When Tiefolo returned to Segu, he opened a small Koranic school, or zawiya, in the family compound. In a very brief incident, one of the students attending the school is explicitly named:

“How many of you have followed the advice I gave you yesterday?” he [Tiefolo] asked.

The class stirred. Obviously no one knew what he meant.

Then Alfa Mande Diarra stood up

“I did, master,” he said. “I wrote the divine name of Allah on the wall opposite my bed so that it would be the first thing I see when I wake up.”

As far as I can see, he is the only student to be explicitly named (apart from Tiefolo's direct relatives), but even so he plays no further role in the story. Is the name given in this brief cameo a tribute, or in-joke, to the Malian author, Alpha Mande Diarra?

When Tiekoro returned to Segu, he opened a small Koranic school, or zawiya, in the family compound. In a very brief incident (Part IV, chapter 1), one of the students attending the school is explicitly named:

“How many of you have followed the advice I gave you yesterday?” he [Tiekoro] asked.

The class stirred. Obviously no one knew what he meant.

Then Alfa Mande Diarra stood up

“I did, master,” he said. “I wrote the divine name of Allah on the wall opposite my bed so that it would be the first thing I see when I wake up.”

As far as I can see, he is the only student to be explicitly named (apart from Tiekoro's direct relatives), but even so he plays no further role in the story. Is the name given in this brief cameo a tribute, or in-joke, to the Malian author, Alpha Mande Diarra?