code: def to_unicode(value):
      
      if isinstance(value, ffi.CData):
          return ffi.string(value).decode('utf-8')
      elif isinstance(value, binary_type):
          return value.decode('utf-8')
      elif isinstance(value, text_type):
          return value
      else:
          raise ValueError('Value must be text, bytes, or char[]')
docs: Converts bytes, unicode, and C char arrays to unicode strings.
  
      Bytes and C char arrays are decoded from UTF-8.