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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The danger of a single story
Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of
how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or
country, we risk a critical misunderstanding. Inspired by Nigerian history and tragedies all but forgotten by recent
generations of westerners, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novels and stories are jewels in the crown of diasporan
literature. In Nigeria, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel Half of a Yellow Sun has helped inspire new, crossgenerational communication about the Biafran war. In this and in her other works, she seeks to instill dignity into the
finest details of each character, whether poor, middle class or rich, exposing along the way the deep scars of
colonialism in the African landscape.
Adichie's next book, The Thing Around Your Neck, is a brilliant collection of stories about Nigerians struggling to
cope with a corrupted context in their home country, and about the Nigerian immigrant experience. Adichie builds
on the literary tradition of Igbo literary giant Chinua Achebe—and when she found out that Achebe liked Half of a
Yellow Sun, she says she cried for a whole day. What he said about her rings true: “We do not usually associate
wisdom with beginners, but here is a new writer endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers.”
http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story/transcript?language=en#t-383000
Warm-up Questions:
1. What do you think the title of this talk could mean (“The danger of a single story”)?
2. What are three possible dangers of only knowing one story about a person or a culture?
3. What story about the US or Americans did you hear before coming here?
4. What story do you think US Americans have about your home culture?
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Your Notes on this Lecture:
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Questions:
1. What is the talk mainly about (1 sentence)?
2. Why does Adichie include the information about her childhood writing topics (page 1,
paragraphs 2 and 3)? Remember to state this in your own words, or to use quotation
marks.
3. Who can you infer Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye are?
4. Why does Adichie include information about Fide, her family’s household help?
5. What questions did Adichie’s American roommate have for her?
a. What was her roommate’s “single story” about her?
6. Adichie points out that she was also “guilty in the question of the single story,” in her
stereotypes about Mexicans (page 2). What is a way in which you have made
assumptions or stereotypes based on a single story about a person or a group?
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7. How does Adichie propose to mitigate [help solve] the problem with single stories?
8. What do you think is a good way to decrease stereotypes about your home culture?
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