Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Wiki Voice Visuals Initiative:Amplifying African Heritage through Multimedia Contributions (ID: 23651501)
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Applicant Details
[edit]- Main Wikimedia username. (required)
Dagentle
- 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)
Other
- Describe all relevant roles with the name of the group or organization and description of the role. (required)
Organization/Group: Igbo Wikimedia Commons Hub Role: 2025 Mentee
Description: As an Igbo Wikimedia Commons Hub 2025 Mentee, I am participating in a mentorship program focused on documenting and promoting Igbo culture through multimedia contributions to Wikimedia Commons. My role involves collecting, producing, and curating high-quality photographs, videos, and audio recordings that highlight various aspects of Igbo life, traditions, and heritage.
I am also being trained in open licensing, metadata documentation, and content categorization to ensure that all uploads meet Wikimedia Commons standards. Through this experience, I am developing practical digital skills while contributing to the preservation and global visibility of Igbo cultural knowledge.
Organization/Group: Wiki Voice Visuals Role: Founder / Team Member
Description: At Wiki Voice Visuals, an uprising organization dedicated to promoting African heritage through open multimedia, my role involves leading and contributing to the creation, documentation, and upload of videos and audios that reflect diverse aspects of African life and culture.
The organization’s core aim is to bridge the audiovisual knowledge gap on Wikimedia Commons by producing and curating authentic, high-quality cultural and educational media. My responsibilities include coordinating content collection, ensuring compliance with open licensing standards, and facilitating collaborations with local communities to expand freely accessible African media online.
Main Proposal
[edit]- 1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.
Wiki Voice Visuals Initiative: Amplifying African Heritage through Multimedia Contributions
- 2. and 3. Proposed start and end dates for the proposal.
2026-01-16 - 2026-06-30
- 4. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)
Nigeria
- 5. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign, project, or event? If so, please select the relevant project or campaign. (required)
Wiki Loves Africa
- 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 I aim to bring is to bridge the audiovisual knowledge gap about African, particularly Nigerian culture on Wikimedia Commons through authentic, high-quality video and audio documentation.
Understanding African culture is not only through reading about it, but also through seeing and hearing it, just as our ancestors passed traditions down through spoken words, songs, and visual rituals. Capturing these moments in sound and motion preserves the true spirit of African heritage beyond text and static images.
The main challenges includes: 1. Limited technical skills and tools for producing and editing quality audiovisual content.
2. Low awareness among local communities about contributing freely licensed media to Wikimedia Commons.
3. Persistent underrepresentation of African(Nigerian) cultural practices, languages, and rituals online.
To address these, the project will: 1. Train and mentor new contributors in both video production (shooting, editing, and storytelling) and audio production (field recording, sound clarity, audio editing and metadata tagging).
2. Record and upload videos showcasing cultural rites, rituals, crafts, and performances.
3. Capture and upload audio content including traditional songs, chants, proverbs, folktales, and oral histories.
4. Collaborate with cultural custodians and local communities to ensure accuracy, sensitivity, and respect.
5. Promote wider cultural access by helping audiences experience Africa through its real voices and visuals.
This initiative will not only enrich Wikimedia Commons but also revive and modernize the oral and visual storytelling traditions that define African identity.
- 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.
- 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.
1.Kwesike Nwachukwu Nuria (User: Dagentle) – Project Lead / Coordinator
Affiliation: Igbo Wikimedia Usergroup, Igbo Wikimedia Commons Hub.
Role: Oversees overall project implementation, coordination, and reporting. Leads content strategy, quality control for both video and audio documentation and facilitates access to documentation sites, obtains consent from cultural custodians, and ensures that all recordings respect community values and cultural sensitivities.
Status: Volunteer
2. Obed Makolo (User: obedmakolo) – Audio Documentation Lead
Affiliation: Igala Wikimedia
Role: Manages all audio-related activities including software and equipment scouting and setup, audio recording, audio editing, and metadata tagging training, audio documentation review for upload to Wikimedia Commons
Status: Volunteer
3. Bibiana (User: bibisuccess) – Video Documentation Lead / Community Engagement Officer
Affiliation: Africa Wiki Women
Role: Manages all video-related activities including scouting and setup of video equipment and software, video recording, video editing, and metadata tagging training. Oversees video documentation review and ensures all outputs meet Wikimedia Commons quality and licensing standards, also engages directly with project participants and contributors to ensure active involvement throughout the documentation process. Coordinates trainings, provides participant support, and manages communication within the project community to sustain motivation and collaboration.
Status: Volunteer
- 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)
Target Participants and Communities:
The project will engage a diverse range of participants from across Nigeria and other African Wikimedia communities. These include members of the Igbo Wikimedians, Igala Wikimedians, Yoruba Wikimedians, Africa Wiki Women, among others, its open to all. Participants will consist of new and experienced Wikimedians, audiovisual content creators, storytellers, and young people passionate about preserving culture through multimedia. Local custodians of culture such as traditional and religious leaders will also be involved to ensure accuracy and authenticity in documentation.
Engagement Before and During Activities:
Prior to the start of fieldwork, participants will be engaged through online orientation and awareness sessions led by the organizing team. This will be followed by intensive training in February 2026 covering audiovisual recording, editing, open licensing, and Wikimedia Commons uploads. Community mobilization will also be conducted through social media, Wikimedia Nigeria platforms, and direct outreach to local institutions, ensuring inclusivity and awareness.
During the activities, participants will collaborate individually and in mixed teams to document video and audio content across identified cultural sites depending on the locations and the activities, supported by mentors and cultural advisors. They will also receive ongoing guidance to maintain quality and cultural sensitivity.
Post-Activity Follow-Up:
After field documentation and uploads, follow-up sessions will be held to strengthen participants’ editing and uploading skills. A WhatsApp and Meta-Wiki group will be maintained to sustain communication, provide mentorship, and encourage participants to continue contributing to Wikimedia Commons and other related Wiki projects. Participants’ progress and feedback will also be tracked through peer review and periodic check-ins, ensuring long-term engagement and growth within the Wikimedia ecosystem as more contests and projects would be embarked on to promote the african narrative through Audios and Videos.
- 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.
Community Discussion and Collaboration
The project idea was openly discussed among some members of various Nigerian Wikimedia communities, including the Igbo Wikimedia, Igala Wikimedia, Africa Wiki Women through a dedicated WhatsApp platform titled “Wiki Voice Visuals.”
During these discussions, participants expressed strong support for the initiative, describing it as a step in the right direction toward preserving and showcasing African culture through audiovisual documentation. Many participants noted that African knowledge systems have traditionally been passed down through listening and observation, making the use of audio and video an ideal medium for sustaining and sharing our cultural identity on Wikimedia platforms.
The collective feedback emphasized inclusivity, mentorship, and cross-community collaboration, which have all been integrated into this proposal.
The finalized proposal will be formally shared on relevant on-wiki community discussion pages.
The goal is to align this initiative with ongoing Wikimedia projects promoting open cultural heritage documentation, while avoiding overlap and fostering collaboration across existing affiliates.
- 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)
Digital Access
- 15. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select one that most applies. (required)
Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement
Learning and metrics
[edit]- 17. What do you hope to learn from your work in this project or proposal? (required)
This project is not only about producing and uploading audiovisual content but also about learning how to make African cultural documentation more participatory, inclusive, and sustainable on Wikimedia Commons.
Through implementation, we aim to gather insights that will strengthen future audiovisual initiatives within Nigeria and across Africa.
Key Learning Questions:
1.Engagement and Inclusion:
How can we better engage and retain new contributors, especially those from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, in audiovisual documentation projects?
What motivates community members to contribute high-quality audio and video content to Wikimedia Commons?
2.Skills and Capacity Development:
What training methods are most effective in helping participants master audio and video documentation, editing, and open licensing?
How can mentorship improve the confidence and technical competence of first-time audiovisual contributors?
3.Cultural Representation and Impact:
How can audio and video formats capture cultural nuances (songs, chants, gestures, rituals) that text and images alone cannot convey?
In what ways does audiovisual documentation influence public understanding and appreciation of African cultural diversity on Wikimedia platforms?
4.Sustainability and Collaboration:
What models of partnership (between Wikimedia affiliates, cultural institutions, and youth groups) best support long-term cultural documentation efforts?
How can this project inform future Wiki Loves Africa campaigns and other open heritage initiatives across Africa?
By answering these questions, we hope to develop replicable frameworks for multimedia documentation and build lasting capacity within African Wikimedia communities for audiovisual storytelling.
- 18. What are your Wikimedia project targets in numbers (metrics)? (required)
| Other Metrics | Target | Optional description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 40 | New Participants 20
Returning Participants 10 Cultural Custodians 7 Trainers / Facilitators / Reviewers 3 The project will ensure balanced gender and youth representation by intentionally engaging women, young creators, and emerging contributors from groups such as Africa Wiki Women. At least 40% of participants are expected to be women or young people. The project also welcomes contributors from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds across Nigeria, promoting an inclusive learning and participation environment that reflects the spirit of Wiki Loves Africa. |
| Number of editors | 30 | Newly Registered Users: 20
Returning editors: 10 |
| Number of organizers | 3 |
| Wikimedia project | Number of content created or improved |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | |
| Wikimedia Commons | |
| Wikidata | |
| Wiktionary | |
| Wikisource | |
| Wikimedia Incubator | |
| Translatewiki | |
| MediaWiki | |
| Wikiquote | |
| Wikivoyage | |
| Wikibooks | |
| Wikiversity | |
| Wikinews | |
| Wikispecies | |
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
- Optional description for content contributions.
N/A
- 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)
Event Dashboard / Programs & Events Dashboard, Wikimedia Commons categories and Manual review by Organizers
Financial proposal
[edit]- 21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)
- 22. and 22.1. What is the amount you are requesting for this proposal? Please provide the amount in your local currency. (required)
- 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.
USD
- We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
No
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).