Diksha Sundriyal
In Apple TV+’s ‘Pluribus,’ the world is turned inside out when everyone becomes nice to Carol Struka. For her, it happens overnight, as the world seems to be taken over by some virus that turns everyone into a really good person. However, as she gets to the bottom of the truth, she discovers that things have been unfolding for much longer than that. Over the course of the first two episodes, the show sets up the increasingly isolating situation for Carol. However, in the second episode, she discovers that she might not be alone after all. Several people, including Koumba Diabate, come into the picture, but their thought processes turn out to be very different from hers, making them, especially Mr. Diabate, compelling characters. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Koumba Diabate is One of the Few People in the World Like Carol
Koumba Diabate is introduced in the second episode of ‘Pluribus,’ after Carol expresses the desire to meet more people like her. By this time, almost the entire world has fallen into the grip of an alien virus that has turned everyone into an extremely nice person. Everyone, at least those who have survived this transition, has become part of a hive mind where every single person in the world is connected. There are only a handful of people, to be exact, a dozen, who have shown immunity to the virus. Carol is one of them, and this leads her to seek out the rest like her, as she believes that, with them, she can find a way to defeat this alien virus and restore the world to its former state. However, these people don’t turn out to be as expected, and Koumba Diabate is the most complex of them all.
When Carol meets five other people, including Diabate, she discovers that almost all of them have given in to the idea of eventually becoming one with the rest of the world. They are motivated by the fact that their family members and loved ones have also turned, and it seems more feasible for them to be one with them. Diabate, on the other hand, wants things to remain as they are, because it has basically turned him into a king. The world seems to be at his feet, ready to serve him whatever he wants and desires. None of his requests are considered too much or impossible, and he doesn’t think there is any reason to change the new status quo. However, his selfish ways turn him into a much more villainous person than expected, and this desire to remain so will pit him against Carol, who is determined to save humanity.
Samba Schutte Brings Koumba Diabate’s Casanova Charm to Life
Samba Schutte plays the role of Koumba Diabate in ‘Pluribus.’ Schutte was born in Mauritania and moved to Ethiopia at an early age. At the age of twelve, his father bought him a game called ‘Steven Spielberg’s Director’s Chair,’ which allowed the player to make a film with Spielberg on the Universal Studios lot. Playing the game led Schutte to discover his love for making movies, and that became the point when he decided he wanted to be an actor. At the age of eighteen, he left Ethiopia for the Netherlands, where he studied theatre. This is also where he got the opportunity to perform comedy during an open-mic night, and from there, there was no turning back, leading him to win the country’s biggest national comedy award in 2006. Later that year, he moved to Los Angeles, where he continued working in comedy circles, winning a competition at The Comedy Store three months later.
Eventually, he turned towards movies and TV shows, and has since worked on projects like ‘Our Flag Means Death,’ ‘Jurassic World: Chaos Theory,’ ‘The Legend of Vox Machina,’ ‘Sunnyside,’ and ‘The Tiger Hunter.’ He has also performed in video games like ‘Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order,’ ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 4,’ and ‘Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus,’ and has also written for ‘Battlefield V.’ Schutte described working on ‘Pluribus’ as a dream come true. He called it a dream project, revealing his excitement and gratitude for getting to work with Vince Gilligan, as well as the incredible cast, led by Rhea Seehorn. The multilingual actor-writer-comedian wishes to create his own TV shows and movies in the future. He wishes to use his platform to create stories about people from diverse cultures and help artists from Africa and other developing countries to showcase their talent and present their own stories on their own terms.
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