Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/German West Africa


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. (non-admin closure) Jovanmilic97 (talk) 17:57, 18 January 2019 (UTC)

German West Africa

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The lemma is phantasy. There was never anything like a "Deutsch-Westafrika" / German West Arica. The designation did not exist, neither an administrative unit. The article gives not one source for it. The names for 2 companies just say these were German companies trading in West Africa.

The quoted source for Deutsch-Westafrikanische Handelsgesellschaft (1) does not exist; Schnee's book discusses missions in Africa on the quoted pages, no companies. The article can be deleted. Kipala (talk) 10:15, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
 * COMMENT We really need DE-language input for this, because a very large number of German-language sources are included in the DE Wiki version of this page. I do see references to it in various books (e.g., 1 2 3) but I'd like a better indication of WP:SIGCOV. FOARP (talk) 12:10, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
 * COMMENT This is an odd one. It has survived on de.wiki for 9 years which might suggest that the term 'Deutsch-Westafrika' was generally accepted by German readers, but apart from a few bots most of the editing on the article has been done by its originator so it's hard to know how widely-accepted the term is.  There is certainly evidence that the term was used during the colonial period, but not that widely.  For example |here, |here;  there are also a few contemporary uses of the term e.g. |here.  It's pretty thin-looking but I'm reluctant to zap the en.wiki article on grounds suggested when the de.wiki original does not seem to have attracted any controversy.  Mccapra (talk) 13:26, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Hmmmm..... does WP:GEOLAND apply here? I mean it seems to have been a name for an inhabited geographical unit? FOARP (talk) 15:46, 11 January 2019 (UTC)


 * I can speak German very well (I need to update my babel userbox), I'd say the coverage I've pulled from books.google.de seems to be just descriptive insofar as it describes several companies trading in West Africa while it was under German administration. Whether that makes GEOLAND applicable or not, I don't know, but as a term it doesn't appear to have gained a significant amount of traction or been declared a polity in its own right.  So I'm on the fence.    SITH   (talk)   16:25, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
 * COMMENT well the Deutsch-Westafrikanische Handelsgesellschaft certainly did exist- here is one of its share certificates . Definitely not a polity but we have articles for similar constructs such as British West Indies - meaningful, used historically to some extent, but never official. Mccapra (talk) 18:54, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Keep - This definitely passes WP:GNG and needs to be kept. As a previous commenter mentioned, the DE version of Wikipedia is better, so we probably need help improving this article in EN. Skirts89 (talk) 20:31, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Keep I think I’ve persuaded myself we should keep it. I’d be happy to work on it as Skirts89 suggests. Mccapra (talk) 21:02, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Geography-related deletion discussions. Bakazaka (talk) 20:57, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Africa-related deletion discussions. Bakazaka (talk) 20:57, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Germany-related deletion discussions. Bakazaka (talk) 20:57, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of History-related deletion discussions. Coolabahapple (talk) 08:22, 12 January 2019 (UTC)


 * Delete or turn it into a dab page. I see no evidence the term is widely used in the way British West Indies is. It really is just a term sometimes used for Cameroon, sometimes for Cameroon + Togo and sometimes for Cameroon + Togo + South-West Africa. This could be cleared up with a dab page. What would a separate article cover over and above the articles on the actual colonies? Effort would be better spent on German West African Company than this article. Srnec (talk) 05:38, 13 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Keep per WP:GEOLAND and WP:UE. "German West Africa" is the English translation of "Deutsche West-Afrika". It appeared as such on comtemporary English language maps, atlases and globes. Mjroots (talk) 19:13, 13 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Keep While sometimes used in English language publications to refer to German Southwest Africa, i.e. Namibia, (e.g ), German West Africa has been referred to in English as a separate region. E.g. Colonialism in Africa 1870-1960 "German West Africa was looked upon as a tropical region, totally distinct from South-West Africa, which the Germans meant to turn into a white man's country." As for official designation, Deutsche Welle has referred to Gustav Nachtigal as "German imperial commissioner for German West-Africa". Germany and Cameroon shed light on shared colonial past. In combination with the German language sources at the DE version, these sources support keep. 24.151.50.175 (talk) 19:38, 13 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Keep. I see multiple modern gbook hits with this term. The dewiki entry (as well as a few other interwiki links) and sourcing therein is convincing as well. Icewhiz (talk) 07:25, 14 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Keep. Appears to be a legitimate historiographic term. The sourcing present in the German Wiki article suggest that this very likely meets WP:GNG. This appears to be a case of an article that needs expansion, not deletion. Ejgreen77 (talk) 14:46, 15 January 2019 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.