Community Directory

About the community

The Tiv Heritage Archive is built by the people whose heritage it records. Everyone in this directory has given time to the archive: adding words and names, recording proverbs and stories, checking meanings, photographing festivals and places, or researching history. The directory gives them credit for that work and lets others with shared interests find them.

Contributors and researchers

Contributors share cultural knowledge: words, names, proverbs, recipes, stories, songs, photographs and family accounts. Fluency in Tiv and a good memory for how things were said and done at home are worth as much here as formal study. Researchers bring academic or specialist work: they research and publish findings, check entries against sources, and help resolve questions where accounts differ. Many members do both.

How joining works

To join, fill in the membership application. Tell us your area of interest, your skills and why you want to take part. Researchers may attach a CV or published work. The admin team reviews every application before approval. Approved members get an account for managing the entries they work on and a profile page in this directory.

How contributions are checked

New material is reviewed before it is published. Reviewers look at whether the meaning is clear, whether the spelling matches what speakers use, and where the information comes from. Customs, spellings and meanings can differ from clan to clan. So when accounts differ, the archive tries to record each version and say where it comes from, rather than declare one of them the only correct one.

Good practice

Say where your knowledge comes from: a parent or elder, a book, your own community or your own use of the language. When you record an elder or photograph a ceremony, ask permission first and tell the people involved how the material will be used. Share only photographs and recordings that you made yourself or have the right to share.

Helping without joining

Membership is not needed to help. Anyone can send a single word, name, proverb or story through the contribution form, propose improvements on the suggestions page, or report a mistake through the contact page. Signed-in visitors can also suggest meanings for words the translator does not yet know.