Claude Bunny Massassa is a contemporary artist from Gabon. She created Bunny Studio in 2016, a start-up dedicated to photography production, which became DWABI Studio in 2021. As an artist, she has represented Gabon in many international exhibitions in Senegal, Uganda, France, the United States, and Italy. In her art, she denounces social stigmas around issues of identity and mental health, and explores themes of traditions and myths.
Executive Director Kimberly Aceves- Iñiguez has been passionately committed for over 20 years to social justice organizing and advocacy efforts that bring voice and power to youth, LGBTQ people, people of color, and working-class communities in the Bay Area. Before coming on as the Executive Director for RYSE, Kimberly served as the Executive Director for Youth Together, the founding organization of the RYSE Center.
Kanwarpal Dhaliwal is one of the co-founders of RYSE and currently acts as the Associate Director. She supports and guides the implementation and integration of healing-centered practices, grounded in racial justice and liberation, and also develops, promotes, and advocates for policies, investments, practices, and research that enliven healing, justice, and liberation. Kanwarpal believes that the purpose of her work and life is to contribute to movements, communities, and legacies of liberation that honor the ancestors who fought for her existence and survival, and to forge a world that is just and gentle for future generations.
Sagal Ali is the founder and executive director of SAF. After a few years in her career in heritage protection in the cultural sector, she decided to develop the initiative to directly support young creatives in Somalia by launching her own foundation. She hopes to bridge the social gaps and inequalities women face in Somalia, both in society and in the arts scene.
Co-founders Catherine Dunga and Marleen Palmaers created Kitambo to bridge the gap between the African diaspora in Colombia and the narratives from the continent. From Kinshasa and Antwerp respectively, they work to connect African artists from the continent and their peers from the Colombian diaspora.
Martha Kazungu is a curator, art Historian and Founder of Njabala Foundation, an organization that curates periodic exhibitions and organizes a public program of activities to create a safe space for female artists to thrive and blossom.
Alicia Hansen is a photographer and teacher from New York. She founded NYC SALT in 2008 and, beyond teaching valuable creative skills to her students, has developed a long-term support system to uplift them through school and into their early artistic careers.
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Check what the Movement achieved already:
- 410 Movement Members
- 197 Articles Produced
- 500K Article Views
- 231.5K Words Added
Movement’s Achievements
Click on any language to discover more about its diffusion and see the COVID articles translation status. Read them on Wikipedia or take action and translate one today!
Wikipedia is an open platform and all articles can be edited by any user. Therefore, the articles originally created by the Movement could have been modified by others.
- Twi 9 million native speakers
- Swahili 100 million native speakers
- Sesotho/Sotho 5.6 million native speakers
- isiXhosa 8.2 million native speakers
- Zulu/isiZulu 12 million native speakers
- Afrikaans 7.2 million native speakers
- Shona 8.3 million native speakers
- Wolof 5.5 million native speakers
- Yoruba 40 million native speakers
- Igbo 45 million native speakers
- Fula/Pulaar 30 million native speakers
- Hausa 80 million native speakers
- Tshivenda 1.2 million native speakers
- Setswana 5.2 million native speakers
- Luo 4.2 million native speakers
- Eleme 50 thousand native speakers
- Dagbani 1.16 million native speakers
- Covid-19 Simplified Base Document
- Social Distancing/ Physical Distancing
- Pandemic
- Face masks
- Airborne disease
- Hand Washing
- Diagnosis
- Vaccine
- Environment
- Infectious diseases
- Discover all articles produced during our December 2020 AfroCuration event in collaboration with the Dagbani Wikimedians community
Movement’s Stories
Mor
Thanks to Mor and his involvement the Covid-19 article is now available on Wikipedia for 10 million people that speak Wolof. He signed up to support the movement and translated the article in Milan, then the translation was checked by a professor in Senegal and another professor and editor in New York. 0It was then uploaded by our Wikimedia volunteer in Windhoek (Namibia).
Zwivhuya
Zwivhuya is part of the Constitution Hill (South Africa) team, and from her home in Johannesburg she has helped us to launch the movement with her translation. As part of our growing movement, language experts in South Africa have also volunteered to check her translation.
Mahlatse
She’s one of our movement’s most productive members, translating information on Covid-19 into Sesotho, an official language in South Africa, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe spoken by over 13million people. Despite the pressures of studies, she took a moment away from her Tourism Management studies at the University of Johannesburg to support this Covid-response effort.
Barack
"When I heard of COVID-19, I thought it was beyond the understanding of non-elites, but I have learned to appreciate the power of language. I will give my best to see that my community—The Luo—Can also access the vital information concerning this pandemic."
Ollorwi
“It is a great pleasure that the Indigenous People of Eleme, a minority of the minorities' tribe, can access COVID-19 information in their own Language.” Mr Ollorwwi Osaro Chairman at Eleme Language Center, decided to join the movement and translate with his faculty all 10 articles on Covid-19 in Eleme.
Peri Mason
“I collaborated with my mom to write the articles, she did the proof reading and I the translation of the base article in English to IsiXhosa and IsiZulu. The process was so enriching and eye opening for the both of us. My mom said reading the article in isiZulu “took her back to her schooling days” because there isn’t enough material on the internet in our native tongues. I encourage everyone to join in and narrow the knowledge gap on the internet.”
Refiloe and Kennet
This is Refiloe and Kenneth. Despite not living in the same city for over 10 years, the siblings were able to come together and help so many others. Now, thanks to them, information about covid-19 has been translated into Setswana, an official language of South Africa spoken by over 4 million people. Setswana is also spoken by a further 8 million across Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Rossouw
Rossouw is part of WikimediaZA, the South African chapter of Wikimedia, and he has been collaborating with us for a few months now. On top of the translation of the articles, he's taking care of uploading on Wikipedia articles translated and proofread by other volunteers from the movement.
Alhassan
Working in education for over a decade, a former head teacher, Alhassan is now a schedule Officer in Nanton District Education Office, in Ghana. “I see this as an opportunity to learn, and contribute ideas. We should be able to translate all this knowledge into our local language. Maybe one day it can be recognized globally.”
Hajara
This is Hajara, a student from Tamale, Ghana. ”I'm a Dagomba by tribe and I'll love to see the Dagbani language being among other international languages when searching for something in Dagbani, so this motivated me to join this challenge when it was introduced to me by a friend so that I can also help promote the Dagbani language.”
Musah
This is Musah. By day, he teaches Dagbani and Mathematics at The Little Way R/C Junior High School in Tamale, Ghana. When he’s not doing this he’s a special kind of agent! He’s a Water Sanitation and Hygiene company agent.
Peter
This is Peter. He's a young graduate from Tarikpaa, Savelugu in Ghana, who took an interest in “sharing my little knowledge in the free encyclopedia”. Besides the desire to share, Peter noted he was motivated to participate in AfroCuration as he also wished to be able to learn from the free encyclopedia too.
Partners
FAQ
What is this campaign about?
Whilst most of the world discusses Coronavirus, millions cannot join the conversation on the virus because this information is not available in their language. To spark creativity in solutions to the problems we are facing, we need knowledge on what the situation is. Translating knowledge about Covid-19 can help people locally understand and create new and useful solutions as a response, which in some cases can be life-saving.
What Wikipedia articles are you asking to be translated?
To respond to the pandemic, we are encouraging writers of African languages to translate information into their languages. We have adapted and simplified the 10 most important entries needed to spark solutions about Coronavirus and related health concepts not yet available on Wikipedia in African languages. Our focus is ‘stationary facts’. We’re not competing with TV and radio for latest updates, but people need to know (for example) what social distancing is, and why it’s important.The 10 articles are:
- Covid-19 Simplified Base Document
- Social Distancing/ Physical Distancing
- Hand Washing
- Pandemic
- Infectious diseases
- Airborne disease
- Vaccine
- Environment
- Diagnosis
- Face masks
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Why do you use Wikipedia and not a different platform?
Wikipedia is one of the 10 most used website in the world, with 18 billion user every month. It’s free and accessible almost anywhere. All information are user-generated and can be modified and improved by anyone, anytime. If you think you might have a better solution to spread information in indigenous African languages about Covid-19, reach out and send an email to call@moleskinefounfation.org.
Why don’t you encourage people to write an article about Covid-19 in African languages directly on Wikipedia?
We love Wikipedia, but the process of adding an article directly on the website can take quite some time for people who don’t know how to use the platform correctly. So, we teamed up with local Wikimedia Chapters to seek their support in uploading the article you will be creating. This way contents will be generated faster and you can focus on translating without worrying about technical staff.
Can I write an article directly on Wikipedia?
Sure! Just make sure you’re logged into your Wikipedia account, and that you send us your username so we can add your effort to the movement for reporting.
Who will check if my translation is well made?
In the first place, you. It is your responsibility to make the first draft as good as possible. As we said, seek for family and friends help if you are not sure about your translation. The article will be than checked and uploaded on Wikipedia. And one of the great things of adding a content on Wikipedia is having a community ready to improve and edit any article, if needed.
I have submitted my application more than 48h ago and I’m still waiting for the article to be translated. What else can I do?
Sorry about that. There might be 2 main reasons:
- We have received tons of application and we’re doing our best to fulfil every request on time. Bear with us!
- The articles in the languages you can translate in have been already translated. Check on Wikipedia and see if you can improve any of them. In the meantime, we might increase the list of articles to be translated. So stay tuned and check your inbox regularly.
I’m close to the end of the 4 days deadline and I’m still not finished. What can I do?
No worries. We love that you’re taking some time to run the best translation ever (?). Just write in red at the top of the article or add a comment that you need an extra 24h to complete your task, so we don’t assign the article to someone else.
I’ve changed my mind and I don’t feel like translating anymore. What happen?
While we are sorry to hear that, no worries. Please write in red at the top of the article that you are not going to complete the task or add a comment. Someone else will pick from where you left. If you change your mind, sign up again and start fresh.
Can I go outside?
Not really, sorry about that! Follow the safety instructions shared in your country and stay safe! Studies have proved that translating online in African indigenous languages is one of the best ways to spend your time while you’re forced home (prove we’re wrong if you can 😊)
