8 December,
Accra: Narrative change
organisation, Africa No Filter, today
announced new partnerships with Hewlett
Foundation, Meta (formerly Facebook), and
the Wikimedia Foundation for its campaign
to shift the stereotypical narratives
about and within Africa.
The new funding
pool of USD1.2 million will be invested in
research, building community, and
storytelling initiatives that present new
perspectives on the continent, including
projects that reimagine African creativity
through immersive reality and expand how
Africa is represented on Wikimedia projects. This is part of
Africa No Filter’s goal to grow the
community of partners and funders who want
to see current narratives shift towards a
more contemporary and nuanced view of the
continent.
The Hewlett
Foundation is the ninth funder to support
the Africa No Filter donor collaborative,
joining Ford Foundation, Bloomberg, Andrew
W. Mellon Foundation, Luminate, Open
Society Foundations, Comic Relief, the
Hilton Foundation, and the British Council
in partnering with Africa No Filter to
shift and disrupt stereotypical narratives
about Africa.
Hewlett’s funds
will primarily support ANF’s ongoing
grantmaking in the arts, culture, and
media space. A portion of the funds will
go towards a storytelling campaign aimed
at shifting narratives around sexual
health and reproduction rights in
Hewlett’s key countries.
In line with Meta’s
focus on the immersive technologies, which
they are calling the metaverse, the
partnership will push the boundaries of
storytelling by supporting content
producers to create virtual and augmented
reality films that tell African stories.
It will also ensure that African creators
are represented as the next generation of
the internet emerges.
Greater
representation of African people,
experiences and contexts are at the core
of the collaboration between Africa No
Filter and the Wikimedia Foundation, the
nonprofit that operates Wikipedia. More
content about Africa will be added to
Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia,
to close knowledge equity gaps on one of
the world’s most visited sites.
According to the “Extent of
Geolocated Entities in Articles” tab of
the Geography Gap Project, only 5.5% of all
geotagged articles in all Wikipedia
language editions are related to Africa.
On English Wikipedia specifically, 4% of
geotagged articles relate to Africa.
Africa No Filter seeks to increase the
number of African contributors to
Wikimedia projects and to grow the corpus
of African knowledge in multiple African
languages.
Through the
partnership with Wikimedia Foundation and
the African Union, Africa No Filter has
launched the Africa Knowledge Initiative.
This collaboration will bring together
creatives, activists and mission-aligned
organizations, along with the African
Wikimedia communities to produce
verifiable, locally relevant, and easily
accessible content to increase the
representation of African knowledge on the
internet. The Africa Knowledge Initiative
will grow the corpus of African knowledge
and the number of African knowledge
producers. It will also translate the
knowledge into multiple African
languages.
The Meta and
Wikimedia Foundation projects will offer
funding, mentorship, and capacity
building. They will be launched through
grant callouts on Africa No Filter’s usual
platforms.
Moky Makura,
Executive Director at Africa No Filter,
says: "We are incredibly honoured that
Africa No Filter has been identified as a
trusted partner and custodian of these
projects. Each partnership supports the
creation of content that is more
representative of what is happening across
the continent, which fuels our mission.
New partnerships and funding allow us to
increase our reach and impact and
ultimately bring awareness of the
importance of which story Africans are
telling. It means we can do more – it’s an
exciting time for Africa No Filter. "
Media enquiries: Lerato@africanofilter.org
About
Africa No Filter
Africa No Filter is
a donor collaborative shifting
stereotypical and harmful narratives
within and about Africa through research,
grant-making, community building and
advocacy by supporting storytellers,
investing in media platforms, and driving
disruption campaigns. It is funded by Ford
Foundation, Bloomberg, Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation, Luminate, Open Society
Foundations, Comic Relief, the Hilton
Foundation, the British Council and
Hewlett Foundation.
About
the Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia
Foundation is the nonprofit organization
that operates Wikipedia and the other
Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our
vision is a world in which every single
human can freely share in the sum of all
knowledge. We believe that everyone has
the potential to contribute something to
our shared knowledge and that everyone
should be able to access that knowledge
freely. We host Wikipedia and the
Wikimedia projects, build software
experiences for reading, contributing, and
sharing Wikimedia content, support the
volunteer communities and partners who
make Wikimedia possible, and advocate for
policies that enable Wikimedia and free
knowledge to thrive.
About Meta
Meta builds
technologies that help people connect,
find communities, and grow businesses.
When Facebook launched in 2004, it changed
the way people connect. Apps like
Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp further
empowered billions around the world. Now,
Meta is moving beyond 2D screens toward
immersive experiences like augmented and
virtual reality to help build the next
evolution in social technology.
About
Hewlett Foundation
The William and
Flora Hewlett Foundation advances ideas
and supports institutions to promote a
better world. For more than 50 years, the
Foundation has e supported efforts to
advance education for all, preserve the
environment, support vibrant performing
arts, strengthen Bay Area communities,
make the philanthropy sector more
effective, and foster gender equity and
responsive governance around the world.
