We believe in the power of stories to change the world. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a writer from Nigeria, shows just how true that belief is in her TED talk, “The danger of a single story.” As a child reading Western literature, and later as an African adult living in America, Adichie has been both a victim and perpetrator of “the single story”: when people’s stories are told in one way, and one way only, until they become that story and nothing else.
“Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize… When we reject the single story — when we realize there is never a single story about a place — we regain a kind of paradise.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Like any powerful tool, stories can be used for good or for harm. In a deeply moving and personal talk, Adichie reminds us all how important it is rethink cultural narratives, how vulnerable we are in the face of stories, and most importantly, how necessary it is to tell your own.
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