Mujje Tulye from Uganda/Context

The Come and Eat Collection

The Mujje Tulye Come to Eat collection born from two overlapping projects led in Africa: Kumusha Takes Wiki and the photographic contest Wiki Loves Africa.

In the aftermath of these two projects, the authors of this book decided to propose a little collection related to African Cuisine. This book is meant to be a mix of field trip stories, of recipes, a tour of Ugandan markets etc.

The Kumusha Project

Context

Kumusha Takes Wiki is a project that aims at activating communities across Africa to create and contribute freely-licensed information, texts, images and media about their communities (villages, townships, suburbs, inner cities, etc). It uses community journalism to gather community-relevant information on heritage, culture, notable persons, geographical features, among other things. It gives each community an online presence that is 'owned' by the community, provide information that can be pulled into Wikipedia, Wikimedia projects or OpenStreetMap databases, and it adds immeasurably to the understanding of Africa to every human being on the planet (from the people in the village to the person in New York, Mumbai or Milan). This project gives a public voice to communities across Africa, empowering them to share their own histories and, through training, to acquire valuable and transferable skills.

Kumusha is the term used by the Shona people of Zimbabwe to denote the place where you come from. Shona is a Bantu language, native to the Shona people of Zimbabwe and Southern Zambia, and the principal language of Zimbabwe and is also spoken in Zambia, Botswana and Mozambique. The term is also used to identify peoples who speak one of the Shona language dialects: Zezuru, Karanga, Manyika, Ndau and Korekore.

Communities in countries across Africa possess a wealth of oral, local and indigenous knowledge. This knowledge is not currently recorded for preservation purposes or disseminated amongst their citizens and, for a number of historic reasons and conditions, does not contribute to the global conversations online.

Africa is a large and varied place with a myriad cultures and influences, and as such, local knowledge can include, but is not limited to, oral histories, the histories of neighbourhoods and local areas, legends and cultural values held by praise poets and griots, as well as various forms of cultural expression such as material culture and music. Current digital media technologies offer the potential to democraticize knowledge, enabling historically marginalised groups the opportunity to publish their own perspectives, and see themselves, history and contemporary experiences reflected on a global knowledge bank. Recording and sharing this knowledge online has a multitude of benefits for a number of target audiences. The knowledge itself has the potential to create cultural capital for, and pride in, the residents of each community. By using universal global platforms at local levels, the project lead to a broader understanding of the many different cultural groups inhabiting a country or territory, and a greater understanding of and relevance for their own and others’ histories.

Methodology

Kumusha Takes Wiki activates citizens of a community around a specific geographic area. It requires that the people who hold the knowledge of an area contribute the knowledge of and about that community. The knowledge collected and disseminated is published under open licenses compatible with Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects. The project is designed to maximise the potential for activating the online phenomenon of crowdsourcing – where many digital hands make this project a success.

“Kumusha takes Wiki” involves a Wikipedian in Community in each country where the project is active. Within Kumusha takes Wiki project, the Wikipedian in Community has the task of facilitating the maximum engagement and community activation and encouraging, supporting participants, holding events for the communities that are activated by the main project, identifying key community players, engaging their participation in the project and ensuring that their communities (around schools, community organisations and cultural centres) are involved in and contributing to the project. The Wikipedian in Community also ensure that institutions and organisations that hold each community’s culture, heritage and memory (museums, libraries, archives, arts and craft organisations) are activated and donate their time and information to the project.

As part of Kumusha, games, competitions, OpenStreetMap mapping parties, photography challenges, are held at a local level to drive direct contributions of individuals in communities across Africa. Kumusha takes Wiki involves national calls for communities, specifically schools, libraries, community centers, in two languages - English and French.

Where to find more ?

• On Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/KumushaTakesWiki
• On Twitter: https://twitter.com/KumushaWiki
• On the English Wikipedia: Wikipedia:Kumusha_Takes_Wiki

Wiki Loves Africa photographic contest

Poster created at the end of the Wiki Loves Africa 2014 photographic contest with winning pictures.
Author: Thandiwe Tshabalala. CC BY SA 4.0

Wiki Loves Africa is a public annual photographic contest where people across Africa can contribute media (photographs, video and audio) about their environment on Wikimedia Commons for use on Wikipedia and other project websites of the Wikimedia Foundation. Wiki Loves Africa particularly encourages participants to contribute media that illustrate a specific theme for that year. Each year the theme changes and could include any such universal, visually rich and culturally specific topics (for example, markets, rites of passage, festivals, public art, cuisine, natural history, urbanity, daily life, notable persons, etc).

The theme for the 2014 photo contest was Cuisine. That year's contest was seeking to document in the form of various media, the diverse types of cuisines across the continent of Africa. The theme encompassed the "foods", "dishes", "crops", "husbandry", "culinary art", "cooking methods", "utensils", "food markets", "festivals", "culinary events", "famine food" and any other issues related to cuisine on the African continent. The contest was a two-month competition which started on the 1st October and end on the 30th November 2014. The project was run at the entire continental level. However, some specific actions (training, communication etc.) were held in some countries with national organisers.

Where to find more ?

• www.wikilovesafrica.org
• On Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/WikiLovesAfrica
• On Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/wikilovesafrica

People involved / Partners / Credits

Kumusha Takes Wiki and Wiki Loves Africa were conceived by Florence Devouard and Isla HaddowFlood (WikiAfrica, at the Africa Centre) in 2013 and 2014. The WiC in Uganda in 2014 was Erina Mukuta Muhame and Samuel Guebo was the 2014 WIC in Cote d'Ivoire.

In Uganda, the team focused on the various types of cuisine, both traditional and contemporary. We looked at the "foods", "dishes", "crops", "husbandry", "culinary art", "cooking methods", "utensils" and "food markets". We visited markets, restaurants, schools of catering, gardens and homes, to capture every aspect of Ugandan cuisine. We looked at both the traditional and contemporary foods in Uganda and showcased the journey of Ugandan cuisine. We uploaded 910 pictures that documented our journey through the two months from the food source to the plate -- Erina and Ivan.

Kumusha Takes Wiki is a WikiAfrica project that was supported in 2013-2014 by Orange Foundation in Cote d'Ivoire and Uganda. Wiki Loves Africa was supported by WikiAfrica at the Africa Centre and was funded by the Wikimedia Foundation.

Wiki Loves Africa was organised by the Wikimedia community with the help from (whenever applicable) their local Wikimedia chapters or usergroups. The 2014 edition was facilitated by Florence Devouard and Isla Haddow.