Name: The danger of a single story
Uploaded: 2009-10-07T01:00:00Z
Duration: 18 min 32 s
Description: 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.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story

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.

Believing just one story about a person or place flattens real lives into stereotypes and erases complexity. A childhood spent reading only British books left one girl convinced that stories could not include people like her. Later, she saw how Western images of Africa fostered pity and misperceptions, and how her own media-driven assumptions about Mexicans proved equally narrow. Embracing many stories restores dignity and reveals shared humanity.