At 5, Kakenya Ntaiya’s future was decided. The little Maasai girl was betrothed to be married when she reached puberty. Early marriage and a family were believed to be the only way to secure a girl’s future, and parents in her village married their daughters off young in exchange for highly valued cows. Girls were married once they completed “the ceremony,” a much-celebrated event in a Maasai girl’s life. The ceremonial procedure that would mark the end of her childhood was never openly discussed. The procedure known in the Western world as female genital mutilation (FGM) is a dangerous and extremely painful cutting done without anesthetic and often in unsanitary conditions.

Until she was 12, Kakenya lived much like any other little Maasai girl, up early and working on the farm, constantly in training to be a mother and wife. From the time she was old enough to walk, she was taught to sweep the house, gather wood, fetch water from the river, and cook for her family.

Only after her chores were completed could Kakenya attend school. She did so at the urging of her mother, who had been denied an education and had a difficult life. Her mother worked hard running the family’s farm, growing food and tending the animals so the family could eat. Because women were not allowed to own property, everything belonged to her husband and Kakenya’s father, a policeman who worked in a nearby city and returned home only once a year to sell the livestock and the products his wife raised, using the money to drink with his friends.

Kakenya dreamed of becoming a teacher, but knew once “the ceremony” was completed, she would be married, and that dream would vanish. As she neared the end of the eighth grade, she approached her father with a proposal: She would go through the ceremony only if he would postpone her marriage and allow her to return to school. If he didn’t, she would run away, thereby shaming her father with the lifelong stigma of “being the father of that girl who didn’t go through the ceremony” (Ntaiya, 2012).

Kakenya’s father acquiesced to her terms, and she endured the painful procedure. Thanks to her mother’s foresight to procure a nurse, Kakenya healed quickly and returned to high school three weeks later with a more fierce resolve to become a teacher. She applied to several colleges abroad and was offered a scholarship to attend Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia. However, she needed money for the airfare and had a new obstacle—her father had suffered a stroke and could not speak for her. In her community, all the men her father’s age were also considered her father, and thus, without her own father’s blessing, she had to persuade them. This was no easy task, as the general consensus was that this was an opportunity “wasted on a girl” (Gleissner, 2017)...............

Questions 

1. The chapter states “charismatic leaders create change by linking their vision and its values to the self-concept of followers.” How did Kakenya Ntaiya accomplish this?

2. How would you describe Kakenya’s vision?

a. According to the text, a vision has five characteristics: a picture, a change, values, a map, and a challenge. How are each of these elements expressed in Kakenya’s vision?

b. Discuss the evolution of Kakenya’s vision over the course of her life—from the vision she had for herself as a young girl to its more global expression today. Discuss the specific elements of this vision and how they have evolved and scaled over the years.

3. Given the cultural challenges, articulating her vision was a critical component to Kakenya’s success. Using the four elements of articulation described in this chapter, what are the challenges Kakenya faced, and how did she address them through articulation?

4. What roles did building credibility, setting high performance standards that motivated others to accomplish the vision, and empowering others play in Kakenya’s vision?