Content Policy

1. About this policy

Uganda Culture is a free website that documents the cultures of Uganda together with the communities who live them. It is run by Uganda Culture, Uganda. This Content Policy explains what we publish, how we check it, how we treat the people and communities whose knowledge we record, and what happens when something needs to change.

It applies to every record on the site, including pages about communities, clans and totems, kingdoms and cultural institutions, languages, personal names, heritage sites, food and drink, music and dance, instruments, dress, crafts, ceremonies, stories and proverbs, oral histories in Voices of Uganda, events, the journal, the cultural map and cultural tourism listings. It sits alongside our editorial standards, our Community Guidelines and our Terms of Use.

2. What we publish

We publish careful, sourced descriptions of Uganda's cultures. A record may describe a practice, an object, a place, a person, a story or an event. We publish material that:

• helps people understand and respect a culture, whether they belong to it or not;
• can be traced to named sources, such as published works, archives, recorded interviews or people who have agreed to be credited;
• has been shared with the consent of the people it is about, where consent is needed;
• the community concerned is willing to see published.

We also publish contributions sent in by the public through our contribution form, such as stories, photos, audio, video links, recipes and events. These go through the same review as everything else.

Cultural tourism listings are information only. They describe places, guides and experiences so that visitors can find them. We do not take bookings or payments, and we are not party to any arrangement you make with a provider. A listing is not an endorsement, and we do not accept payment to publish one.

3. What we do not publish

We do not publish:

• restricted or sacred knowledge that a community has asked to keep within the community;
• personal details about living people who have not agreed to be named;
• material that mocks, demeans or stirs up hatred against any community, clan, faith or group;
• claims we cannot trace to a source;
• material that infringes someone else's copyright or breaks a promise of confidence;
• advertising, paid placements or promotional copy presented as documentation;
• text, images or audio generated by artificial intelligence presented as documentation of culture.

4. Sources and citations

Every record cites its sources. A source may be a book, an article, an archive, a recording, an interview or a person who shared what they know. We say which statements rest on which source where that helps the reader.

Where knowledge comes from a person rather than a document, we name them as a source only with their agreement and in the way they have chosen. Where a source is weak, old or disputed, we say so. We prefer sources from within the community concerned, and we look for more than one source on matters that are contested.

Citations are there so that you can check our work and go further. If a source we cite is wrong or has been misread, please tell us. If you hold a better source, such as a family record, a recording or a published work we have missed, we would like to hear about it.

5. Review and publishing

Nothing appears on Uganda Culture without review. Each record passes through these steps:

1. Drafting. A writer, staff member or contributor prepares the record with its sources.
2. Verification and review. An editor checks the facts against the sources, checks consent and credit, sets the sensitivity level and edits for clarity.
3. Approval. A separate person, who did not write the record, approves it. Records marked sensitive also need community sign-off before approval.
4. Publishing. An editor publishes the approved record. It shows its sources, its credits, its licence and the date it was last checked.

We may decline to publish anything that does not meet this policy. When we decline a contribution, we tell the contributor where we can.

Staff who review, approve and publish records sign in with two-step verification, and their actions are recorded in an audit log. This lets us show who checked a record, who approved it and when, and helps us find and fix mistakes.

6. Consent

Culture lives in people. We ask for consent before we record or publish material that concerns them.

Living people

We name living people only with their consent. This includes elders, artists, cultural leaders and anyone quoted or described.

Narrators of oral histories

Oral histories in Voices of Uganda need the narrator's consent twice: once to record and once to publish. We explain how the recording will be used before we ask. A narrator may withdraw consent at any time. When consent is withdrawn, the record is hidden from the site, our API and search.

Images of people

Photos and videos in which a person can be recognised need that person's consent, or the consent of their family where the person has died and the family is known. Crowds at public events may be shown, but we avoid images that single out a person in a way they would not expect.

Children

Material about or showing a child under 18 needs the consent of a parent or guardian. We take particular care with children's names and with any detail that could identify where a child lives or studies.

7. Sensitivity levels

Every record carries one of three sensitivity levels:

• Open. The material may be shared freely, subject to its licence.
• Sensitive. The material touches on matters a community holds closely, such as certain ceremonies, clan matters or sites. It is published only after community sign-off from people with standing to give it.
• Restricted. The material is sacred, secret or otherwise not for outsiders. It is never published, whoever asks.

If we are unsure which level applies, we treat the material as the more protected level until we know. A community may ask us to move a record to a more protected level at any time.

8. Credit

Every record credits the people who shared it, as well as its writers and the owners of its photos, audio and video. Contributors choose to be credited by name, by another name, or not publicly. We respect that choice. Knowledge held by a community is credited to that community as well as to any person who shared it.

9. Where accounts differ

Many cultural matters are told in more than one way. Clans, kingdoms and families may hold different histories in good faith. Where accounts differ, we stay neutral. We set out each account fairly, say who holds it and cite its source. We do not declare one account the true one unless the evidence is clear and the matter is not one of belief or identity.

10. Language and translation

We write in English and include words, names and passages in Uganda's languages wherever we can. We spell terms as the community spells them and note common variants. Translations say who made them. Where a word has no close English equivalent, we explain it rather than force a match. If you think a spelling or translation is wrong, please suggest a correction.

11. AI-generated material

We do not publish AI-generated text, images or audio as documentation of culture. Records are written and checked by people. We do not use AI tools to create quotations, voices, portraits or scenes and present them as real. If we find that a contribution was generated by AI and presented as genuine, we will not publish it, and we will remove it if it has already been published.

12. Corrections, disputes and removals

We will get things wrong at times, and we want to know when we do. Anyone can suggest a correction on any page. Anyone can also ask for something to be removed, for example because consent was not given, because material is restricted, or because it infringes copyright.

We acknowledge removal requests within 48 hours and decide them within 7 days. When the request comes from the person named, their family, their community or the rights holder, we hide the page while we review it. Our Takedown and Correction Policy explains the full process, including appeals.

When we correct a record in a way that changes its meaning, we note the correction on the record. You can also email us at [email protected].

13. Keeping records up to date

Every record shows when it was last checked. Editors review records over time against their sources and against new information from communities. When a record is checked, its date is updated, whether or not anything changed. Practices change, people pass on and institutions reorganise, so please read older records with their date in mind, and tell us when something has moved on.

14. Changes and contact

We may update this policy as the site grows. The date and a short note of each change appear with the policy. If you have a question about this policy, please contact us or email us at [email protected].