The Kanuri Wikipedia (kr.wikipedia.org) was created very early in Wikipedia’s history (mid-2000s) but remained “dead” for nearly two decades with fewer than 15 articles. It was almost closed down entirely in 2007. To save the project, a new version was started in the Wikimedia Incubator (coded as Wp/knc). This allowed a new generation of editors to build content from scratch without the “dead” baggage of the old site.
Following massive community drives in 2023 to 2025, the project satisfied the “Language Committee” requirements, on 30th January 2025 the site was created and is now establishing itself as a standalone Wikipedia site (knc.wikipedia.org).
Who are behind the project?
The project is driven by the Central Kanuri Wikimedians Community User Group a local community of activists and language enthusiast with a vision in promoting free knowledge across the sub Saharan Africa.
Most of our activities are based in north eastern Nigeria most especially Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Bauchi, Jigawa, and other Kanuri speaking communities. The community works closely with Borno State University, Ramat Polytechnic and other high institutions across Borno state to train students as editors to kick start the new project.
Here are links and photos of our earliest activities:
Who are the Leading Figures
- 1. Mohammed Mustapha Bulama, Wikipedia username (MohammedBama123) who serve as the Chairman and co-founder of the Central Kanuri Wikimedians Community user group.
- 2. Umar Mohammed, Wikipedia username (Umargana1) who serve as the vice chairman and also a co-founder of the Central Kanuri Wikimedians Community user group.
- 3. Mohammed Musty, Wikipedia username (Mustybdc) who serve as the logistics and communication officer.
- 4. Ummusalma Suleiman, Wikipedia username (Ummusalmasuleiman2001) she is the female representative and social media expert of the user group.
These people have been instrumental in organizing awareness, outreach and training campaigns since from the incubator stage till the Wikipedia gets it’s own domain on 30th of January 2025.
We are a year older and these are our achievements soo far we, have a total of 1624 articles created and 27870 edit’s were made to the Wikipedia site of the Central Kanuri (knc.wikipedia.org) with approximately 2 million page views each month.
Photos from our recent activities
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