The long awaited arrival of the leader has arrived. It seemed as though the author was building up characterization and anticipation for this chapter when we finally meet this man, Ibrahim Bakayoko. I can't really decide my take on him yet though, because sure he seems very confident in himself and sure, he is a strong speaker. Though as we talked about briefly in class today, he was not there for the majority of the happenings of the strike and just shows up for the meeting and it's somewhat unclear as to if he really has the best interests of the striking people in mind. Though it's said that he represents the "soul" of the strike, this simply means that he is trying to continue and inspiring the people to keep going. But this may mean that he's not thinking through what the people should do realistically. The way he talks is an interesting change but it also gets me somewhat annoyed because after all the Sudanese have done to even get the admistration to meet with them it almost seems like he's throwing their chances at gaining anything away. Especially by chocking a member of the administration, that's just the opposite of what you should do to get what you want.
I had similar impressions for the famous Bayaoko. I guess, if we were reading a fanticy book I would hope to see a shine of light behind him. By that I mean, he was so played up in the story that I was expectin this amazing person. Like we said in class it was like he had this almost Jesus persona. I'm not totally sure how to express my feelings on this, more or less I was just a little dissapointed.
ReplyDeleteIt's really interesting that you brought up Bakayoko's blatant disregard for what the strikers should do realistically. It's true, he has ideas and he seems to be the main driving force behind the strike. But his plan seems to be too idealistic and he wants everything to be given to the strikers at once; he's absolutely unwilling to negotiate--something that's essential when striking. To me, he's a stubborn, idealistic man and these qualities can be very dangerous in a man who's the figure head of thousands of Senegalese people.
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