Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/March 21, 2023
Chinua Achebe (1930–2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as the dominant figure of modern African literature. He garnered international attention for his novel Things Fall Apart (1958) and published three further novels in less than ten years. Achebe sought to escape the colonial perspective that framed African literature. He drew from the traditions of the Igbo people, Christianity and the clash of Western and African values. Achebe supported Biafran independence in 1967 and was an ambassador for the movement; during the Nigerian Civil War he appealed to Europe and the Americas for aid. After the Nigerian government retook the region, he involved himself in political parties but distanced himself after having negative experiences with them. He moved to the United States in 1990 after a car crash left him partially disabled. He was a professor of African studies at Brown University until his death in 2013. (Full article...)
regarding the inclusion of the date of achebe's death in the blurb, i believe the current practice for tfa blurbs is to not explicitly mention a specific death date unless the death itself is notable, even if the blurb is running on an anniversary of the death, as mentioned here. achebe died after a brief illness, so presumably his death itself is not notable. as i believe the standard regarding when to include death dates was made explicit by the tfa coordinators, i normally follow it without question. however, in this case, i noticed that the tfa/r nomination specifically requested the death date anniversary for the blurb run date, and that the blurb specifically emphasizes the death date by explicitly stating it at the end (as opposed to simply including it in the lifespan parenthetical at the start of the blurb), so i hesitated to truncate the full date unilaterally. in december, a suggestion was made at wp:errors that if a full date is not being used for an anniversary blurb, there should be a discussion and agreement over it, so i thought i might bring this issue up here instead. i personally have no preference regarding its inclusion or exclusion.
i was also having trouble finding support in the article body for one of the statements in the blurb: "When the Nigerian government retook the region, he involved himself in political parties but became disillusioned by the corruption and elitism he witnessed.". the article notes that, when "distanc[ing himself] from political parties, [achebe] express[ed] sadness with his perception of the dishonesty and weakness of the people involved", which isn't quite the same as becoming "disillusioned by the corruption and elitism". (his involvement in politics also occurred about a decade after the civil war, so not quite "[w]hen the Nigerian government retook the region".) the article does also state that he "became particularly saddened by the evidence of corruption and silencing of political opposition", but this was in reference to events before the civil war.
i also think that, in the article, the description of the responses to the 2004 and 2011 offerings of the order of the federal republic may have been conflated, as goodluck jonathan was not president of nigeria in 2004, olusegun obasanjo was. however, this is an issue with the article, and not the blurb, so i think it is less pressing.
pinging the participants of the nomination (Z1720, Gog, HAL333, Juxlos, Aza24, BennyOnTheLoose, and Scartol), the closer of the nomination (Wehwalt), and the suggester at wp:errors (Amakuru). apologies for the late notice; i had forgotten about wanting to raise these issues earlier. dying (talk) 18:55, 20 March 2023 (UTC)
- Well, we have "Throughout the 1990s, Achebe spent little time in Nigeria but remained actively involved in the country's politics, denouncing the usurpation of power by General Sani Abacha" and "I accepted all these honours fully aware that Nigeria was not perfect; but I had a strong belief that we would outgrow our shortcomings under leaders committed to uniting our diverse peoples. Nigeria's condition today under your [Goodluck Jonathan's] watch is, however, too dangerous for silence. I must register my disappointment and protest by declining to accept the high honour awarded me in the 2004 Honours List". Maybe that's enough? I really don't want to get drudged back into this article, the whole process having been rather depressing to work through... Aza24 (talk) 23:53, 20 March 2023 (UTC)
- Aza24, i also wasn't sure if it was enough, which is why i thought i might raise the issue. what struck me was the use of the word "disillusioned", as i would assume that achebe was not under any illusion that there was no corruption in nigerian politics, having written several novels that specifically involved corruption in nigerian politics. that being said, i can certainly understand if you aren't interested in returning to work on this article, and i appreciate you offering quotes from the article that may support the statement in the blurb. dying (talk) 11:52, 21 March 2023 (UTC)
- dying, I was interpreting "disillusioned" as less of a surprise towards corruption itself and more of a surprise or disappointment that the corruption continues on despite his work, different leaders, the passing of time, etc. Aza24 (talk) 19:42, 21 March 2023 (UTC)
- Aza24, i also wasn't sure if it was enough, which is why i thought i might raise the issue. what struck me was the use of the word "disillusioned", as i would assume that achebe was not under any illusion that there was no corruption in nigerian politics, having written several novels that specifically involved corruption in nigerian politics. that being said, i can certainly understand if you aren't interested in returning to work on this article, and i appreciate you offering quotes from the article that may support the statement in the blurb. dying (talk) 11:52, 21 March 2023 (UTC)
- @Dying: - re death dates, I think I might actually have changed my mind, we shouldn't highlight the date of death even if we happen to run it on that date, per what Dan said in your link above. I think wherever possibnle we should run things on birth dates not death dates. So I've shortened it to not use the dates. Regarding the other questions, do you have a particular solution in mind? — Amakuru (talk) 09:12, 21 March 2023 (UTC)
- Amakuru, i think we can salvage the sentence in the blurb if we soften parts of it. for example, if we replace "When" with "After", that would less strongly suggest that achebe started such work shortly after the war. i am finding it difficult to come up with a good replacement for "became disillusioned by the corruption and elitism he witnessed", but i think "distanced himself after having negative experiences with them" could work. the article uses the word "distance" (as noted above), and "negative experiences" is noncommittal enough to be supported by the article body (and also alludes to the "heated argument" mentioned in the article).regarding the offerings of the order of the federal republic, if i am reading the cited source from the guardian correctly, i think the explanation in the square brackets in the quote reproduced in the article should state "Olusegun Obasanjo's" rather than "Goodluck Jonathan's", as the quote pertains to the 2004 offering. at that time, jonathan was apparently a deputy governor of bayelsa state, so i am not sure why achebe would mention jonathan in his refusal of the award in 2004. the source also mentions that achebe had "laid out the thinking behind rejecting the 2004 honour in a letter to the president of Nigeria at the time", and the president of nigeria at the time was olusegun obasanjo.also, i think jonathan's response to achebe's refusal is actually a response to the 2011 refusal, and not of the 2004 one, and mentioning jonathan's response after achebe's 2004 refusal but before his 2011 one suggests otherwise. if i am correct, this can easily be resolved by transposing the two sentences in that paragraph. dying (talk) 11:52, 21 March 2023 (UTC)
- Just as a comment, this discussion would probably get more eyes at WP:ERRORS. Wehwalt (talk) 16:00, 21 March 2023 (UTC)
- Amakuru, i think we can salvage the sentence in the blurb if we soften parts of it. for example, if we replace "When" with "After", that would less strongly suggest that achebe started such work shortly after the war. i am finding it difficult to come up with a good replacement for "became disillusioned by the corruption and elitism he witnessed", but i think "distanced himself after having negative experiences with them" could work. the article uses the word "distance" (as noted above), and "negative experiences" is noncommittal enough to be supported by the article body (and also alludes to the "heated argument" mentioned in the article).regarding the offerings of the order of the federal republic, if i am reading the cited source from the guardian correctly, i think the explanation in the square brackets in the quote reproduced in the article should state "Olusegun Obasanjo's" rather than "Goodluck Jonathan's", as the quote pertains to the 2004 offering. at that time, jonathan was apparently a deputy governor of bayelsa state, so i am not sure why achebe would mention jonathan in his refusal of the award in 2004. the source also mentions that achebe had "laid out the thinking behind rejecting the 2004 honour in a letter to the president of Nigeria at the time", and the president of nigeria at the time was olusegun obasanjo.also, i think jonathan's response to achebe's refusal is actually a response to the 2011 refusal, and not of the 2004 one, and mentioning jonathan's response after achebe's 2004 refusal but before his 2011 one suggests otherwise. if i am correct, this can easily be resolved by transposing the two sentences in that paragraph. dying (talk) 11:52, 21 March 2023 (UTC)