Who is Mame Sofi, Houdia M'Baye, N'Deye Touti from God's Bits of Wood and what is their importance?

These characters all live with Ramatoulaye at N'Diayene and all, in various ways, embody the narrative's themes of empowerment and identity development. Mame Sofi is a strong, opinionated middle-aged woman who already has a degree of confidence but who develops more as the strike and its circumstances call upon her to do so. Houdia M'Baye is worn out with childbirth, having given birth to nine. Her quest for empowerment ends tragically when she dies as the result of a blast from a firehose intended to subdue the rebellious women. The young, beautiful N'Deye Touti is ambitious, proud and arrogant, in many ways a female parallel to Bakayoko (it is no surprise that they share an attraction). The parallel extends to their similar choices, at the conclusion of the strike, to focus more on family and home and traditional values rather than on an arrogance-defined independence.