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Ibrahim Marcel Sylla
Ms Sumanah Mustapha
Omang
02 Nov. 2023
Personhood, My personal Odyssey
Personhood is a complex concept that encompasses both individual and social aspects of
being human. In addition to this, personal identity is shaped by our unique experiences,
relationships, and values. Communal identity is shaped by our shared culture, history, and
traditions as states Mona Hakimi. For example, Miss. Mona argues that personhood is a culturally
constructed concept, but also, that personhood is a relational concept. This leads me to believe that
the criteria for what it means to be a person vary from culture to culture. Additionally, our
personhood is defined in part by our relationships with others” (Hakimi). We can therefore see that
Ms. Mona bridges the concept of personhood with the previous unit on the self and the current unit
on the relationship between self and society by explaining that personhood encompasses both
personal and communal identity.
Personhood in my previous school Muslim community was expressed through showing up
and being there with and for others. For example, I loved belonging to this community that, after
every lesson and during my free blocks, I used to spend all my free time in my school mosque with
the other students praying, laughing, debating, learning, and eating. This suggests that it was more
than a family to me, in fact, personhood is expressed through community presence and
involvement in our day to day gatherings. For instance, through your presence you will participate
in moments of laughter, tears, stress, joy and entertainment and all these moments allow us to
consolidate and strengthen the bonds between us. On the other hand, never coming will definitely
not make you a member of the community. Alternatively, coming from time to time will still make
you a member of the community. However, Since you did not participate in our previous events
and discussions, you may feel like an outsider when we talk about them. We can therefore see how
personhood is defined by community membership and
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involvement. In conclusion, our presence and participation in rituals and activities shows our
commitment to the community and the value we place on relationships with others.
As an individual, I have both direct and indirect influence over my community sense of
personhood. On the one hand, I am subject to the social norms and expectations of my community.
In fact, due to my chairman position, there were certain expectations about how I behave but
mainly there were expectations about my presence in these rituals and activities. These
expectations were based on the community's shared values and our sense of belonging. In contrast,
as chairman, I had the responsibility to decide between the standards, to resolve and to face the
problems of the community. This suggests that my presence in my community was a way for me
to exercise my indirect influence over the community's sense of personhood. Overall, I have
agency in accepting or challenging the social norms and expectations of my community. Moreover,
I take pride in accepting them because I thrive in them and I am a staunch defender and is
committed to our shared values. However, I also recognize that people may abuse some aspects of
the community's social norms and expectations. In these cases, I use my agency and play my
chairman role by reestablishing the truth and uniting the parties around the real standards to which
we all agree.
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Work Cited list
Hakimi Mona, “Personhood Lecture by Ms. Mona”, Personhood Lecture by Ms Mona. Accessed
2 Nov. 2023.