Page:Wikipedia and Academic Libraries.djvu/111

98 Wikimedia South Africa, Wikimedia Community User Group Ghana, Open West Foundation, Wikimedia Community User Group Nigeria, and Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda (D. Ndubane, personal communication, October 15, 2020).

Ennegreciendo Wikipedia/Noircir Wikipedia/Blackening Wikipedia

Wikipedians AfricanadeCuba and Galahmm founded a global campaign that has Wikipedia projects in English and French, which started in 2018, and in Spanish and Catalan, which launched in 2019. In French, the project is referred to as Noircir Wikipedia, in Spanish as Ennegreciendo Wikipedia, in Catalan as Trobades Ennegrint Viquipèdia, and in English as Blackening Wikipedia. All four projects work to increase and improve references, articles, and information about African and Afro-descendant diaspora culture on Wikipedia. Blackening Wikipedia is multilingual and aims to organize all over the diaspora.

AfroCROWD

In 2015, lawyer and activist Alice Backer was recruited by a Wikipedian at a Global Voices Summit, an international, multilingual volunteer community. This Wikipedian shared with Backer his cognizance of the white-centric homogenous community that existed then and still does now (A. Backer, personal communication, August 29, 2020). After attending a BLT edit-a-thon, Backer was inspired and started AfroCROWD in an attempt to bring Black voices into the movement and diversify content on the platform.

With the initial intention to organize in local Black communities, Backer learned access to technology and space was not equitable. However, libraries often provided computer rooms for community-organized events. Backer started having AfroCROWD events at the Brooklyn Public Library. Backer is currently taking a step back and allowing the executive director to steer the campaign. She still edits but enjoys the freedom from the stress of dealing with of the bureaucracy of Wikipedia and the Foundation’s grants committee (A. Backer, personal communication, August 29, 2020).