Template:Did you know nominations/Hussein Mohammed

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 Yoninah (talk) 23:09, 27 November 2019 (UTC)

Hussein Mohammed

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~~... that Hussein Mohammed helped to improve military discipline through a plot during which the Ugandan President's brother was forced into a car boot?~~ Source: "Gen Mustafa [...] ordered Maj Nebbi to enter the boot of his Mercedes and instructed the driver to lock it. He then told the driver: "Drive this man to Jinja [district in eastern Uganda] and back. When you reach Jinja, report to the Commanding Officer there and tell him to call me". Sgt Kitaka drove to Jinja barracks and back, with Maj Nebbi in the boot. Once in Jinja, the Commanding Officer (Lt Col Hussein Mohammed), called Gen Mustafa, saying: "Afande, your driver has reported to me with the 'luggage' inside the boot. He is on his way back." When the driver reported back at Bulange, Gen Mustafa told him to open the boot. He slapped Maj Nebbi and barked in Swahili: "We mujinga, toka injje!" Meaning: "You fool, get out." He asked him: "Is it nice inside there?" Gen Mustafa then rang Amin and told him: "I have put your brother, Maj Nebbi, in the boot of my car and driven him to Jinja and back because he put a civilian in the boot of his car after a slight mistake". Amin replied: "No problem, that is your job." From that day, soldiers became more disciplined." (When Amin's brother was locked in car boot)

Reviewed: Esther Killick

Created by Applodion (talk). Self-nominated at 00:42, 10 November 2019 (UTC).

According to the source article, Hussein's role was really minor. I don't think a hook focusing on the episode would be appropriate for this subject. The article itself is new and long enough, but while I recognise that sources will be hard to identify, given that the subject was active half a century ago and from an underrepresented region, I'm not quite getting impression that the current sources paint a clear picture of notability for the subject himself. The article should say more about Hussein than just the events he took part in. --Paul_012 (talk) 22:02, 21 November 2019 (UTC)

@Paul 012: Hussein is definitely notable: He had a high rank in the Uganda Army, commanded an important unit, and played a major role in several important events in Uganda's history. As you correctly deduced, sources on Uganda, especially on Idi Amin's regime, are extremely lacking. It is often difficult to find information about many individuals, and these usually contradict each other. As result, the article represents most what is known about Hussein - It is likely that someone could find more about him in non-online Ugandan newspaper archives, but I do not have access to these. Taking this into account, I feel that the article is quite sufficent.
In regard of the hook: Hussein's role in the incident might have been (relatively) minor, but that does not mean that the hook itself is false - He was in contact with Adrisi, otherwise he would have never allowed Amin's brother to be driven around in a car boot. People were murdered for less. If you do not agree on the hook, however, we could try an alternative such as
ALT1: ... that when Ugandan commander Hussein Mohammed suggested to his troops to surrender, some of them rioted and started shooting each other? Source: Winfrey, Carey (16 April 1979). "Death Toll in Uganda Increases In Wake of Battle for Kampala". The New York Times. p. 1; Matatu, Gordon (May 1979). "The End of Uganda's Nightmare". Africa. No. 93. p. 12.
Applodion (talk) 22:26, 21 November 2019 (UTC)

The problem I have with the original hook is that overstates Hussein's role in the whole discipline thing. I'd be more okay with a hook that says Idi Amin's brother was once driven to Hussein in a car boot or something. ALT1 seems fine too, but neither the NYT or WaPo mention Hussein by name. Can we be 100% sure that Hussein was the commander being referred to? --Paul_012 (talk) 22:50, 21 November 2019 (UTC)

@Paul 012: Yes. Matatu (1979) mentions him directly. Anyway, I can reword ALT0 as well. How about
ALT0a: ... that the Ugandan President's brother was once delivered in a car boot to military commander Hussein Mohammed?
I think that this sounds more hooky as well ^^. Applodion (talk) 23:05, 21 November 2019 (UTC)

ALT1 and ALT0a are good to go, AGF on the book source for the former. I think Idi Amin is well known enough to mention by name, so feel free to modify it to "Ugandan President Idi Amin's brother..." To the promoter: please consider if boot should be linked to Trunk (car), as I'm not sure whether American readers would be familiar with the term. --Paul_012 (talk) 10:00, 22 November 2019 (UTC)

@Applodion: please add the Matatu cite to the hook fact in the article. Yoninah (talk) 22:47, 27 November 2019 (UTC)

@Yoninah: The events are already correctly referenced: Matatu confirms that Hussein served at Jinba and fled after losing control of his troops (i.e. the following in the article: "With his troops no longer following orders, Hussein deserted his post and fled to Kenya in early April". The story about the shootout, however, is referenced to Winfrey (see "Hussein was reportedly inclined to do so, and addressed his men at the Gaddafi Battalion barracks. A police officer later claimed that many soldiers were violently opposed to surrender, as they belonged to the West Nile tribes and feared execution as partisans of Amin. Fighting broke out among the troops"). Applodion (talk) 22:54, 27 November 2019 (UTC)

@Applodion: sorry, I wasn't clear; I was referring to the ALT0a hook fact. Yoninah (talk) 22:55, 27 November 2019 (UTC)

@Yoninah: Ah, ok. Done. Applodion (talk) 23:03, 27 November 2019 (UTC)

Yes, I see it in the Monitor source. I was just confused by the discussion on this page. Restoring tick per Paul 012's review. Yoninah (talk) 23:07, 27 November 2019 (UTC)