Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Kinshasa Highway

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 No consensus, too complex for AFD. I suggest the participants work out how to merge/split/rename/rewrite the article, but if nothing happens for a month then it might have to be deleted. —Quarl ^(talk) 2007-01-03 09:01Z

[edit] Kinshasa Highway

Kinshasa Highway (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs)

Kinshasa Highway could be any road in the direction of Kinshasa. The article is about a network of roads in central Africa that are not clearly defined. Only one or two books mention this "Kinshasa Highway" or highway to Kinshasa as a catalyst for the spreading of AIDS. This topic is not notable enough to be its own article and should be mentioned only in the history of AIDS. moyogo 01:03, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

• Delete per nom. Bigtop 01:11, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
• Delete for not passing notability guidelines. Sr13 01:30, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
• Rename to Trans-Africa Highway, which this seems to refer to. It's a real international project intermittently funded and is (in theory) an eventual coast-to-coast superhighway.[1] The spread of AIDS has been linked, rhetorically if not medically, to the upgrading of the highway.[2] I could find no significant unique usage of "Kinshasa Highway" or even "l'autoroute [de] Kinshasa". --Dhartung | Talk 01:32, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
  • Changed my mind, although the above is an appropriate article topic, this material should not be the basis of that article. It's more of a concept per Krich below. If kept, it should be renamed to AIDS Highway, and include material on the Indian and Chinese transport corridors also associated with that name for the same reason. --Dhartung | Talk 05:46, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
• Rename, per above and also add some references, such as those listed by Dhartung. Wikipedia has many articles on roads and highways, i.e. Texas State Highway 77, and this appears to have as much claim to stay as those, I would imagine. Bob talk 01:36, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

  This is not about a single highway but more about a network or a series of roads in Central Africa. It is rather unclear what this Highway really is. --moyogo 01:46, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

• Delete- I don't feel that this article is notable enough, unless something major happens to it. CattleGirl ^{talk | e@} 02:30, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
• Keep The article is completely unsourced, and needs vast improvement - but as for the article topic itself, in a quick search I found non-trivial references to the concept in several books, including "Global Order and Global Disorder: Globalization and the Nation-State" by Keith Suter; "The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story" by Richard Preston; "Our Cannibals, Ourselves" by Priscilla L. Walton; even a mention in a fiction book "Mosca: A Factual Fiction" by Richard Miller. I found other book citations as well, just stopping for space. Needs much work, but the topic is worth having an article on. --Krich (talk) 03:45, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
• Rename, that is the more familiar and better sourced name. Chris 04:57, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
• Keep poorly written, but nothing else wrong with it. Atlantis Hawk 10:12, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
• Keep - Seems interesting and I have seen many articles worse than this one. -- Chrislk02 (Chris Kreider) 12:38, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
• Delete or Rename, we do need articles on African roads, but the article's road should be clearly defined; a simple network of roads is to vague to be kept.--Aldux 13:58, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
• Weak keep, despite being unreferenced, it seems to be a major highway, responsible for spreading AIDS (?). However, I must emphasize that it does not sufficiently substantiate its claim to notability. - SpLoT _(*C*+u+g) 16:34, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
• Weak delete If this article is to be recreated, it should be much more detailed and sourced. SupaStarGirl 17:33, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
• Rename or Weak Delete - the name is a bit too nebulous, better sourcing needs to be done. SkierRMH 19:24, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
• Keep and Rename per User:AlduxRaveenS 19:46, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
• Keep the article seems fine to me and I see no problem with being part of Wikipedia --AresAndEnyo 21:39, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
• Note: This debate has been included in the list of Africa-related deletions. --   ⇒ bsnowball  10:33, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
• Delete or Rename per Aldux.--Dakota 00:44, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

 Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so that consensus may be reached
 Please add new discussions below this notice. Thanks, Kungfu Adam ^(talk) 16:03, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

• Keep, but needs sources.--Kungfu Adam ^(talk) 16:04, 28 December 2006 (UTC)
• Comment, I may not have been sufficiently clear. There is no formal highway in Congo named "Kinshasa Highway"; it's an informal name for at least two concatenated routes that run from the Rwanda/Burundi/Uganda region to Kinshasa. This is only one African highway that has been called an "AIDS highway". The name and concept are usually attached to an unfinished Trans-African highway that's somewhat farther north, and nowhere near Kinshasa. Additionally, the concept of a highway being implicated in the spread of HIV is invoked in other places where HIV infection is rampant. I see the possibility of 1, an article on the real, separate Congo highways on this alignment, 2, an article on the Trans-African Highway which may yet be completed this decade, 3, an article on AIDS highways as a concept. I don't see the article as it stands helping anybody looking stuff up, because it's too vague. Firm delete after review. --Dhartung | Talk 08:35, 29 December 2006 (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.