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Nigeria report

GLAM in Africa, a Nigerian narrative in knowledge decolonization a case study of Benin City

By Lutarchitecture

Report on Activities in the African GLAM Space

Through several Wiki projects focused on conserving and disseminating knowledge from the continent's many cultures, the African GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) sector has continued to develop. The 43rd episode of Wiki in Africa Hour, which addressed the topic of decolonizing knowledge on Wikipedia, was one of the pivotal points in this development. Speakers from Switzerland, Brazil, Cameroon, and Nigeria participated in this significant conversation, each contributing their own viewpoints on the prospects and difficulties of knowledge decolonization within the Wikimedia ecosystem. One of the main conclusions from the discussion was the need to fortify ties between GLAM institutions and Wiki projects throughout Africa. Many African museums, libraries, and cultural institutions house vast amounts of knowledge, but much of this content remains inaccessible online. The discussion examined how Wikipedia and other Wiki projects can serve as powerful tools in enabling Africans to tell their own stories, ensuring that local histories, traditions, and perspectives are accurately represented in global digital knowledge repositories. Speakers emphasized the importance of moving away from historically Eurocentric narratives and toward more inclusive, African-centred content to make knowledge more representative and equitable. These organizations can digitize their archives and make them publicly accessible to a worldwide audience by collaborating with Wikimedia projects. This would guarantee that African histories are written by the people who know them best. The conversation also covered how GLAM can give voice to underrepresented stories. Numerous African tales have historically been either left out or inaccurately depicted in popular historical accounts. Contributors are actively attempting to close this gap by recording oral traditions, lesser-known historical individuals, and regional cultural practices through projects like Wiki Loves Africa, AfroCine, and the Open Heritage movement. By giving communities the ability to decide how their stories are shared and presented, these initiatives aim to empower them in addition to conserving history. Projects like oral history projects, digitization of traditional knowledge, and local content creation offer complementary avenues for ensuring that diverse African narratives are recorded and disseminated, and cooperation between academic institutions, cultural institutions, and Wikimedia communities was identified as a key strategy in accomplishing these goals. Off-wiki projects were also emphasized as being essential in supporting decolonization efforts beyond Wikipedia. All things considered, Wiki in Africa Hour's 43rd edition provided a forum for lively conversations about decolonizing knowledge and enhancing GLAM institutions' connections with Wikimedia initiatives in Africa. The discussion reaffirmed the notion that online resources such as Wikipedia can be extremely important in correcting historical injustices and guaranteeing that African knowledge is maintained and disseminated by its possessors. To promote a more inclusive and representative digital environment going forward, Wikimedia communities and GLAM institutions must maintain their engagement to strengthen Africa's voice in international knowledge-sharing forums.

For Nigeria using Benin City as a case study it was expedient that oral testimonies be given more support and then partnership with local cultural institutions and press to help document the oral traditions to readable articles so they can be cited to enhance validity and reliability. A need for checkmating originality and authenticity of the oral testimonies was a major discourse and the need to verify that the testify or orator has ties to the Heritage or cultural matter being discussed was of great concern affirming that they are locals and have tied to the cultural cum indigenous practice of the place is expedient.


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