TED Talk: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Storyteller Chimamanda Adichie warns Baylor University students about the dangers of a single story and enouraged them to avoid having one-dimensional mindset.

Recently, Adichie gave an empowering speech that unfolded her experiences with the repercussions of single stories being told. She was able to find her own cultural voice beyond the stories she read as a child by broadening her knowledge about literature. Adichie gained an overall balanced impression of publications and encouraged students to do the same. She stressed the importance of not making judgements based on a repeated story that doesn't serve as a total reflection of a place or group of people. 

As a child, Adichie often read American and Bristish books filled with stories of white people with blue eyes and snowy weather. Living in Nigeria, she could never relate to these things. This caused her to form false ideas, assuming books included only foreign characters. 

“The unintended consequence was that I did not know that people like me could exist in literature,” Adichie said. “So what the discovery of African writers did for me was this: It saved me from having a single story of what books are.” 

Adichie defined a single story as the same tale that’s repeatedly told about a person or a place. It lacks a full depiction of a whole and selects parts to influence others. They lead to stereotypes and half-truths used by people who are easily susceptible.

Collin College student from Burundi, Africa, Kayla Masabo, spoke about the personal connection she made to listening to Adichie's speech. 

“As a black female a lot of people try to put you down in the media by telling just a part of the whole story, they contribute so much to what people think are the norm,” Masabo said. “ I know before anything else that my race always enters a room before I do.”

Adichie even acknowledged herself as being guilty of perceiving Mexico as a single story portrayed by the media in America. She captured a new outlook of the country when visiting Guadalajara after having a first hand experience. Adichie came to the realization she had been surrounded by one-sided stories being told and it influenced her initial thoughts about a nation and its people.

Baylor journalism major, Mariah Bennett, shares her experience as a child with negative stereotypes perceived about her by classmates. 

“ Because I am fillipino the kids in class would ask me if I ate dog even though I lived in America all my life and eating dog isn’t anything that came from my country’s heritage,” said Bennett.

Adichie’s speech shed light on the dangers of single story influence and encouraged students to use their voice to bring people together through empowerment and humanization. 

“Stories can break the dignity of a people,” Adichie said “But stories can also repair that broken dignity.”