Dear all,

My name is Olushola (User: Olaniyan Olushola). I am from Africa and have been a Wikimedia since 2014 and passionate about language. I co-lead the Oral History documentation of Nigerian indigenous languages ( see more about it here ). I am part and parcel of the working group for this Journalism Award. Together with other community members and some foundation staff, we have co-created the submission guidelines and award criteria, including that articles should be English language articles published in a major outlet. 

Everything regarding the rationale for this award is being done in consultation with members of our African communities, aligned with our goals to increase exposure for the work we love in the region and close knowledge gaps. 

One thing to mention is that articles about Africa, especially written by journalists with a local perspective, must be better represented in our language Wikipedias, including English. 

With this being a brand-new initiative, it was the best time to learn. 

It is a pilot, and we all see this as an experiment to draw more attention to journalists' important role as content creators on Wikipedia. 

You will agree that we need to celebrate existing journalism excellence that helps fill knowledge gaps online. 

The working group conferred, and since this is a pilot, we decided together that it was a good idea to consider the need to limit the scope to collect data and insights easily. We understand the sentiment behind language in Africa and beyond, and we always wanted to keep everything simple. We know that no language is superior to the other, so this is a pilot. From here, we will likely assess the impact we can have before scaling. 

We wish to expand this initiative with more regional volunteers should it succeed - and we hope it will. 

We already have more than a hundred entries! 

Thank you 

Shola