AfroCROWD

Afro Free Culture Crowdsourcing Wikimedia (AfroCROWD) is an initiative which seeks to increase the number of people of African descent who actively partake in the Wikimedia and free knowledge, culture and software movements. Since its launch during Black Wiki History Month in 2015, AfroCROWD has sensitized thousands in its target audience about free culture crowdsourcing and the need to close the multicultural and gender gaps in Wikipedia. AfroCROWD has also held monthly multilingual editathons in partnership with cultural institutions such as the Brooklyn Public Library, the Studio Museum in Harlem, Museum of Modern Art, the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI) and Haiti Cultural Exchange. AfroCROWD has also trained future trainers in the target community.

The editathon events will take into account that many Afrodescendant groups in the United States might find that access to Wikipedia’s multilingual crowdsourcing platform can help them transfer free knowledge to populations of African descent outside of the United States that they are connected to through origin or direct familial bonds. Multilingual Afrodescendants may also want to use such platforms to develop and maintain online bodies of relevant knowledge in native languages such as Garifuna, Haitian Kreyòl, Igbo, Bozal Spanish, Twi or Yoruba, thereby contributing to the survival of -- and increasing their proficiency in -- those languages while also feeling more culturally grounded.