so I’m kind of a sucker for Redemption Equals Death because it’s sad and I’m a sucker for sad. but I also…idk, sometimes I wish it weren’t such an overwhelming trend, not only because All My Faves Wind Up Dead but also because…I want to see more villains actually going through the hard, messy work of redemption, that it can’t just be done and over with, that it’s not as simple as One Good Heroic Act and everything is better.
I want the awkward and painful and difficult aftermath.
like, what I really want is the villain seeking redemption who is genre savvy enough to go for a redemptive death, figuring that’s their best way out – and who survives, and has to live up to what they meant to be their last act.
rather than death as the end of a redemptive arc, near-death as the beginning of one.
Yacouba Sawadogo is an exceptional man – he single-handedly managed to solve a crisis that many scientists and development organizations
could not. The simple old farmer’s re-forestation and soil conservation
techniques are so effective they’ve helped turn the tide in the fight
against the desertification of the harsh lands in northern Burkina Faso.
Over-farming, over-grazing and over population have, over the years,
resulted in heavy soil erosion and drying in this landlocked West
African nation. Although national and international researchers tried to
fix the grave situation, it really didn’t really make much of a
difference. Until Yacouba decided to take matters into his own hands in
1980.
Yacouba’s methods were so odd that his fellow farmers ridiculed him.
But when his techniques successfully regenerated the forest, they were
forced to sit up and take notice. Yacouba revived an ancient African
farming practice called ‘zai’, which led to forest growth and increased
soil quality.
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