Alhassan Mohammed Awal Leads Dagaare Wikimedia Community to Launch New Wikipedia Incubator

Alhassan Mohammed Awal, a dedicated Co-lead of the Dagaare Wikimedia Community, has led a successful effort to complete the translation of the most important words and phrases in translatewiki.net, paving the way for the launch of a new Wikipedia incubator. Thanks to his and his fellow community members’ hard work, the Dagaare Wikipedia incubator now has over 200 articles and counting.

This accomplishment is a significant milestone for the Dagaare language, spoken by over one million people in Ghana and Burkina Faso, and for the global Wikimedia movement, which strives to make knowledge accessible to everyone in their language.

It is so much pride in what we have been able to achieve. We aimed to make Dagaare speakers feel that their language is important and can be used to create knowledge. We want to empower our community to document its history, culture, and traditions, and to share them with the world.

The translation of the most important words and phrases in translatewiki.net was a crucial step in this process, as it is a prerequisite for starting a new Wikipedia in a language. It required a significant amount of time, effort, and collaboration among community members, who worked tirelessly to ensure that the translations were accurate and consistent.

There have been testimonies from the community members regarding the critical role Awal has played in leading this effort. “He was instrumental in coordinating the translation work, training new volunteers, and creating awareness about the project among Dagaare speakers. His passion for the Dagaare language and his dedication to the Wikimedia movement are truly inspiring,” says a community member.

The launch of the Dagaare Wikipedia incubator is just the beginning of a long journey, but it is a significant step forward for the Dagaare language and the Wikimedia movement. It is a testament to the power of community collaboration and the importance of linguistic diversity in the digital age.

“We hope that the Dagaare Wikipedia incubator will continue to grow and thrive”, says Awal. We, therefore invite everyone who speaks Dagaare or is interested in our language and culture to join us and contribute to this project. Together, we can create a rich and diverse repository of knowledge that reflects the richness and diversity of our community.

These achievements could not have been possible without the hand of God and the guidance of these two resource persons; Amir E. Aharoni who is a global admin at Wikimedia and as well a Wikimedia Language Committee member and Shahadu Sadik who is also the Executive Director of Dagbani Wikimedians User Group. From us all at the Dagaare Wikimedians Community, we say a big THANK YOU to Amir and Sadik for your support thus far.

Dagbani Wikimedians User Group is on the mission of supporting the incubation of all 16 Mole-Dagbani Languages and the Dagaare is one of them. The Dagaare Wikimedians Community is a community of total newbies who are enthusiastic and dedicated in their contributions to the incubator to see the approval of the Dagaare Wikipedia Incubator as soon as possible as a way of developing and growing their language in the digital space.

Congratulations to the Dagaare Wikimedia Community on this remarkable achievement, and best wishes for the future of the Dagaare Wikipedia incubator!