Mr. Mbenday

  Mr. Mbenday

Boyza Go Mbenday is a minor supporting character in Railsea. He is Captain Naphi's first mate, & also one of the crew who ultimately opposed her.

Personality
He is very energetic, often nervous, & known to find the various misadventures of Sham & Yashkan Worli & Valtis Lind very entertaining. He also seems to greatly enjoy molehunts (as evidenced by his love of pep-talking the breakers & switchers during them). According to most of the crew, Mbenday is very agreeable & also very reasonable (though he does not seem to be inspired by Starbuck, the first mate from Moby-Dick). Even during the mutiny against Naphi, while he agreed with the mutineers & sided with them, he was far less angry & made sure there was no violence involved.

Appearance
Mbenday has dark skin & red hair that is usually very messy & windblown. He tends to look as energetic as he acts, being described in the narration as often clearly tense from either excitement or nerves.

Narrative Role
Though a very minor character, Mbenday was very important to the mutiny against Captain Naphi, as he was able to explain the situation to her while the others (such as Vurinam) were too angry to do anything aside from monologue furiously, thus preventing a violent uprising & keeping a brawl from breaking out on the Medes.