TED Talks Tuesday - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Have you heard of TED Talks? They are brilliant. Covering a wide range of topics, they are usually no longer than about 20 minutes, although many of them are shorter. I often come across a TED talk I would like to share, so I thought I would start a meme -

Welcome to TED Talks Tuesday!

Today I present a talk by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Adichie wrote a fantastic book called Half of a Yellow Sun. Going back and reading my review I remember how much I enjoyed it. A quick search of Goodreads shows she has quite a few books out, books that I need to track down.

In this talk she discusses the danger of the single story - forming a picture or an opinion about somewhere based on a single story.

She says:

The consequence of the single story is this; it robs people of dignity, it makes our recognition of an equal humanity difficult, it emphasises how we are different instead of how we are similar

Her talk made me think. I have a single story of Africa - which I will no longer think of as one country. My single story is from Alexander McCall Smith's No 1 Ladies Detective Agency books. I will no longer accept my single story and be mindful of others.

Adichie ends her talk with this thought

When we reject the single story , when we realise there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.