User:Kel5142/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Rassemblement Démocratique Africain

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article because I am interested in exploring the role that communism/Marxism played in African anti-colonial struggles. This article matters because it explains the history of the political party (RDA) that influenced the independence of West and Equatorial African countries from French imperialism/colonialism. My preliminary impression of this article is that it is both biased against African independence and biased towards the leaders of the RDA, whose class interests (at times) aligned with the aims of French imperialism. At times, some of the statements in the article were false/misleading.

Evaluate the article
The introductory sentence of the article does succinctly and fairly describe the meaning of the RDA. Although the lead section does a good job at summarizing the contents of the rest of the article, it does not provide a description for each section of the article, such as the "Chaos in the Ivory Coast: 1949" section. All of the information in the lead is included in the article at later points. If the lead section is supposed to provide brief descriptions of the later sections of the article, I would say that the lead is overly detailed. It dedicates time to some sections of the article, but it would likely be more effective if it dedicated one-two sentences on each section of the article, which will decrease its length while increasing its breadth.

The article's content is relevant to the subject of the RDA; however, it fails to include the significance of the role of the French Communist Party (PCF), the largest French trade federation (Confédération Générale du Travail, or CGT), and the dynamics between the populace and the elites of colonial French West/Equatorial Africa. The citations contain some articles from the 21st century, but the rest are from the 20th, so I do not think the content is up-to-date. Another noticeable point of missing content is the fact that Ahmed Sékou Touré was one of the founders of the Guinean RDA, yet it is implied that he joined years after its founding. Another example of missing content is the fact that the PCF didn't randomly lose power in France, rather the United States refused to include France (and any European nation) in the Marshall Plan if communist parties were in their ruling governments. This is a notable point because the article undermines the significance of the relationship between the PCF and the interterritorial RDA, especially as it related to developing pro-independence stances. This leads the reader to potentially interpret the actions of the PCF as subversive and anti-democratic. I personally feel like this article has anti-communist undertones, leading information relating to communism in the article to be immediately dismissed without significant reasoning. I feel like this represents an equity gap.

The article is biased towards elites in the colonies and anti-communism. It is also biased towards French imperialism. The claims that Félix Houphouët-Boigny was a progressive leader, who guided the RDA towards independence, is extremely biased towards anti-communism; it is also biased towards a belief that French colonies did not deserve (or would not benefit) immediate independence, which justifies imperialism/colonialism. The role of the Guinean RDA, especially trade unionists and activists in the non-urban regions, in causing the eventual independence of formerly French West/Equatorial African colonies is underrepresented. I feel like some of the minority viewpoints are described as if they were majority viewpoints, such as the demand for immediate independence in the region, because it aligns with a ruling-class perspective of history. The article subtly persuades the reader to believe in a delayed, anti-communist independence (trajectory of the RDA).

The majority of the sources seem to be from reliable secondary sources, such as academic presses. The sources are far from thorough. They mainly represent perspectives from the 20th century, and there are less than 15. 15 seems like a lot, but the RDA is fairly thoroughly researched. About half of the sources are not current. It seems like only one of the authors originate from the described region. 3 other authors are African, and the rest/majority are not. They are more recent peer-reviewed articles that would make this article more accurate, such as: Schmidt, Elizabeth. “Cold War in Guinea: The Rassemblement Démocratique Africain and the Struggle Over Communism, 1950–1958.” The Journal of African History 48, no. 1 (2007): 95–121. doi:10.1017/S0021853707002551.

I think the article is easy to read. At first glance, I did not notice grammatical errors. I think that the section titles are broken down into accurate, major points of the RDA history; however, I think the substance within them is lacking.

The article does not contain a lot of media, but of the included media, I believe that it enhances the reading. The captions on the images are fine. It seems like the majority (or all) of the images abide by Wikipedia's Copyright policies. The layout is appealing, but I think the article could use more images.

The most recent discussion on the Talk Page (2013) was about whether the article the RDA should be referred to as the African Democratic Rally (direct English translation) or the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain (original French name). The article is rated as Start Class. It is a part of the following WikiProjects: WikiProject Africa (WikiProject Burkina Faso, WikiProject Chad, WikiProject Ivory Coast, WikiProject Guinea, WikiProject Niger, and WikiProject Senegal) and WikiProject Politics. We have not talked about Africa in class yet, but we have discussed communism at length. This article's discussion of communism (or lack thereof) is very dismissive (covertly negative), where we discuss its' impacts, critiques and acclamations.

Overall, I think this article could benefit from more information about the structure and impact of the RDA in each territory (where it had membership). I also think this article could benefit from using a class analysis when describing the impacts (or lack thereof) of the work of the RDA. It's strengths are its details on the electoral relevance of the group. The article is underdeveloped.