Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Documenting African Food as Intangible Cultural Heritage in Wali Language (ID: 23424696)
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Applicant Details
[edit]- Main Wikimedia username. (required)
Zakaria Tunsung
- Organization
N/A
- If you are a group or organization leader, board member, president, executive director, or staff member at any Wikimedia group, affiliate, or Wikimedia Foundation, you are required to self-identify and present all roles. (required)
I'm a group leader of an informal Wikimedia group.
- Describe all relevant roles with the name of the group or organization and description of the role. (required)
A volunteer co-lead for the Wali Wikimedians Community and test admin for https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/wlx
Main Proposal
[edit]- 1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.
Documenting African Food as Intangible Cultural Heritage in Wali Language
- 2. and 3. Proposed start and end dates for the proposal.
2025-08-31 - 2025-10-31
- 4. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)
Ghana
- 5. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign, project, or event? If so, please select the relevant project or campaign. (required)
Other (please specify) Wiki Loves Living Heritage
- 6. What is the change you are trying to bring? What are the main challenges or problems you are trying to solve? Describe this change or challenges, as well as main approaches to achieve it. (required)
The change we are striving to bring is a significant digital transformation and preservation of African culinary heritage, specifically focusing on the rich food traditions documented in the Wali language and improving content on the incubator. We aim to move this invaluable intangible cultural heritage from predominantly oral transmission and localized, potentially fragmented, documentation into a globally accessible, vibrant, and enduring digital format on Wikimedia platforms. This shift will ensure the sustainability of knowledge, promote cultural pride, and foster cross-cultural understanding of African foodways.
The main challenges and problems we are trying to solve are; Risk of Knowledge Loss. Traditional African food practices, recipes, and their cultural significance are largely passed down through oral traditions and practical demonstration. This makes them highly vulnerable to loss due to urbanization, generational gaps, changing lifestyles, and the passing of elders who hold this invaluable knowledge. The challenge is to formalize and digitize this knowledge before it fades.
Digital Invisibility and Linguistic Marginalization. The digital landscape, particularly major knowledge repositories like Wikipedia, disproportionately favors content in dominant global languages. African languages, including Wali, are significantly underrepresented. This creates a digital divide where local knowledge, even if documented in print or offline, remains largely invisible to a global audience and even to younger generations within the Wali-speaking community who increasingly rely on digital resources. The problem is the lack of accessible, comprehensive, and culturally relevant content on Wali Wikipedia concerning local food heritage.
Our main approaches to achieve this transformative change and solve these challenges are:
We will organize a series of edit-a-thons and workshops focusing specifically on African food traditions in Wali-speaking areas. These events will bring together native speakers, experienced and aspiring Wikimedia editors.
Participants will be guided to create new Wikipedia articles in Wali dedicated to specific traditional dishes, ingredients, cooking techniques, food-related rituals, and the cultural significance of food.
We will also enrich existing articles related to African food by adding detailed Wali-language content, local perspectives, and historical context.
- 7. What are the planned activities? (required) Please provide a list of main activities. You can also add a link to the public page for your project where details about your project can be found. Alternatively, you can upload a timeline document. When the activities include partnerships, include details about your partners and planned partnerships.
The main activities include: The project would involve two (2) in-person trainings in Wa, the capital of the region to recruit more volunteers. Participants would be trained on basic Wikipedia editing skills and uploading images and files onto Wikimedia Commons appropriately during the first workshop. And the second workshop would involves taking them through creating and adding labels and descriptions of wikidata items. The in-person trainings would involves training and retaining both newbies and old editors.
Edit-a-thon contest for one month to create and improve African cuisines on Wali Wikipedia Incubator. The edit-a-thon will contribute to the preservation and promotion of the Wali language, which is an important part of our cultural heritage. By using the Wali language, the articles will be more accessible and relevant to the local community, especially those who may not be fluent in English.
Creating or improving Wikidata items for those that are lacking Creating and improving Wikidata items for African foods in the Africa is important for several reasons: By creating Wikidata items, we increase the visibility of these African foods on search engines and other online platforms. More accurate and comprehensive search results can be achieved when Wikidata items are linked to Wikipedia articles and other online resources. Wikidata provides a structured and sustainable way to preserve information about cultural heritage. By creating detailed Wikidata items, we facilitate future research on African foods.
Upload images of the African foods onto Wikimedia Commons. Uploading these images onto Wikimedia Commons is important in a sense that, we make them freely available to anyone in the world. These images can be used by educators, researchers, and students to learn about African rich culture like its foods. Images can enhance the quality and readability of Wikipedia articles. Partner Coordination: Establish partnerships with local organizations (Yison Hub Tech-https://www.yisontechhub.com/about/ , Wa Naa Palace- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wa_Naa%27s_Palace and WAALEE BAABO an organization aims only at preserving and promoting the Wali Language in the Upper West Region) to seek their expertise and resources. Collaborate with Dagbani Wikimedians User Group (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Planning_Dagbani_Wikimedians_User_Group) to provide technical support and guidance. Collaborate with Ghanaian Pidgin English Wikimedians (https://gpe.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) to provide technical support and guidance.
- 8. Describe your team. Please provide their roles, Wikimedia Usernames and other details. (required) Include more details of the team, including their roles, usernames, Wikimedia group, and whether they are salaried, volunteers, consultants/contractors, etc. Team members involved in the grant application need to be aware of their involvement in the project.
I Zakaria Tunsung Bukari (Wikimedia Username: Zakaria Tunsung) Email: tunsungbukari@gmail.com - is an experienced and active volunteer contributor to Wikimedia projects and a test wiki admin for Wali Wikipedia incubator. I will coordinate the entire project.
Asare Paul Yaw (Wikimedia Username: Yaw tuba) - He is an experienced and active volunteer contributor to Wikimedia projects who has contributed massively for communities like Fante Wikimedia Community, Ghanaian Pidgin community, and Dagaare Wikimedia Community from their incubator stage to their live stage. He also belongs to the Wali Wikimedia Community. He is also a float contributor who contributes to different wikis. He will provide technical support and facilitate the project and do all media campaigns via our social media handles.
Umar Asiya (Wikimedia Username: Umar Asiya) Email: asiyau456@gmail.com - She is an experienced and active volunteer contributor to Wikimedia projects and belongs to the Wali Wikimedians community. She will handle financial expenses and bookings.
Ibrahim, Yussif Kanyiri (Wikimedia Username: Kanyiri1994) Email: iykanyiri@gmail.com - He is an active volunteer contributor to Wikimedia projects and belongs to the Wali Wikimedians community. He will be the logistics manager.
Banyaara Solomon (Wikimedia username: Banyaara Solomon) Email: banyaarasolomon33@gmail.com - He is an active volunteer contributor to Wikimedia projects and belongs to the Wali Wikimedians community. He will provide jury’s responsibility for the project.
- 9. Who are the target participants and from which community? How will you engage participants before and during the activities? How will you follow up with participants after the activities? (required)
The target participants are particular new editors, that is to recruit more volunteers and also old editors from the Wali Wikimedians Community. There are going to be a series of online training sessions before, during, and after the project period in order to retain them. To an extent of still guiding them to keep on contributing to various Wikimedia projects.
- 10. Does your project involve work with children or youth? (required)
No
- 10.1. Please provide a link to your Youth Safety Policy. (required) If the proposal indicates direct contact with children or youth, you are required to outline compliance with international and local laws for working with children and youth, and provide a youth safety policy aligned with these laws. Read more here.
N/A
- 11. How did you discuss the idea of your project with your community members and/or any relevant groups? Please describe steps taken and provide links to any on-wiki community discussion(s) about the proposal. (required) You need to inform the community and/or group, discuss the project with them, and involve them in planning this proposal. You also need to align the activities with other projects happening in the planned area of implementation to ensure collaboration within the community.
We have talked about the idea for the most active social media account in the community. Additionally, I have talked about this on other wikis and community portals: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ghanaian_Pidgin_Wikimedians_Community#Grant_notification_2 https://dag.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Mabiligu_dund%C9%94%C5%8B#Grant_notification_2 https://dga.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_yeli%3AYiri_Lambo_zie#Grant_notification
- 12. Does your proposal aim to work to bridge any of the content knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Cultural background, ethnicity, religion, racial
- 13. Does your proposal include any of these areas or thematic focus? Select one option that most applies to your work. (required)
Culture, heritage or GLAM
- 14. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Not applicable
- 15. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select one that most applies. (required)
Innovate in Free Knowledge
Learning and metrics
[edit]- 17. What do you hope to learn from your work in this project or proposal? (required)
Through this project, we want to assess the following questions: i) To what extent does a community-led approach, utilizing in-person training and targeted edit-a-thons, effectively capture and digitize complex oral traditions and intangible cultural heritage (like foodways) on Wikimedia platforms? ii) How does a concentrated effort on a specific domain (African food heritage) in the Wali language impact the overall digital visibility, discoverability, and usage of Wali Wikipedia and related Wikimedia projects? iii) Does the creation of culturally relevant content like food traditions lead to increased engagement from both existing Wali speakers and broader global audiences? iv) How does participation in a project focused on cultural heritage influence participants' sense of ownership and pride in their language and culture on digital platforms? v) What are the primary cultural, technical, or logistical challenges encountered when documenting intangible cultural heritage, particularly food traditions, in a local language on Wikimedia?
- 18. What are your Wikimedia project targets in numbers (metrics)? (required)
| Other Metrics | Target | Optional description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 35 | We will be organizing two in-person trainings with a target of 35 participants on the basic editing skills on Wikimedia projects; Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wiki Commons. |
| Number of editors | 35 | We expect all participants to take part in editing as we would take both newbies and experienced editors through editing skills. |
| Number of organizers | 5 | There would be division of labour among the team to yield the expected outcomes. |
| Wikimedia project | Number of content created or improved |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | |
| Wikimedia Commons | 50 |
| Wikidata | 250 |
| Wiktionary | |
| Wikisource | |
| Wikimedia Incubator | 250 |
| Translatewiki | |
| MediaWiki | |
| Wikiquote | |
| Wikivoyage | |
| Wikibooks | |
| Wikiversity | |
| Wikinews | |
| Wikispecies | |
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
- Optional description for content contributions.
We would create over 250 Wikipedia articles on African foods in Wali language add their labels and descriptions in Wali language to the corresponding wikidata items. We would also commit to uploading 50 images on African foods.
- 19. Do you have any other project targets in numbers (metrics)? (optional)
No
| Main Open Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
- 20. What tools would you use to measure each metrics? Please refer to the guide for a list of tools. You can also write that you are not sure and need support. (required)
We will be using Programs & Events Dashboard for measuring mentioned metrics.
Financial proposal
[edit]- 21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10BhVdMlhXgYHUfr-QqqG5yDW0pUrRpSQZt-vj1RsyK8/edit?usp=sharing
- 22. and 22.1. What is the amount you are requesting for this proposal? Please provide the amount in your local currency. (required)
30400 GHS
- 22.2. Convert the amount requested into USD using the Oanda converter. This is done only to help you assess the USD equivalent of the requested amount. Your request should be between 500 - 5,000 USD.
2958.57 USD
- We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
Yes
Endorsements and Feedback
[edit]Please add endorsements and feedback to the grant discussion page only. Endorsements added here will be removed automatically.
Community members are invited to share meaningful feedback on the proposal and include reasons why they endorse the proposal. Consider the following:
- Stating why the proposal is important for the communities involved and why they think the strategies chosen will achieve the results that are expected.
- Highlighting any aspects they think are particularly well developed: for instance, the strategies and activities proposed, the levels of community engagement, outreach to underrepresented groups, addressing knowledge gaps, partnerships, the overall budget and learning and evaluation section of the proposal, etc.
- Highlighting if the proposal focuses on any interesting research, learning or innovation, etc. Also if it builds on learning from past proposals developed by the individual or organization, or other Wikimedia communities.
- Analyzing if the proposal is going to contribute in any way to important developments around specific Wikimedia projects or Movement Strategy.
- Analysing if the proposal is coherent in terms of the objectives, strategies, budget, and expected results (metrics).