I received the following appeal to Kabissa members to take ownership of the "African Wikipedia" from Gerard Meijssen, via the AfrophoneWikis discussion list. In it, Gerard provides a useful background explanation of the Wikipedia project, the free and open source software it runs on and how it is (and could be) utilized in Africa. In particular, note there is a bounty available for localisation of the Wikimedia software platform into African languages. There are many opportunities for Africans to take ownership of Wikipedia by building up content in their own languages as well as knowledge from their local communities that they know best.

Africa is blessed with hundreds of languages (Nigeria alone has about 300 - not dialects but languages).  With the ever expanding use of the internet and other media and use of Western languages, many of our indigenous languages are in danger of being lost forever.  

TalkaSoft - Soro is a Nigerian initiative consisting of software which simultaneously translates from English into Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa.