Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story

Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie speaking at the TEDGlobal 2009 conference ties in quite nicely.

She starts by telling a story about how as a child all the books she read were from the US and the UK, and so when she started writing herself, everything she wrote was about “white people with blue eyes, snow, apples, and the weather.” Adichie goes on to relate how her college roommate had pretty warped expectations for her (like “How did you learn to speak English so well?”).

What I love about this talk is the way in which it really brings home the danger of assuming things are they way we alone have experienced them, and the perils of generalizing.

It’s disturbingly common to hear people talk about Africa as though it were a single country or even a small state. Those who think for a second know that this couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, Africa is both the second-largest and second most-populous continent on Earth—besting even North America. What this means is that there is incredible diversity of ethnicity, religions, languages, climate, population density, modernity, and politics (among other things) across the region. For instance, Lagos, Nigeria—the location of Fela Kuti’s Shrine nightclub (and the setting of much of FELA! on Broadway)—has a population that nearly rivals New York City (and even a not-too-dissimilar skyline to boot!).

So, stop and think before you write Africa off as a big jungle where dark-skinned folks dance around naked with bones in their noses. Cause it’s not. And you’ll look like an asshole to anyone who knows better.

If you like the talk she gave above, definitely check out Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s recently-released book of short stories, The Thing Around Your Neck.