Talk:1991 Zaire unrest

GA nomination

@Simongraham: Hey, may I know why you nominated this article for GA? You have never edited it, and I just recently started it - it is far from finished. I would kindly request that you withdraw this nomination. Applodion (talk) 12:19, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

@Applodion: I think this is an excellent article and the topic is worthy of GA status. I have seen quite a few GA nominations and think it would be a worthy candidate, which is why I nominated it (WP:OWN). I am pleased that you are looking to improve it further and look forward to seeing your additions. I withdraw the nomination as you request but would encourage you to put it forward in the future. simongraham (talk) 13:05, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

@Simongraham: Thank you. WP:OWN does not apply here, as my motif for my request is not any kind of special feelings for the article on my part. It is merely not finished and as soon as I find the time to do so, it will be further expanded. However, working on and largely changing an article in the middle of a GA process is simply not a good idea. I would have had no problem with your nomination if you had nominated later (after the further expansions) - after all, the article is just three days old. This was also why I commented "you have never edited it"; if you had edited the article, you would know that more sources about it exists, without whom I feel it would not warrant GA status.
Regardless, I thank you for your kind words; generally speaking, I am interested in nominating several articles which I have worked on, but I never found the time to do so in the past. Applodion (talk) 13:29, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

@Applodion: No offence taken. I have found the GA nomination process is less daunting than it looks and have learnt a lot from reviewing nominations too. I wish you good luck in your edits. simongraham (talk) 13:44, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

Characterization of Mobutu era

I saw the GA review and thought I'd add a quick comment here. I do wonder whether the characterisation of the Mobutu era is rather too simplistic in the "Background" section. It is true that his regime was characterised by endemic corruption and state collapse by the 1980s and 1990s but this was not the case in the 1960s and early 1970s as Young and Turner pointed out in The Rise and Decline of the Zairian State. Arguably, one of the key reasons for the scale of Zaire's collapse in the 1990s was the how effective the regime had been at effectively consolidating and centralising power in the past. It might be worth nuancing the current text a bit? Also @Indy beetle: for thoughts. —Brigade Piron (talk) 16:50, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

@Brigade Piron: This was one of my concerns when requesting the withdrawl of the Ga nomination. I had quickly added a simple summary in the background, intending to add more nuance as I expand the article over several days. Applodion (talk) 18:14, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

Seeing as the scope of this article concerns an event that occurred in 1991, I do not feel that it needs to really cover much of the late 1960s/1970s successes/strengths of Mobutu's regime. By the late 1980s it was derelict and starved of cash, and this precipitated the unrest. I do, however, believe that some more of the quotes could be paraphrased. -Indy beetle (talk) 19:40, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Vanamonde93 (talk) 06:33, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

(

• Comment or view
• Article history

)

• ... that during the 1991 Zaire unrest, 30 to 40% of all companies in Zaire were plundered, and around 70% of the country's retail businesses were destroyed? ("[...], denn die Plünderungen gingen tagelang weiter. 30 bis 40 Prozent aller Firmen wurden verwüstet, 70 Prozent des Kleinhandels mussten dran glauben." Source: Van Reybrouck, David (2013). Kongo: Eine Geschichte [Congo: A history] (in German), p. 473)

• Reviewed: National Museum of Vanuatu

Created by Applodion (talk). Self-nominated at 21:59, 6 August 2021 (UTC).

• The article is long enough and new enough. I assume good faith on the references that I can't access. The hook is directly cited. Applodion, a QPQ is needed. SL93 (talk) 02:26, 13 August 2021 (UTC)

@SL93: Added QPQ. Applodion (talk) 21:05, 14 August 2021 (UTC)

This is ready. SL93 (talk) 22:07, 14 August 2021 (UTC)