Can You Help Us Set Up the New Africa Project? [closed]

Question

Hello WikiTreers!

We have started an  Africa Project which is currently an umbrella project for all countries in Africa except South Africa (which already has a huge and active project). 

We need people who live in Africa, have a great deal of knowledge of Africa, and/or have experience with African records to help us set this project up. We need to start by creating subproject pages for each country with basic, helpful information for WikiTree members.

If you can help with this task, please click on the answer link below and let me know which country(s) you can work on. We now have a Google group to centralize discussions we would like you to join as well.

Thanks!

Comments

Hi, Emma,

I have a very interesting book called "The Scramble For Africa" by Thomas Pakenham. (I have linked the preview.) It details the colonization of Africa. So far it is detailing Congo, South Africa, and Egypt.

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Great that you undertake this giant project Emma. As far as the surrounding [previously named] colonies go, the current Zimbabwe and Namibia already has a substantial amount of connections going back to colonial times in South Africa, as far as the colonial settlers go. There are vast swathes of indigenous people though below the Zambezi and above the Sahara who are still not or probably will ever be known. There are a few ex-Rhodesians who might be helpful with this project as well. My focus is still on just getting the South African projects pre-1900 in good order. Success!

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I also know a 89 year old who lived in Bulawayo as a child. Her grandparents having moved to Rhodesia and South Africa. She tells a very good story about the colonisation and situation of at least that one town.

Answer 1

I'd love to but I have no contacts in Africa to help with this.

Answer 2

Happy to help with Cameroon/Cameroun /Kamerun. Used to work there a long time ago, but no recent contact (it’s a bit of a mess now, hidden from the World)

Chris

Comments

Hi Chris, we had to table the Africa Project for a few months due to setting up some other things, but we are now getting started (for real this time). If you are still interested, please let me know. I'm going to need a ton of help. Thanks! Emma

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Hi Emma, still willing to help, but life keeps getting in the way! I know nothing of the records, but could probably help with geography and history resources and category structure.

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Chris, I'm going to send you a private message and ask you about a couple of things on this. Thanks! Emma

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Hi Emma, the Cameroon pages are now much more filled out thanks to the recent 17 nations tour. A few more profiles could be easily created, and some work to do on making bilingual.

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Hi Chris, is there any support you need right now for Cameroon, such as categories? I see a sticker was created.

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Hi Emma, I think the initial  Cameroon categories and background pages are OK. We just need some more profiles  - plenty to do (Ngannou already there!)

But a few bilingual categories as exemplars would be very helpful.

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We need to find out who to talk to about bilingual categories. The set up for these is very specific and I don't know who keeps track of it.

Answer 3

Please sign me up for Northern Africa, Western Africa (Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Benin) and Middle Africa (Gabon, Congo, Chad, Central African Republic). I can help with French records there. And I've done some work on pre-Independence Algeria categories which I'd like to follow up on. Thanks!

Comments

Merci, Isabelle!

Answer 4

I cannot help, but can only suggest that it would be cool to reach out to the African Oral History Project on FamilySearch: https://www.familysearch.org/help/oral-history/getting-started

Valorie

Answer 5

Count me in for Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi.  I am happy to help or contribute to Mozambique and Tanzania.  Working on war graves in Tanzania and will be moving onto Zambia.  Am a member of South African routes.  Have done/set up place Categorisation projects in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia.  Also doing Cemeteries work In all countries.  Have been off WikiTree for about eight months, for personal reasons, but am resuming my work now.

Comments

thanks so much, Andrew! I've got you added to the project and created some of the missing country pages you'll be working on. You can see them all linked on our project page

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Africa#Country_Subprojects

Answer 6

Hi!

I can absolutely try to be of help although myself know very little of African (i.e. Tanzanian) ways of register their people, but my husband comes from Tanzania and I have already started to register his relatives. We go there regularly (once a year), so I will try to interest his relatives for genealogy!

Comments

Thanks so much, Monika. I've got you added!

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Thanks!

Answer 7

I am interested in working on Ethiopia and have set up a page. Ethiopia Project (following guidelines)

Comments

Awesome, Shoshanah. I"ll answer the private message from you about this country shortly.

Answer 8

Hello Emma,

I identified a two-time Grammy Award-winning Malian notable in music (all creatives are my soft spot when it comes to creating profiles, so I've made a lot of them for the Notables Project), which led me to create the Mali_Project page and review the other Malian notables profiles. I updated the link for the Mali Project on the Africa Project page. Your African Countries subprojects spreadsheet had 1 notable for Mali, but it should show 4 as of today 12/08/2023. Cheers!