In the 37th episode of WikiAfrica Hour, which was broadcast on July 26, 2024, our guest host Tochi Precious engaged in a lively discussion with five participants from Africa Baraza, Wiki Causerie, and the Wikimedia Foundation communications team.
Afrika Baraza is a virtual platform designed for African Wikimedians to connect, collaborate, and engage in meaningful conversations. The term “baraza” is Swahili for a public open forum, where communities come together to dialogue. Its goal is to facilitate and deepen global connection, engagement, collaboration, and community sensitization among communities on the African continent and in the diaspora.
WikiCauserie, on the other hand, is an online bi-monthly meeting aimed at uniting the French-speaking member communities of WikiFranca to discuss current challenges, successes, and future opportunities. This initiative provides an opportunity to deepen collaboration and strengthen ties within the French-speaking community.
The episode explored how Afrika Baraza and Wiki Causerie can foster connections among people, the similarities and differences between the two initiatives, the objectives that inspired their creation, and how these communities have embraced them.
The WikiAfrica Hour In Focus segment was an Inspiring Open interview by Donia Domiaty with Anusha Alikhan.
“Some of the main goals of the Africa agenda, build more leadership and educate people about governance structures, and also how to contribute more, and how to make those contributions stick. This is the way to do that in a way that provides many people across the continent a voice, and also it creates a support network. It helps us to connect mentors and others to share ideas and solve problems.” — Anusha Alikhan
“Wiki Causerie is something that has never happened before. So it’s an opportunity for people to talk to share challenges, opportunities and to learn from each other.” — Traoré Abiba Pauline
Guests included:
Ceslause Ogbonnaya, Afrika Baraza Working group
Ceslause Ogbonnaya has been a Wikimedian since 2018. He is the former Host & Project manager for WikiAfrica Hour. He currently is the Wikimedian-In-Residence for AfroCreatives WikiProject, working to document the African creative industry on Wikipedia and its sister projects, and is also a member of the Afrika Baraza Working group.
Winnie Kabintie, Wikimedia Foundation (WMF)
Winnie is a Wikipedia Editor and Community Organizer based in Kenya, passionate about championing Media and Information literacy, Gender Equity, Human Rights and Social Change. She is also mobilized a community to form the new Wikimedia Community Usergroup Kenya, which was formally recognised as an affiliate in 2022.
Anusha Alikhan, Wikimedia Foundation (WMF)
Anusha has more than 15 years of communications experience spanning the areas of human rights, technology, knowledge access, international development, media innovation, gender equity, and healthcare. She joined the Foundation in 2019 as the Senior Director of Communications. Currently, Anusha is the Chief Communications Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation. https://wikimediafou ndation.org/profile/anusha-alikhan/
Traoré Abiba Pauline, Wikimedia Ivory Coast
Abiba Pauline.joined wikimedia movement in 2018. He is passionate about communications and human relations. He is in charge of communications for Wikimedia Côté d’Ivoire.
Mahuton Possoupe, Wikimedia Foundation (WMF)
Mahuton Possoupe from Benin Republic, based in Paris. He is a movement communication specialist at the Wikimedia Foundation, supporting African and francophones communities. He is the co-founder of Wikimedia Bénin User group and Fon language Wikimedians community.
This WikiAfrica Hour episode’s guest host is Tochi Precious
Tochi is a Multilingual Project Manager, Teacher, Translator, Entrepreneur, Co-founder & Executive Director of Igbo Wikimedia Organization. A Wikimedian in Residence at Wikitongues. She’s a member of the Wikimedia Foundation’s Language Committee and a Board Member.
To watch the whole episode visit: https://bit.ly/WAHour37
This WikiAfrica Hour episode aired live: check out our Website or the WikiAfrica Hour meta page to watch this or previous episodes. All WikiAfrica Hour episodes are available on YouTube.
Episode notes:
Wikimedia Foundation – Communications Team
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