Wikipedia:Africa-related regional notice board

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Welcome to the Africa-related regional notice board! Content related to Africa in the en Wikipedia is often incomplete and lacking in quality, quantity, and generally not worthy of the coolest continent :D.

This page is a notice board for things particularly relevant to Wikipedians working on articles related to Africa. Current editors feel that Wikipedia is sorely lacking in Africa-related content. And where it exists, a lot of it is not wikified, needs editing, lacks content, or is just a re-hash of the same old encyclopedias that didn't do a good job anyway. This board looks to remedy that.

Contents 1 News and announcements 2 Monthly collaboration 3 General suggestions for Africa editors 4 Related pages 5 Stub Messages 6 Africa Award 7 Wikipedians actively working on Africa-related topics

[edit] News and announcements

• African Collaboration of the Month will be rendered inactive on December 31, 2006 as there is not enough participation. A pity, but it seems people (me included) are too busy with other tasks to bother with it. --Ezeu 22:27, 15 December 2006 (UTC)
• {{Cameroon-bio-stub}} has been created. — BrianSmithson 02:35, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
• Swahili literature is the current African Collaboration of the Month. --Ezeu 23:25, 23 November 2006 (UTC)
• There is a new WikiProject proposed to deal with the continent of Africa in its entirety at User:XYZ CrVo/WikiProject Africa. I know the scope of the project is enormous, but it could easily be broken into subprojects as time goes on and interest is demonstrated, and will not really try to duplicate the work of existing projects. Anyone interested in joining the project could indicate such at Wikipedia:WikiProject/List of proposed projects#Africa or at User:XYZ CrVo/WikiProject Africa. Thank you for your attention. The creator of the project is a comparatively new wikipedian, so I think he would welcome all the help he can get. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 23:10, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
  • Section for any comments on the talk. - BanyanTree 23:45, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
• I was reading Africa Cafe, which I accessed through Afrika.no, and they have "African Islands" as a category, along with Northern Africa, Western Africa, etc. I think it is a good idea to create an en:Wikipedia Category:African Islands while leaving the islands in their current categories. A list: Seychelles, Comoros, Mauritius, Cape Verde, Reunion, Zanzibar, Madagascar, Socotra, ...???. If the category is simply created and then populated, it would not be a lot of work. Would any subcategories be created for this category? Etc. Please comment in the discussion section of this page. --McTrixie 07:36, 12 November 2006 (UTC)
• A new African military history Wikiproject has just been created. Please participate. -- Szvest 16:00, 5 November 2006 (UTC) ^{Wiki me up ®}

• User Mohau (talk • contribs) has been working on Category:List of Townships in South Africa. Apart from the name (remove List of), when is it a township and not a suburb ? Is it a colour thing ? Wizzy…☎ 09:58, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
• Commons:, to celebrate their millionth upload, is creating a Commons logo composed of what looks like 1200 images in shades of white/grey, red, green and blue. There seems to be a lack of African images if anyone wants to look through their uploads for those with a precisely 4x3 aspect ratio. See here for more. - BanyanTree 02:43, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
• Interesting article on The Register, on the connection between Bodele (in Chad) and the Amazon rainforest. Wizzy…☎ 11:00, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

  I'm just as interested in the source. The Environmental Research Papers charges the people who submit articles. While the article itself seems to have credible contributors and there is an editorial board, I am little concerned at the lack of a track record. - BanyanTree 16:34, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

• References: especially Allafrica.com. Please do not use references from aggregators that expire their articles. Try googling for a string in the article, to see if a non-expiring reference can be found instead. Wizzy…☎ 16:13, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
• History of Zambia is suggested to be split into subarticles, as e.g. History of USA. --Screensaver 09:47, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
• Maraba Coffee is now a featured article, the first Rwandan topic to get that status. Thanks to everyone who contributed to and reviewed the article, and I look forward to working with you in the future to try and get more African topics up to standard. Cheers — SteveRwanda 12:31, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
• 'Reminder: Please cast your vote at Wikipedia:African Collaboration of the Month. --Ezeu 20:19, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
• Swahili literature is waiting for your keyboards. -- Szvest 22:53, 26 September 2006 (UTC) ^{Wiki me up ®}
• A new and interesting article called Timbuktu Manuscripts Project is being developed. Please have a look. -- Szvest 15:52, 25 September 2006 (UTC) ^{Wiki me up ®}
• I justed started to rewrite and expand Kanga (African garment). It is rather poor still, and I want to invite other editors to collaborate on this many-sided topic. Also take a look on its talk page. — mark ✎ 07:20, 25 September 2006 (UTC)
• Despite that Current events/Africa is two clicks away from wikipedias Main Page, it is rather neglected. Please add news items to it. --Ezeu 09:29, 24 September 2006 (UTC)
• I have hijacked the to-do list from the Africa portal as an open tasks template and merged it with the outstanding tasks on the to-do list here. See Portal:Africa/Things you can do and my addition to the general suggestions section below. I tried to get rid of the lines so it didn't uglify Portal:Africa but the task was beyond me. If someone with wikifairy skills could prettify it so it looks good here, at the portal and at CSB open tasks, I would very much appreciate it. - BT 19:03, 22 September 2006 (UTC)
• There is an attempt to revive "African Collaboration". See Wikipedia talk:Africa-related regional notice board#African_Collaboration of the month: An impromptu feasibility study. --Ezeu 14:15, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Monthly collaboration

Each month an Africa-related article is selected as the African Collaboration of the Month (ACOTM). The aim is to take an Africa-related article with potential, and elevate it to good or featured status.

[edit] General suggestions for Africa editors

• Please put the notice board template on the talk pages of Africa related articles by adding {{Wikipedia:Africa-related_regional_notice_board/template}} at the top of them. The template serves to inform wikipedians about this project in order to increase participations and improve it. It appears as:

This article is supported by the Africa-related regional notice board project, for collaborating on and improving Africa-related articles on Wikipedia. Please participate by improving this article, or visit the project page for details.

• The to-do list from the Africa portal ({{Portal:Africa/Things you can do}}) may be used as an open tasks template.

Here are some Africa tasks: Requests: Abu Bakr Atiku, Ali bin Bello I, Jean Serge Essous, Madiaba, Vicky Longomba, more To Expand: Bakoy River, Ronald Robinson, Ghardaïa, Agaw, Yacin Yabeh Galeb, Zomba Massif, Darod, Hawiye, more... Find Images: Yoruba Find Maps: Lake Malawi, Lake Tanganyika New Africa articles

• Many African countries have an official non-native language that isn't English. In many countries it's French. In addition, France, Italy, Greece, Spain, etc. are close to Northern Africa. So if you're looking at a poorly-written article and speak another language, consult the non-English article links to find additional information to mine for the English-language page.

• Verify any CIA factbook information you cite. Smaller African countries are less frequently updated and often contain outdated information.

• Lookout for articles on African topics that meet the criteria at Wikipedia:Good articles, not only to start pushing more articles towards Featured article status, but to help identify articles for inclusion in the Wikipedia 1.0 project. A list has been started on the talk for this page.

• Matt Crypto has posted a "tit for tat" bounty for work on African cities and countries on the Reward board.

• Tag countries and capital cities, significant topics and articles with {{WPCD}} on their Talk pages to ensure inclusion on a CD HTML version of Wikipedia. Good coverage is the discriminator.

[edit] Related pages

• Portals: Africa • Algeria • Libya • Morocco • South Africa • Uganda • Western Sahara
• WikiProjects: African Union • Ancient Egypt • Chad • Countering systemic bias • Eritrea • Ethiopia • International development • Military history: African task force • Nigeria • South African municipalities • Sudan • Western Sahara
• Others: Current events in Africa • WikiProject Deletion sorting/Africa • Manual of Style (Arabic) • New articles subpage

[edit] Stub Messages

General

Please note that creation of stub templates and categories is organised by Wikipedia: WikiProject stub sorting. Any new stub types should be proposed at WP:WSS/P for debate prior to creation. There is a general Africa-related stub message. If you include the {{Africa-stub}} tag in the body of an article the article becomes listed in Category:Africa stubs

There are also a separate stub messages for some individual African countries:

Geographical

There are also African geography-related stub messages. If you include the {{Africa-geo-stub}} tag in the body of an article the article becomes listed in Category:Africa geography stubs

Each of the five main geographical regions of Africa (West, North, East, Central, and Southern) also has a separate geography stub associated with it. The templates being, respectively,

Each of these assigns articles to a separate subcategory of Category:Africa geography stubs.

There are also a separate country-specific geographic stub messages for several African countries, as follows:

There is also {{Azores-geo-stub}} for the Azores, though this does not have Cat:Africa geography stubs as a parent category.

Language stubs

There are three stub types for African languages, corresponding to the three largest African language families:

Biographical

There are also African biography-related stub messages. If you include the {{Africa-bio-stub}} tag in the body of an article the article becomes listed in Category:African people stubs.

The following countries have their own biographical categories:

Miscellaneous

[edit] Africa Award

Users may present the Africa Award to anyone doing good work on Africa-related topics. This includes article creation or expansion, map design, image uploading, even redirecting and stub sorting. Users who have listed themselves above are of course eligible, but don't neglect to award users who may not have heard of the regional notice board.

Credit goes to Jcw69 for the beautiful design. Suggestions on a better name are welcome. — BrianSmithson 19:09, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

• NB: Because the award displayed to right is posted on this page, the text "Africa-related regional notice board" appears in bold text. If it is copied and pasted to another page, it will appear as a wikilink.

[edit] Wikipedians actively working on Africa-related topics

• —iFaqeer (Talk to me!)
• Peregrine981 09:53, Dec 7, 2004 (UTC)
• Ambi 12:19, 7 Dec 2004 (UTC)
• SimonP 18:01, Dec 7, 2004 (UTC)
• Mustafaa 10:57, 8 Dec 2004 (UTC)
• — mark ✎ 12:33, 8 Dec 2004 (UTC) (African languages & linguistics, ethnolinguistics, history, maps)
• Neutrality/^talk 00:25, Dec 13, 2004 (UTC)
• Rjhatl 12:31, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)
• Grutness|^hello? 13:18, 7 Jan 2005 (UTC) (but I'm only moving general geography stubs into Africa-geo-stubs for now)
• Mount Pleasant (available to help out/open to suggestions, esp. Southern Africa, post-colonial politics & issues) --Mount Pleasant 16:13, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)
• Jcw69 (talk) --- looking after articles relating to southern africa
• Warofdreams 13:48, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC) - working on sub-Saharan Africa, especially places.
• Tuf-Kat 01:25, Feb 14, 2005 (UTC) - all kinds of world music, (especially) including African
• BanyanTree 17:14, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC) - (Greater Horn, Great Lakes, and conflict/politics)
• Dewet 17:35, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC) - Southern Africa, especially the Western Cape.
• Ombudsman 08:02, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC) - primatology
• — Matt Crypto 22:46, 28 Mar 2005 (UTC) — the odd Kenyan or Tanzanian topic.
• Gyrofrog (talk) — watching and editing (and occasionally creating) articles about Ethiopia
• TreveX 00:49, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)
• Gicheru 03:21, 29 May 2005 (UTC) Decolonization of Africa
• BrianSmithson 18:32, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC) (talk) — writing articles on all things Cameroonian
• Dvyost 07:09, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC) pitching in where I can
• Guaka, Mali, West Africa, languages (working on the Bambara Wikipedia)
• Revolución 03:35, 30 July 2005 (UTC)
• Acntx 07:06, 8 August 2005 (UTC)
• Szvest 22:49, August 27, 2005 (UTC) ^{Wiki me up™}
• Codex Sinaiticus 18:55, 30 August 2005 (UTC) በ አማርኛ ዊኪፔድያ (Amharic Wikipedia) መጋቢ
• llywrch -- Been working primarily on Ethiopian history topics for several months now, mostly biographies. Comments welcome.
• Smmurphy 05:06, 29 October 2005 (UTC) - esspecially Sierra Leone
• Sonelle (talk) 13:21, 14 November 2005 (UTC) Southern African articles (as time permits)
• Wikiacc (talk) Been working on various random African country articles for some time.
• Ezeu: Been working on East African related topics, as well as African Music.
• omoo (talk), working on East African (tanzania and kenya) articles, and preventing vandalism
• Gozar 05:50, 18 December 2005 (UTC); Great Lakes, DR Congo, micellaneous
• Huldra 15:22, 12 January 2006 (UTC): Tanzania, Kenya, Mali
• Aldux 17:45, 12 January 2006 (UTC): Kenya, Zambia, Chad
• Nausea 17:21, 14 January 2006 (UTC): Zimbabwe (economy), Sierra Leone (Regions), South Africa
• htonl 01:18, 19 January 2006 (UTC): (South Africa geography, institutions, politics & government, with a Western Cape focus)
• Guinnog 18:17, 19 January 2006 (UTC) : Botswana, Zimbabwe, South africa, Bantustans
• David | Talk 13:45, 19 February 2006 (UTC): Working on Southern Rhodesia, Rhodesia and Zimbabwe politics and elections
• JackyR: Mostly southern Africa, esp South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe. Gathering views about different usages of African language names.
• ergot 23:46, 19 February 2006 (UTC): West Africa (esp. Nigeria); bios, politics, etc.
• Joziboy 22:00, 1 March 2006 (UTC): South Africa, Zulu language and culture, Xhosa, South African English, Johannesburg, and various minor things...
• Yom 04:36, 15 March 2006 (UTC): Mainly Ethiopia and Ethiopian History articles (began a few months ago).
• SteveRwanda 06:39, 15 March 2006 (UTC): Mainly working on Rwanda articles.
• Jaw101ie 21:02, 21 March 2006 (UTC) I mostly work on Libya related pages, Libya
• AkinAjia 22:52, 11 April 2006 (UTC) : Mainly working on Yorubaland; bios, politics etc.
• Xdamr 12:05, 21 April 2006 (UTC) : South Africa (1870-1950), Jan Smuts, Louis Botha, Jameson Raid.
• Elf-friend 10:23, 24 May 2006 (UTC) : Mostly South and Southern Africa.
• Mingus ah um 22:08, 27 May 2006 (UTC) : My primary focus is on the Middle East, but I will surely dabble in articles re: North Africa
• KI : Chad, CAR, Sudan... and maybe Libya a little
• Impi 15:45, 7 June 2006 (UTC) Mostly South Africa and military topics
• Astrokey44 02:42, 13 July 2006 (UTC) geography, history
• Kahuzi 13:55, 13 July 2006 (UTC) Mainly francophone Africa, especially Chad, Congo, DRC
• Nannus 22:35, 4 August 2006 (UTC) Main Focus African music and dance, African languages, Cameroon
• SteveH 14:04, 11 August 2006 (UTC) Southern African history, Christianity in Africa
• Julius Sahara 17:40, 11 August 2006 (UTC) Mostly Kenya-related topics
• Merhawie 17:41, 23 August 2006 (UTC) I work on anything Eritrea related.
• -Justin (koavf)·T·C·M 20:09, 4 September 2006 (UTC) - Mostly Western Sahara-related articles.
• --McTrixie 18:03, 22 October 2006 (UTC) - corporations in Africa; banks, telecoms, etc.
• Screensaver 22:45, 22 October 2006 (UTC) (History, Zambia, History of Namibia)
• A12n 20:24, 3 December 2006 (UTC) : Mostly topics related to African languages, but also other articles on various sujects where I see a need (notably re West Africa); will eventually get into rural economy topics