User:Deji2Clean/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Sexuality in Africa

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose it because I am African and have a deep appreciation for African culture. At first I considered a project like sex cults in ancient Greece and/or Rome. But I figured that a topic as neglected African history of sexuality deserved attention instead. As it turns out, an article on the history of sexuality in Africa does not even exist, and I had to settle for sexuality in Africa. African culture and thought to be allowed to lay dormant in the shadows of historical obscurity.

Evaluate the article
Well, it would be unfair to judge this article solely based on the substance of the information, as is only only a paragraph long in its entirety (and not a long one). I do appreciate the first sentence and the one that follows it though. It identifies the topic and also communicates perhaps the most important thing to know about sexuality in Africa; that it varies by region and takes many different forms according to region, especially with Northern African views on sexuality being more influenced by Islam and those in Sub-Saharan African being mor einfluenced by Christianity. This does however totally ignore what views on sexuality looked like in their forms prior to exposure to and domination by outside forces.

It is clear that this paragraph is does very little to explain the topic, as it barely even identifies it. A reader informing himself on the subject based on this article might come out with two main takeaways: that is is largely determined by region (a fair and true statement) and that conversations in Africa about sexuality are often centered around sexually transmitted diseases (incredibly reductionist). Thus, I can confidently assert that this article is insufficient to a half-decent understanding of sexuality in Africa, which is an incredibly broad and vague subject anyway. In all honestly, my expectations were not through the roof anyway, so after reading the article, I can say that I am just glad there even is an article on this topic at all.

In looking at the sources of the article, everything that is written is sourced, but the sources examined do not lend to a complete picture of sexuality in Africa; rather, they are sources concerned with some specific study relating to the broad category of sexuality in Africa.