2019:Diversity/The AfroCine Project: Bridging the African Content Gap Through Cinema and Arts

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Diversity/The AfroCine Project: Bridging the African Content Gap Through Cinema and Arts

Title

The AfroCine Project: Bridging the African Content Gap Through Cinema and Arts

Description

The AfroCine Project is a multi-country, multi-faceted WikiProject which aims to encourage the contribution of content that relates to the historical and contemporary cinema, theatre, and arts sectors of several African countries, the Caribbean and the diaspora, to Wikimedia projects.

The Entertainment Industry in Africa is huge; the Nigerian cinema is currently ranked as the third largest film industry in the world, in terms of revenue and production output. Other major film industries in Africa include the cinemas of: Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, and Egypt. All of these very active film industries are poorly represented on Wikimedia projects, as the available information about them is very scanty and difficult to access. The AfroCine Project was kickstarted to help fix this gap. We hope to achieve this through varying methods, such as GLAM partnerships; editing workshops/edit-a-thon, writing/upload contests, etc, using the help of existing communities/affiliates in Africa and beyond.

This project which was started in 2018, undertook the first major event in October last year tagged: the "Month(s) of African Cinema". This was a cross-project writing, translating, and upload contest, which was a success and exceeded all expectations. We have also undertaken a project with Kiwix, to provide offline wiki for African cinema. This

Relationship to the theme

This session will address the conference theme — Wikimedia, Free Knowledge and the Sustainable Development Goals — in the following manner:

This session aims to talk about different ways whereby we can reduce the content gaps which exists in relation to African countries through focus on pop culture. This completely fits into the tenth (10th) point in the SDGs, which aims at reducing inequalities by ensuring "enhanced representation and voice for developing countries". It also in turn touches on some other aspects of the goals as well.

Session outcomes

At the end of the session, the following will have been achieved: This session hopes to create awareness of this project, by talking about the achievements of the past year, while inviting other community members to participate in the project and its activities. The ultimate goal is to bridge the content gap about Africa.

Session leader(s)

Sam Oyeyele

Usernames

User:Jamie Tubers

Affiliation/country

Nigeria

E-mail contact

samoye_hotmail.com

Session type

Each Space at Wikimania 2019 will have specific format requests. The program design prioritises submissions which are future-oriented and directly engage the audience. The format of this submission is a:

• Lecture

Length of session

If other than 20 minutes, specify how long

Supporting work

Optional:

• The AfroCine Project
• The Months of African Cinema
• Offline Nollywood

Requirements

The session will work best with these conditions:

• Room:

a lecture hall, a projector + screen

• Audience:

Anyone is fit to attend this session.

• Recording:

Can be filmed with a single fixed-location camera; no restrictions to sharing.