The Danger of a Single Story

„The Danger of the Single Story” is a TED Talk given by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie during the TEDGlobal in July 2009. Adichie is a Nigerian novelist, she talks about herself, as a storyteller. She tries to explain to the audience how much power can have in a single story you hear and the danger of believing one story instead of acknowledging the complexity or intricacy of many stories. The main themes of her speech are stereotypes and how they impact people.

She has been born and raised in Nigeria, an African country on the Gulf of Guinea. As a child, she read books whose authors were American and British writers. The stories were mostly about white people who came from Western countries, it has been Western literature. She did not realize that are also books written by African authors like Chinua Achebe. Once she discovered this she was limited only to a “single story” single point of view on the world. As a child, she also was told by her mother about the poor Fide family, but one day she realized that there is something else about Fide’s family, that anybody in his family could make something. She heard only that they are poor, but the other story was that the Fide’s brother was talented and could make beautifully patterned baskets.

When Adichie went to college in America, she discovered that her roommate has only one point of view on African people. The view which she saw Africa as a catastrophe country and felt only pity for Adichie. Her roommate had a single story about Africa.

Also, Chimamanda is feeling sorry because she had only one opinion about the Mexican people and the economy, but once she visited Mexico she saw the real life of people from all over the world. She realized how creating a single story, only one thing, one point of view can have a huge impact on people and how they create the imagination about something.

In her speech, Adichie explains that if we only hear about the situation, a people from one point of view, we create the whole truth about this one view which usually is a misunderstanding.

Adichie said; “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”

In my opinion, those words are so true. A single story about any problem can hurt. Can give you the wrong vision, and you can look in the wrong direction. You will judge. But sometimes for people, it is easier, they know only one side of the problem, judge and forgot, go home or think about something else, do not care about the feeling of other people whom they judge, and do not think about the problem personally or globally. They are selfish, they do not try to understand and solve the problem. There is never a single story, there are many points of view on any problem. It is good to try to discover most of them and then express your opinion. Adichie said; “Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity”.