Wikipedia 15/Site/Stories/Bobby Shabangu/es
Bobby Shabangu
Bobby Shabangu descubrió Wikipedia por primera vez mientras recopilaba información para los espectáculos que producía en la estación de radio Swati.
Wikipedia era el primer resultado en sus búsquedas—pero la mayor parte estaba en Inglés.
“Over time I got to now meet [fellow South African] Dumisani Ndubane,” he recalls. “[He] introduced me to Wikipedia and told me…this is how we edit and everything.”
He yearned for articles native to the people and traditions of Africa. So in late 2012, he began to edit both the Swati and English Wikipedias.
"Descubrí que si no lo editaba, nadie iba a editarlo", dijo. "[Yo quería] activar a la gente para hablarles acerca de Wikipedia y todo el trabajo que hacen... esa es realmente la forma en que me involucré con todo este asunto."
Bobby hails from a village in Mpumalanga, a large region in the north-east of South Africa. He speaks five languages fluently: His mother tongue is Swati, though he’s also proficient in Afrikaans, English, Tswana, and—thanks to two years’ studying in Indonesia—Bahasa Indonesia.
- Veo a las pequeñas lenguas crecer, y tener presencia plena a nivel mundial... Nos veo yendo a alguna parte.
El pueblo natal de Bobby es muy tradicional y conservador. Wikipedia ayuda a llevar un registro de sus costumbres, algo que los primeros colonos europeos nunca habían hecho.
“It’s a very mountainous area…an area where the traditional life and traditional customs are still kept,” he says. “The colonialists…when they came here, they did not record [those things]. It was not stored in the archives, and you cannot reference from those archives…[But] if you reference from your grandfather…[the article will] be detailed.”
Today, Bobby volunteers with the Jo'burgpediA project, which aims to improve Wikipedia’s coverage of the city of Johannesburg. The project works with institutions in the city to host editing events for students. Bobby also encourages the students who attend the events to edit in their native languages.
“En la actualidad están buscando [agregar] la información en su lengua materna, es muy emocionante ver algo así,” dijo.
He is also deeply involved with the South African Wikimedia chapter, which he says is growing stronger now more than ever.
“I see the chapter growing, and I see the small languages growing, and having full representation globally,” he says. “Our professionalism, and the way we are working together with other colleagues, and other languages…I think I see ourselves going somewhere.”