User:Vrede1mp/Evaluate an Article

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Ibrahim Njoya

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
(Briefly explain why you chose it, why it matters, and what your preliminary impression of it was.)

Ibrahim Njoya was a king that ruled over the Bamum kingdom from 1886 until 1933 when he passed. Initially, first impression was that it seems much longer and more detailed than the Bamum People article chosen for class.

Evaluate the article
(Compose a detailed evaluation of the article here, considering each of the key aspects listed above. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what a useful Wikipedia article evaluation looks like.)

Within the couple of sentences in the lead section, there is a good explanation on who Ibrahim Njoya is. There is a link given to Njoya's old name spelled in Bamum. The link takes the reader to a second page to see the name spelled out in a larger format as the letters are icons. While it introduces who Njoya is, it does not give any brief descriptions on the article's major sections. It only summarizes who he was in the line of dynasty kings and when he ruled. The lead section mentions how Njoya was the seventeenth king in a long dynasty that ruled over Bamum, but it does not go into that anywhere else in the article. Though it does mention his father briefly in later sections like Person and Life.

When it comes to the articles' content, it all seems relevant and what one would want to know when learning basic information about a person. However, there could always be more information given. Certain sections seem to go into more details than others when regarding certain topics. The article only has three sections: Person and Life, Rule, and Innovations. Out of the three sections, Person and Life is the shortest with only 3 semi-short paragraphs. It goes over when Njoya started his rule and his life as king when it came to the number of wives and children he had. It also briefly explains his religious conversion to Christianity and then Islam. Besides these few sentences, it does not seem to be talked about again anywhere else. Which would've been nice since him converting to different religions seems to have played an impact on his ruling and the religion shared to the Bamum people.

From where the article stands, it does remain neutral in terms of point of view. There are no sections in which the writer tries to sway the readers opinions on a certain topic. There were no personal comments on if what Njoya did during his ruling was good or bad. It only gave basic information related to each section. A large section of sources do not appear to be from unreliable sources. Most of the sources are books or academic articles based on clicking on the links attached. There are a few, however, that are unreliable. One is from the Wayback Machine. The article attached is from Cornell University's library from 2007. There is a possibility this is reliable, but due to the need of the Wayback Machine, I would not trust it. The other link is from a very short news article written by DW News outlet in Germany. The news article doesn't link or share where it got its information from, leading it to be unreliable. In regards to other links used throughout the article, it seems that most, if not all, the attached articles do reference the information surrounding the link in this article. They aren't linked for not reason.

When it comes to how well its been written, I think that it's easy to read. The information is quiet basic, and could go into a bit more detail in certain sections, if not all of them. If there are any grammatical or spelling errors, they do not standout and/or noticeable. The format of some paragraphs could be better however. In the Innovations section, the bottom paragraphs are all one or two sentences. It might have been better to condense them or use bullet points to get the point across. For picture formats, each picture does have a caption describing what is seen within the photo. Each description does have a link citing it back to the reference link. This is nice to see where they had gotten the image from. The photos do corollate to the section they are by, even if the. For example, in the Rule section, it gives details on the relationship between Njoya and the German Colonial Government. The picture in that section does show gifts shared between the two governments, aiding in showing that relationship. Though the gifts themselves aren't all mentioned in the article.

Overall, I think the article is good for where it's at. After a quick glance, the sources used seem to have more information that could've been used within the article that wasn't. There is a chance to make some of the information more detailed. It seems under-developed in most areas. In Person and Life and Rule, it briefly mentions his father and his death. It states that the Nso People, held his father's head captive for a while, stopping Njoya from taking leadership for some time. I feel like this would be a good section to go into more detail in, not leave it with two or three sentences. It could give a small explanation on why or how it affected his ruling from the start or why he needed his father's head to start his ruling. At the bottom of the page, there is a section on further reading, which is nice and helps guide the reader towards other information they think is helpful and reliable.