Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie born 15 September 1977 is a Nigerian writer whose works range from novels to short stories to nonfiction. She was described in The Times Literary Supplement as "the most prominent" of a "procession of critically acclaimed young anglophone authors [which] is succeeding in attracting a new generation of readers to African literature", particularly in her second home, the United States.
Adichie, a feminist, has written the novels Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), and Americanah (2013), the short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), and the book-length essay We Should All Be Feminists (2014). Her most recent books are Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017) and Notes on Grief (2021). In 2008, she was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant.
The Danger of single story
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Said in TED video The Danger of single story. And he srat this session and her speak this line..... 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.she tells a many short deferent story but this story is incompeted and very dangerous.
So, The Danger of a Single Story" is really dangerous and terrible for a person to know only single story about culture, people, country, things, places etc.
Most of the people have a single point of view for such things and they considered it as true and highest. So the possibility of misunderstanding grow from the single story. Adichie give very interesting examples from her own life..Like during childhood she has single story for British-American literature. Then she had a single story for Fide's family and at U.S. Her roommate had.a single story for African people. Her roommate became shocked by the English speech of Adichie because American people think that no one can stand near to their position. Adichie said that how we are treated from childhood to see things only from single visions while there multidimensional way to see the real world. These things are deeply carved on our mind too use only one perspective to look at the world.
Adichie puts her speech in a nutshell stating that “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” . Her conclusion responds to these misconceptions by reiterating the importance of spreading diverse stories in opposition to focusing on just one. She professes that the rejection of the single story phenomenon allows one to “regain a kind of paradise” and see people as more than just one incomplete idea .
She ended her speech with this quote,
"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".
So, overall she wants to tell that there is no single story for any place, there are many sides of people, places. So we have to see them with different perspectives also.
We should all be feminists
Feminist
"A person who believes in social, political and economical equality of the sexes.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks about feminism in this talk. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie also needs to be appreciated for being an advocate about educating people on the whole about feminism. Some argue that it should not be the responsibility of a woman to teach a man about treating women as humans, and not objects or those that need to be saved. Adichie does not disagree, but at the same time, she points to the imbalance that is being created. Girls are being empowered but at the same time, boys are not being taught, consciously, about equality for all.
This is not creating a balance, where people can co-exist without being discriminated against on the basis of gender. Instead, it’s probably reversing patriarchy. It is important to teach boys and young men to feel comfortable around women who are powerful, who make more money, are more talented or even more vocal. People of all genders, should be made to realise that no one should feel weaker than any other for any reason.
Importance of Truth in post - truth Era
The third talk I like the most is her satire on one lady who pronounced her name incorrectly.
A few years ago, I spoke at an event in London. The English woman who was to introduce me had written my name phonetically on a piece of paper. And backstage she held on tightly to this paper while repeating the pronunciation over and over. I could tell, she was very eager to get it right.
And then she went on to the stage and gave a lovely introduction and ended with the words “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Chimichanga.”
I told — I told this story at a dinner party shortly afterwards. And one of the guests seemed very annoyed that I was laughing about it. “That was so insulting”, he said, “that English woman could have tried harder.”
But the truth is she did try very hard. In fact, she ended up calling me a fried burrito because she had tried very hard and then ended up with an utterly human mistake that was the result of anxiety.
Thank you
