Method

Who makes this

Africa on the Ground was conceived and is curated by Laura Tonsi, a graduate student in Governance and Policies for Digital Innovation at the University of Bologna and Technical Director at Onoranze Funebri Melotti. Her research and professional interests focus on cyber-physical risk governance across IT and OT, and on countering disinformation. The public code and the project's working record are on GitHub.

The project grew from a wish to help people learn about the African continent through a record that keeps existing sources visible while making room to grow through contributions from people who actually live in the places described. It aims to challenge myths and prejudice, and to become a platform for cultural recognition and celebration. It is an independent research and editorial effort: sources, uncertainty and local voices are kept visible so that readers can see what is documented, what is still being checked and who is responsible for the choices made here.

The record

Every statement in the record layer carries a numbered citation. The sources are listed at the bottom of the card, each labelled with its kind: institutional (for example a UNESCO page), press, academic, primary, or encyclopedia. A source marked "to verify" is a starting point, meant to be confirmed or replaced by a stronger one. Each card also lists what is not yet sourced.

Local voices

A local note is one person's experience, written in their own words and shown as theirs. Notes reach the project in person, by direct message, or through the form on each card, and are published only with the author's agreement. Authors choose whether to give a name and how to describe their connection to the place. The project does not verify either. Notes are not edited, except for typing slips agreed with the author, and a translation is marked as one. The author stays the author of the text and gives the project permission to publish it; the project does not claim ownership.

Notes are published after the project's own reading and the author's agreement, and then offered for reading by people from the place. A note says when someone from the place has read it. For places tied to painful history, such as the slave trade, apartheid or genocide, the project reads with particular care and takes a note down at once if anyone from the place asks. A message that tells the project the record reads wrong is read and checked, but it is not published as a voice: the record changes only with a source.

Notes can be added to a place card, to a story and to a country. Each form asks a few questions suited to what you are adding: for a dish, its name where you live and what it is made for; for a story about history, where your family or community tells it differently; for a country, what the numbers miss. The questions are optional and the answers are shown beside your note.

When a note disagrees with the record

Neither layer overwrites the other. If a note says the record reads wrong, the project looks for a source that settles the point. The record changes only when one is found, and the change is cited like everything else.

Review and corrections

Place cards are published without a prior review by people from the places they describe. Each card says so. Review comes afterwards: anyone can report a mistake, a gap or a missing viewpoint. The project checks it against sources, corrects the card when a source supports the change, and says when it cannot find one. Reports are read, but a report is not published as a voice: only a note, with its author's agreement, appears in the voices layer.

Photographs

Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons and carry an open licence. Each card gives the photographer, the licence and a link to the original file. A photograph shows a place on one day, so it is an illustration and not a statement about how the place looks now.

What this site collects

Nothing. There are no cookies, no analytics and no files loaded from other sites. The form on each card does not send anything to this site: it writes a message in your own browser, and nothing leaves your phone or computer until you choose to send that message yourself, by WhatsApp, email or Signal. If you do, the message and your contact details reach the project through that service, which has its own privacy rules. The project keeps your message, and the proof of your agreement, outside the public repository. The site is hosted on GitHub Pages, whose servers may keep their own logs. The project does not control or see them.

Removing a note

An author can ask at any time for their note to be removed. The project takes it off the site at once. The text stays in the public history of the repository unless that history is rewritten, which the project does on request.