Who is Mamadou Keita from God's Bits of Wood and what is their importance?

Keita is a wise, revered elder who makes his home with Bakayoko's family. Spiritual and sensitive, he receives appalling treatment at the hands of the anti-union French military. His transcendence of that treatment, however, parallels and compliments Ad'jibid'ji's comment (referred to above) in its evocation of the transcendent power of spirit, an aspect of his character reiterated in the Christ imagery associated with his time in prison.