in collaboration with the Igbo community. The podcast was produced in collaboration with Africa Tech Radio and shared in the community group of Igbo Wikimedia, Wikimedia Nigeria, African Wikimedians Mailing list and other wikimedia platforms. We want to explore the opportunity to share more and are therefore open to recommendations..

28. How often do you currently share what you have learned with other Wikimedia Foundation grantees, and learn from them?

We do this rarely (less than twice a year)

29. How does your organization currently share mutual learning with other grantees?

N/A

Part 6: Financial reporting and compliance[edit]

30. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.

9534000

31. Local currency type

NGN

32. Please report the funds received and spending in the currency of your fund.

  • Upload Documents, Templates, and Files.
  • Report funds received and spent, if template not used.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IEgWDGd7prvrNl20ryh-uiuR9lcWv5TRzkFmr89xk6Y/edit#gid=0

33. If you have not already done so in your budget report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal.

N/A

34. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?

34a. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.

N/A

34b. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?

N/A

34c. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.

N/A

35. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?

As required in the fund agreement, please report any deviations from your fund proposal here. Note that, among other things, any changes must be consistent with our WMF mission, must be for charitable purposes as defined in the grant agreement, and must otherwise comply with the grant agreement.

36. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?

Yes

37. Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.

Yes

38. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here.

N/A
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