She is a writer

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in Nigeria in 1977. After studying medicine and pharmacy for a year and a half, she moved to the United States to study communications and political science. She, then, completed a master in creative writing, and of Arts in African studies.

Chimamanda is the author of three novels and a short story collection. She had received many awards and distinctions for her writings. Moreover, her works have been translated into thirty languages, and some of them had appeared in various publications. Nowadays, Chimamanda divides her time between Nigeria and the United States.

“The danger of a single story”

In the video ‘The danger of a single story’, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tries to make aware her audience that are the consequences of a single story. To start with, a single story could create negative stereotypes, which make a story the only story possible. Secondly, and related to this, is the concept of power; that is to say, the ability to tell a story of another person or society, and make it definitive, as the only existing truth. This is exactly what happened to Chimamanda when she first went to university, and her roommate was impressed with her good way of talking. This was the result of a misconception of African people that she had had for a long time ago, because she only knew a single story. Moreover, a single story, and as it is evidenced in the example, leads to the impediment to view the other as a similar human being. Therefore, a single story does not only have the power to produce stereotypes and make this story the only one, but it can also makes the recognition of the other human as an equal to us.

Commonwealth Lecture

In this second video, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks about the importance of literature, however, not any literature but a realistic one. To begin with, literature is more than just words, it shows people the differences they have as human beings, and at the same time it delights and instructs them. Realist literature, at the same time, is the process of turning facts into truth. As it is read, people merge into bodies that are not of their own, empathizing with the other and, at the same time, evoking that as human beings, people are emotional. Additionally, realist literature has the power to remind human beings that they are similar, and thus, literature transmits a sense of belonging. In this way, people become conscious that all beings constitute part of a common and equal humanity. To conclude, realistic literature might determine that humans are emotional, and consequently, they are able to empathize with others; however, it also demonstrates that people are not alone, but they belong to an extended humanity.

Sources

Tunca, Daria. The Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Website. Université de Liège, 2004 – 2013. Web. 23 May  2013.