Ideas in Antiquity Journal #2
Chapter 3:// Becoming a “Master Harmonizer” in Nnedi Okorafor’s *Binti*
September 6th 2020
9:48pm
It is coming end of Labor day weekend and I greatly appreciate the extra day off. I’ve been trying to ditch my usual procrastinatory nature for a new mindset that prioritizes doing things days in advance. So here goes nothing.
It feels like yesterday when we recieved an email from Dr. Sandridge welcomed us to this course and gave us our book list. Upon reading the email excitedly rushed to amazon to order the books listed. Binti, was one that stood out to me. I received the book in less than two days and started reading in less than 2 hours of its arrival. I almost finished in one sitting, but decided to hold off for when we might discuss it in class. This being the third week of this course, keeping organized through Kallion has been great. I checked this weeks assignments a couple of days before and was excited to see we would be diving into Binti. After finishing the book on the 5th, I started the assignments on Kallion.
For our first step we were asked to spend twenty minutes sketching an example of leadership by someone you would consider an “insider”. We were asked to think about what makes this person an insider. Being of a certain gender, age, sexual orientation, cultural background, or education might increase the chances of this person being an “insider” and we were asked to take that into account as well. Being the not so great artist that I am, I got to work on making my stick figure lawyer look as skillful as possible. Next, we were asked to sketch our idea of an “insider”. Where my sketch of an “insider” took a little more thought, I figured I had it in the bag with my sketch of an “outsider.” After making a sketch of a homeless person, and spending 20 minutes searching groupon for beginners art classes, I turned in for the night.
September 7th 2020
7:06 pm
I decided to finish the last 3 steps of our Kallion assignment tonight. In step three we were asked to think about what we consider to be the advantages and disadvantages of being an outsider compared to an insider. The list of common leadership behaviors helped a lot in completing this step. I attached photo copies of my notes for step three below. Step four required a lot more thought so I was glad I saved this activity for last. Step four asked us to think about three examples of division that currently bother us, either in the people we deal with on a day-to-day basis or in the world, what opportunities do you yourself have to bring about reconciliation in these situations and in what three ways could you become better at bringing about reconciliation and identifying beneficial partnerships for others.
Before wrapping up, I looked back over Binti, and flagged some of my favorite parts of the book. In step five we were asked to note specific passages that we thought were key to understand Binti’s leadership role in the book. I was sure we would be reviewing the book in class and I wanted to make sure that if I were asked to speak on a key passage that I would be prepared.
September 8th, 2020
3:30pm
Tuesdays and Thursdays are my long days, so as much as I would like to work on my journal immediatley after class has ended I’ve been finding it impossible. During class I find myself constantly noting quotes, information, thoughts, that would be perfect to include in this journal.
During class, like I figured, we were asked to point out any key points in Binti that showed the main characters leadership skills. I was ready to fade to the back and listen to what my classmates had come up with until I noticed how much in common a part of the book had with one of the leadership behaviors I had looked at earlier in the week. I eagerly rose my virtual hand and explained how I thought that Binti’s regulation of emotional ad psychological state had shown through in the part of the book where a “Khoush” woman had tugged at her hair. In the book, the woman grabs the main characters hair almost in a way to dehumanize her, totally disregarding her personal space. I noted that this situation was a perfect example of “restraining certain emotions.”
In class we also discussed how important solitude can be to developing leadership skills. Dr. Sandridge introduced us to an article entitled “Solitude and Leadership.” I left the article in my tabs and promised myself to read it later. Though it was a little lengthly, it was interesting to see how critical it is to be able to take counsel in yourself in solitude. I enjoyed when the article mentioned that, “But it seems to me that solitude is the very essence of leadership. The position of the leader is ultimately an intensely solitary, even intensely lonely one. However many people you may consult, you are the one who has to make the hard decisions. And at such moments, all you really have is yourself (Dereisewicz, 2019).”
September 9th
9:40pm
I went back to Kallion to complete the Plotting Your Leadership Development of this weeks assignment. In my notebook I wrote down which leadership skills Binti shows as a master harmonizer are ones that I personally need to perform. I made note of whether I found these behaviors easy or difficult and made a plan to work on the ones that needed the most attention.
While working on this activity I noticed that there is a specific part in the book that related to the leadership development skills. “Parting with the past, undergoing a metaphorical death of your prior self”, is one leadership skill that goes hand in hand with an excerpt in the book. “They were honor and dishonor. I had to earn their honor and the only way to do that was by dying a second time(Okorafor, 2015).”
Citations
Dereisewicz, W. (2019, May 28). Solitude and Leadership. Retrieved September 10, 2020, from https://theamericanscholar.org/solitude-and-leadership/
Okorafor, N. (2015). Binti. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
