Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story

Summary

The storyteller from Nigeria shares her personal journey with the 'danger of the single story,' illustrating how early exposure to predominantly Western literature shaped her perceptions, leading to a disconnect with her own cultural identity. Her discovery of African literature and later, the misperceptions she faced in the U.S., underscore the power of narratives in shaping understanding and empathy. She advocates for the importance of diverse stories to humanize and challenge stereotypes, emphasizing the need for a 'balance of stories' to restore dignity and foster a more accurate representation of any place or people.

Takeaways

• 📚 The speaker emphasizes the impact of 'single stories' on perception, shaped by early exposure to literature that lacked representation of their own culture and experiences.
• 🌏 The author's childhood stories were influenced by British and American literature, leading to a disconnect between their personal reality in Nigeria and the narratives they created.
• 🎨 The discovery of African literature helped the storyteller to recognize the diversity of narratives and the possibility of characters that mirrored their own identity and environment.
• 🏡 The story of 'Fede' illustrates the danger of a single story, where the author's perception of Fede's family was limited to their economic status, overlooking their capabilities and humanity.
• 🤝 The author's experience in the U.S. highlighted the single story of Africa as a continent of catastrophe, which was far from the complex realities and diversity of the African experience.
• 🗣️ The power of storytelling is tied to power structures; those who control the narrative can define the identity of a person or a place.
• 🌐 The author challenges the notion of 'African authenticity' as defined by others, advocating for a broader understanding that includes the full spectrum of African experiences.
• 📖 The importance of diverse narratives is underscored by the author's own mixed experiences and the recognition that no single story can fully capture the complexity of any individual or culture.
• 🌱 The author's work with the Farafina Trust reflects a commitment to fostering a multiplicity of stories, promoting literacy, and empowering voices that might otherwise go unheard.
• 🌟 The power of stories to both disempower and empower is highlighted, with the potential for narratives to either perpetuate stereotypes or to restore dignity and humanity.
• 🕊️ The call to reject the single story and embrace the multiplicity of narratives as a means to restore a sense of paradise and mutual understanding.

Q & A

What is the 'single story' concept mentioned by the storyteller?

The 'single story' refers to the idea of having a limited, often stereotypical narrative about a person, place, or culture, which can lead to a narrow and potentially biased understanding of that subject.

Why did the storyteller's early stories feature characters that were white and blue-eyed?

The storyteller's early stories featured such characters because the books she read were British and American children's books, which predominantly had white characters, influencing her early writing.

How did the storyteller's perception of literature change after discovering African books?

After discovering African books, the storyteller realized that people who looked like her could also exist in literature, leading her to write about things she recognized and could personally identify with.

What was the storyteller's experience with her family's houseboy, Fide?

The storyteller initially saw Fide's family only through the lens of poverty, but after visiting their village and seeing the beautiful basket made by Fide's brother, her perception changed, realizing they were more than just 'poor'.

How did the storyteller's roommate in the United States perceive her?

The roommate had a 'single story' perception of Africa, assuming the storyteller spoke English well for an African and expecting her to have tribal music, which led to a patronizing attitude.

What is the storyteller's view on the importance of multiple narratives about a place or person?

The storyteller believes that multiple narratives are crucial for a comprehensive understanding, as they prevent the flattening of experiences and allow for the recognition of shared humanity.

Why did the storyteller feel shame during her visit to Guadalajara, Mexico?

The storyteller felt shame because she realized she had bought into the single story of Mexicans as immigrants, which was all she had been exposed to in the media, and it prevented her from seeing them as individuals.

What does the storyteller mean by 'power structures' in relation to storytelling?

The storyteller refers to the power structures as the ability to define and control the narratives about others, which is often influenced by economic, political, and cultural dominance.

How does the storyteller describe the impact of stereotypes created by single stories?

Stereotypes, according to the storyteller, are problematic not because they are untrue, but because they are incomplete, emphasizing differences over similarities and robbing people of their dignity.

What is the storyteller's initiative with her publisher to promote diverse narratives?

The storyteller and her publisher have started a nonprofit called Farafina Trust, with goals to build libraries, refurbish existing ones, provide books for state schools, and organize workshops to encourage reading and writing.

What does the storyteller suggest as a way to regain a 'kind of paradise'?

The storyteller suggests that rejecting the single story and recognizing the multiplicity of narratives about any place can help regain a sense of paradise by restoring dignity and understanding.

Outlines

00:00

📚 The Impact of the Single Story on Perception

The speaker, a storyteller, recounts her childhood in Nigeria, where reading British and American children's books led her to write stories featuring characters that were foreign to her own experience. This shaped her early understanding of literature, until she discovered African authors like Chinua Achebe, which broadened her perspective. She emphasizes the danger of the 'single story' and its power to limit one's worldview, using her own experiences with domestic help and later with an American roommate to illustrate how stereotypes are formed and perpetuated.

05:03

🌏 Challenging the Single Story of Africa

The narrative continues with the storyteller's experiences in the United States, where she encountered the single story of Africa as a continent of catastrophe, which was far from her own experiences. She discusses the historical roots of Western literature's portrayal of Africa and its people, highlighting the power dynamics that allow certain narratives to dominate. The storyteller also reflects on her own complicity in perpetuating single stories, using her visit to Mexico as an example of her own biases and the importance of recognizing and challenging these narratives.

10:05

🌐 The Power of Multiple Stories in Humanizing People

In this paragraph, the storyteller explores the concept of power in storytelling, emphasizing that it's not just about telling someone's story, but having the ability to make it the definitive narrative of that person. She uses examples of how starting a story differently can change the entire narrative and discusses the importance of having a balance of stories to avoid stereotypes. The storyteller shares personal anecdotes that challenge the single story of suffering she often hears about her home country, Nigeria, and calls for the recognition of the many facets of any given place or person.

15:06

📖 The Importance of Diverse Stories in Regaining a Kind of Paradise

The final paragraph concludes the storyteller's message, advocating for the importance of diverse stories in understanding and humanizing people. She shares examples of the richness of Nigerian culture, literature, and everyday life, which are often overlooked due to the single story narrative. The storyteller discusses her efforts to promote reading and writing in Nigeria through workshops and a nonprofit organization, emphasizing that stories have the power to both break and repair dignity. She ends with a call to reject the single story and embrace the complexity of multiple narratives, which she likens to regaining a kind of paradise.

Keywords

💡Single Story

The term 'Single Story' refers to the phenomenon where a person or group is defined by one narrative or stereotype, ignoring the complexity and diversity of their experiences and identities. In the video, the storyteller illustrates how growing up reading only British and American children's books led her to believe that characters in stories had to be foreign and unfamiliar with her own environment. This concept is central to the video's theme, emphasizing the importance of diverse narratives to avoid stereotyping and misrepresentation.

💡Impressionability

Impressionability is the susceptibility of being influenced or shaped by external factors, especially during early development. The video discusses the storyteller's early years as a reader and writer, where the books she read influenced her own writing, leading her to create characters that did not reflect her own cultural background. This highlights the impact that stories can have on young, impressionable minds and the potential for these stories to shape perceptions and identities.

💡Cultural Identity

Cultural identity refers to the sense of belonging to a cultural group, which is defined by shared values, traditions, and history. The video's theme revolves around the storyteller's journey of discovering her cultural identity through literature. Initially, she felt disconnected from the characters in the books she read, but upon discovering African literature, she realized the importance of representation and the ability to identify with characters that share her cultural background.

💡Stereotype

A stereotype is a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. The video discusses the dangers of stereotypes, such as the 'single story' of Africa being one of poverty and catastrophe, which fails to capture the continent's diversity and complexity. Stereotypes are shown to be limiting and dehumanizing, as they reduce people to one-dimensional representations.

💡Dignity

Dignity refers to the state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect. The video argues that the 'single story' can rob people of their dignity by reducing them to stereotypes and ignoring their individuality and humanity. Conversely, recognizing and sharing diverse stories can restore dignity by acknowledging the fullness of a person's or group's experiences.

💡Representation

Representation in the context of the video means the portrayal or embodiment of something, particularly in art and media. The storyteller emphasizes the importance of representation in literature, as it allows individuals to see themselves and their experiences reflected in the stories they read, which can be empowering and validating.

💡Power Structures

Power structures refer to the systems and institutions that distribute and maintain power within a society. The video discusses how power structures influence the stories that are told and how they are told, often leading to the dominance of a 'single story' that serves the interests of those in power. This can result in the marginalization and misrepresentation of certain groups.

💡Empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. The video suggests that the 'single story' can hinder empathy by creating barriers between people based on stereotypes and misunderstandings. By sharing diverse stories, people can gain a deeper understanding of others and foster a sense of shared humanity.

💡Resilience

Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties or to withstand hardships. The video highlights the resilience of people in Nigeria and other African countries, who continue to thrive and innovate despite challenges such as poor infrastructure and political instability. This concept counters the 'single story' of Africa as a place of despair and instead showcases the strength and adaptability of its people.

💡Authenticity

Authenticity in the video refers to the genuineness or realness of a story or experience. The storyteller reflects on a critique of her novel as not being 'authentically African,' suggesting that there is a perceived 'correct' way to represent Africa that is often based on stereotypes. Authenticity, in this context, is complex and subjective, as it is influenced by personal experiences and cultural perspectives.

💡Diversity

Diversity refers to the variety of different elements, in this case, the range of stories and experiences that can be told about a person, place, or culture. The video emphasizes the importance of diversity in storytelling to counter the 'single story' and to present a more accurate and nuanced understanding of the world.

Highlights

The storyteller grew up reading British and American children's books, which influenced her early writings to be about foreign characters and settings.

The realization that books could feature characters she could personally identify with led to a shift in her writing to more relatable stories.

The impact of a single story on the perception of an entire group, as seen through the author's childhood views of her houseboy's family.

The author's experience of being perceived through a single story in the United States, where her roommate had preconceived notions about her as an African.

The concept of 'African authenticity' and its limitations, as challenged by a professor's critique of the author's novel.

The author's guilt and shame over her own preconceived notions about Mexicans due to the single story portrayed in the media.

The power dynamics in storytelling and how they can define the narrative of a person or a group.

The historical roots of the single story of Africa, traced back to writings like those of John Locke in 1561.

The importance of having multiple stories to avoid stereotypes and the flattening of experiences.

The transformative power of stories to both disempower and empower, as illustrated by the author's experiences and observations.

The author's initiative to promote diverse African stories through her nonprofit, the Farafina Trust.

The author's call to reject the single story and embrace the multiplicity of narratives as a means to regain a kind of paradise.

The author's personal anecdotes that highlight the diversity and complexity of life in Nigeria, challenging the single story narrative.

The potential for stories to humanize and connect people, as opposed to the divisive effect of a single story.

The author's reflections on the importance of telling many stories to avoid the pitfalls of a single story narrative.

The author's experiences with her Nigerian publisher and the challenges and triumphs of making literature accessible and affordable.

The author's emphasis on the agency of the reader, as demonstrated by a Nigerian woman who read her novel and wanted a sequel.

Transcripts

I'm a storyteller and I would like to

tell you a few personal stories about

what I like to call the danger of the

single story I grew up on a university

campus in eastern Nigeria my mother says

that I started reading at the age of two

although I think four is probably close

to the truth so I was an early reader

and what I read were British and

American children's books I was also an

early writer and when I began to write

at about the age of seven stories in

pencil with crayon illustrations that my

poor mother was obligated to read I

wrote exactly the kinds of stories I was

reading all my characters were white and

blue-eyed they played in the snow they

ate apples and they talked a lot about

the weather how lovely it was that the

Sun had come out now this despite the

fact that I lived in Nigeria had never

been outside Nigeria we didn't have snow

we ate mangos and we never talked about

the weather because there was no need to

my characters also drank a lot of ginger

beer because the characters and the

British books I read drank ginger beer

never mind that I had no idea what

ginger beer was and for many years

afterwards I would have a desperate

desire to taste ginger beer but that is

another story what this demonstrates I

think is how impressionable and

vulnerable we are in the face of a story

particularly as children because all I

had read were books in which characters

were foreign I had become convinced that

books by the very nature had to have

foreigners in them and had to be about

things with which I could not personally

identify now things changed when I

discovered African books there weren't

many of them available and they weren't

quite as easy to find as the foreign

books but because of writers like Chinua

Achebe on camera why I went through a

mental shift in my purse

literature I realized that people like

me

girls with skin the color of chocolate

whose kinky hair could not form

ponytails could also exist in literature

I started to write about things I

recognized now I loved those American

and British books I read they stared my

imagination the opened up new worlds for

me but the unintended consequence was

that I did not know that people like me

could exist in the cheetah so what the

discovery of African writers did for me

was this it saved me from having a

single story of what books are I come

from a conventional middle-class

Nigerian family my father was a

professor

my mother was an administrator and so we

had as was the norm live-in domestic

help who would often come from nearby

rural villages so the year I turned 8 we

got a new houseboy his name was fede the

only thing my mother told us about him

was that his family was very poor my

mother sent yams and rice and our old

clothes to his family and when I didn't

finish my dinner my mother would say

finish your food don't you know people

like fides family have nothing so I felt

an almost pity for fides family but one

Saturday we went to his village to visit

and his mother showed us a beautifully

patterned basket made of dyed raffia

that his brother had made I was startled

it had not occurred to me that anybody

in his family could actually make

something all I had heard about them was

how poor they were so that it had become

impossible for me to see them as

anything else but poor their poverty was

my single story of them years later I

thought about this when I left Nigeria

to go to university in the United States

I was 19 my American roommate was

shocked by me she asked where I had

learned to speak English so well and was

confused when I said that Nigeria

happened to have English as its official

language she asked if she could listen

to what she

called my tribal music I was

consequently very disappointed when I

produced my tape of Mariah Carey she

assumed that I did not know how to use a

stove what struck me was this she had

felt sorry for me even before she saw me

had default position toward me as an

African was a kind of patronizing

well-meaning my roommate had a

single story of Africa a single story of

catastrophe in this single story there

was no possibility of Africans being

similar to her in any way no possibility

of feelings more complex than pity no

possibility of a connection as human

equals I must say that before I went to

the u.s. I didn't consciously identify

as Africa but in the u.s. whenever

Africa came more people turned to me

nevermind that I knew nothing about

places like Namibia but I did come to

embrace the sign new identity and in

many ways I think of myself now as

African although I still get quite

irritable when Africa is referred to as

a country the most recent example being

my otherwise wonderful flight from Lagos

two days ago in which there was an

announcement on the virgin flight about

their charity walk in India Africa and

other countries so after I had spent

some years in the US as an African I

began to understand my roommates

response to me if I had not grown up in

Nigeria and if all I knew about Africa

were from popular images I too would

think that Africa was a place of

beautiful landscapes beautiful animals

and incomprehensible people fighting

senseless wars dying of poverty and AIDS

unable to speak for themselves and

waiting to be saved by a kind white

foreigner I would see Africans in the

same way that I as a child had seen

fides family this single story of Africa

ultimately comes I think from Western

literature now here's a quote from the

writing of a London merchant called John

Locke who sailed to West Africa in 1561

and kept

a fascinating account of his voyage

after referring to the black africans as

beasts who have no houses he writes they

are also people without heads having

their mouths and eyes in their breasts

now I've laughed every time I've read

this and one must admire the imagination

of John Locke but what is important

about his writing is that it represents

the beginning of a tradition of telling

African stories in the West a tradition

of sub-saharan Africa as a place of

negatives of difference of darkness of

people who in the words of the wonderful

poet Rudyard Kipling a half devil half

child and so I began to realize that my

American roommate must have throughout

her life seen and heard different

versions of the single story as had a

professor who once told me that my novel

was not authentically African now I was

quite willing to contend that there were

a number of things wrong with the novel

that it had failed in a number of places

but I had not quite imagined that it had

failed at achieving something called

African authenticity in fact I did not

know what African authenticity was the

professor told me that my characters

were too much like him and educated and

middle class man my characters drove

cars they were not starving therefore

they were not authentically African but

I must quickly add that I too am just as

guilty on the question of the single

story a few years ago I visited Mexico

from the US the political climate in the

u.s. at the time was tense and there

were debates going on about immigration

and as often happens in America

immigration became synonymous with

Mexicans there were endless stories of

Mexicans as people who were fleecing the

healthcare system sneaking across the

border being arrested at the border that

sort of thing I remember walking around

and my first day in Guadalajara watching

the people going to walk ruling up to

tears in the market

nice-lookin laughing I remember first

feeling slight surprise and then I was

overwhelmed with shame I realized that I

had been so immersed in the media

coverage of Mexicans that they had

become one thing in my mind the abject

immigrant I had bought into the single

story of Mexicans and I could not have

been more ashamed of myself so that is

how to create a single story show a

people as one thing as only one thing

over and over again and that is what

they become it is impossible to talk

about the single story without talking

about power

there is award an award that I think

about whenever I think about the power

structures of the world and it is

uncanny it's a noun that loosely

translates to to be greater than another

like our economic and political walls

stories too are defined by the principle

of uncanny how they are told who tells

them when they are told how many stories

are told are really dependent on power

power is the ability not just to tell

the story of another person but to make

it the definitive story of that person

the Palestinian poet Marie Bhagwati

writes that if you want to dispossessed

people the simplest way to do it is to

tell their story and to start with

secondly start the story with the arrows

of the Native Americans and not with the

arrival of the British and you have an

entirely different story start the story

with the failure of the African states

and not with the colonial creation of

the African state and you have an

entirely different story I recently

spoke as a university where a student

told me that it was such a shame that

Nigerian man was were physical abusers

like the father character in my novel I

told him that I had just read a novel

called American Psycho

and that it was such a shame that young

Americans with serial murderers

now-now-now obviously I said this in a

fit of mild irritation but it would

never have occurred to me to think that

just because I had read a novel in which

a character who was a serial killer that

he was somehow representative of all

Americans and now this is not because

I'm a better person than that student

but because of America's cultural and

economic power

I had many stories of America I had red

tile and abdic and Steinbeck and gates

kill I did not have a single story of

America when I learned some years ago

that writers were expected to have had

really unhappy childhoods to be

successful I began to think about how I

could invent horrible things my parents

had done to me but the truth is that I

had a very happy childhood full of

laughter and love in a very close-knit

family but I also had grandfathers who

died in refugee camps

my cousin Polly died because he could

not get adequate health care one of my

closest friends Oklahoma died in a plane

crash because our fire trucks did not

have water

I grew up under oppressive military

governments but devalued education so

that sometimes my parents were not paid

their salaries and so as a child I saw

Jam disappear from the breakfast table

then margarine disappeared then bread

became so expensive then milk became

Russian and most of all a kind of

normalized political fear invaded our

lives all of these stories make me who I

am but to insist on only these negative

stories is to flatten my experience and

to overlook the many other stories that

formed me the single story creates

stereotypes and the problem with

stereotypes is not that they are untrue

but that they are incomplete

they make one-story become the only

story of course Africa is a continent

full of catastrophes that immense ones

such as the horrific rapes in Congo and

depressing ones such as the fact that

5,000 people apply for one job vacancy

in Nigeria but there are other stories

that are not about catastrophe and it's

very important it is just as important

to talk about them I've always felt that

it is impossible to engage properly with

the police or a person without engaging

with all of the stories of that place

and that person the consequence of the

single story is this it robs people of

dignity it makes our recognition of a

equal humanity difficult it emphasizes

how we are different rather than how we

are similar so what it before my Mexican

trip I had followed the immigration

debate from both sides the US and the

Mexican what if my mother had told us

that fides family was poor and had

walking what if we had an African

television network that broadcast

diverse African stories all over the

world what the Nigerian rights are chino

chiba calls a balance of stories what if

my roommate knew about my nigerian

publisher Mukhtar Bukhari a remarkable

man who left his job in a bank to follow

his dream and start a publishing house

now the conventional wisdom was that

Nigerians don't read literature he

disagreed he felt that people who could

read would read if you made literature

affordable and available to them shortly

after he published my first novel I went

to a TV station illegals to do an

interview and a woman who worked there

as a messenger came up to me and said I

really liked your novel I didn't like

the ending now you must write a sequel

and this is what will happen

actually went on to tell me what to

write in the sepal now I was not only

charmed I was very moved here was a

woman part of the ordinary masses of

Nigerians who were not supposed to be

readers she had not only read the book

but she had taken ownership of it and

felt justified and telling me what to

write in the sepal now what if my

roommate knew about my friend for me

under a fearless woman who hosts the TV

show in Lagos and is determined to tell

the stories that we prefer to forget

what if my roommate knew about the heart

procedure that was performed in the

Lagos Hospital last week what if my

roommate knew about contemporary

Nigerian music talented people singing

in English and pigeon and EMU and Yoruba

and I Joe Mixon influences from JZ to

Fela to Bob Marley to their grandfathers

what if my roommate knew about the

female lawyer who recently went to court

in Nigeria to challenge a ridiculous law

that required women to get their

husbands consent before renewing their

passports what if my roommate knew about

Nollywood full of innovative people

making films despite great technical

odds films so popular that they really

are the best example of Nigerians

consuming what they produce what if my

roommate knew about my wonderfully

ambitious hair braider who has just

started her own business selling hair

extensions all about the millions of

other Nigerians who start businesses and

sometimes feel but continued to nurse

ambition every time I am home I'm

confronted with the usual sources of

irritation for most Nigerians our field

infrastructure our field government but

also by the incredible resilience of

people who thrive despite the government

rather than because of it I teach

writing workshops in Lagos every summer

and it is amazing to me how many people

apply how many people are eager to write

to tell stories my Nigerian publisher

and I have just started a nonprofit

called Farah FINA trust and we have big

dreams of building libraries and

refurbishing libraries that already

exist and

providing books for state schools that

don't have anything in their libraries

and also of organizing lots and lots of

workshops on reading and writing for all

the people who are eager to tell our

many stories stories matter many stories

matter stories have been used to dis

possess and to malign but stories can

also be used to empower and to humanize

stories can break the dignity of the

people but stories can also repair that

broken dignity the American writer Alice

Walker wrote this about them her

southern relatives who had moved to the

north and she introduced them to a book

about the saddle life that they had left

behind they sat around reading the book

themselves listening to me read the book

and the kind of paradise was regained I

would like to end with this thought that

when we reject the single story when we

realize that there is never a single

story about any place we regain a kind

of paradise thank you

you