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Putting Namibia on Wikipedia through ‘Edit-A-Thon’

Putting Namibia on Wikipedia through ‘Edit-A-Thon’

Goethe-Institut Namibia recently opened up the world of Wikipedia to Womxn from Namibia through a project called ‘Edit-A-Thon’.

The project, which falls under Goethe-Institut’s new programme ‘Decolonise the Internet’ aims to encourage African Womxn to learn about Wikipedia and to take up the important task of adding knowledge to the world’s largest online reference.

The project afforded participants to learn how to write, edit and publish articles on Wikipedia and increase Namibia’s digital footprint on the free online encyclopedia. Through support of the Goethe-Institut, Peter Gallert, Wikipedia Ambassador to Namibia facilitated a workshop on writing for Wikipedia.

According to Gallert, there are currently only 3 white male writers who write, edit and publish articles about Namibia on Wikipedia and most of the articles are mainly in English, Afrikaans, Chinese, Portuguese and German.

Programmes such ‘Decolonise the Internet’ focuses on bridging the unequal representation of voices from the Global South on the Internet and aims to increase awareness on how AI and algorithms might perpetuate racisms.

Participants of the Wikipedia workshop, Aurelia Maghambayi, Elizabeth Djuulume, Hannah Tarindwa and Rossow van Rooyen were this week awarded brand-new laptops, tablets and phones for the articles about Namibia that were published on Wikipedia.

The winning articles include an article on Jan Spies, A Poem to the President, Culture in Namibia and an article on Ester Hango.


 

 

 f.l.t.r: Peter Gallert (Wikipedia Ambassador Namibia), Aurelia Maghambayi, Elizabeth Djuulume, Hannah Tarindwa and Rossow van Rooyen aunt representing him.

About The Author

Donald Matthys

Donald Matthys has been part of the media fraternity since 2015. He has been working at the Namibia Economist for the past three years mainly covering business, tourism and agriculture. Donald occasionally refers to himself as a theatre maker and has staged two theatre plays so far. Follow him on twitter at @zuleitmatthys