The Danger of a Single Story

The Danger of a Single Story (2009) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The Danger of a Single Story” is a TED Talk given by Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at TEDGlobal 2009. In the speech, Adichie reflects on the power of story and the danger of believing one story about a region or group instead of acknowledging the complexity of many stories. Since 2009, “The Danger of a Single Story” has prompted reflective responses and has been used in classrooms around the world.

• impressionable and vulnerable” when it comes to single stories
  • (Adichie 01:43)
• had bought into the single story”, automatically associating all Mexicans with immigration
  • (Adichie 08:53)
• how [stories] are told, who tells them, when they're told, [and] how many stories are told”
  • (09:25).
• saved [her] from having a single story of what books are” and becoming another victim of a biased sample of literature
  • (02:36)
• “to create a single story, show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become”
  • (09:25)
• regain a kind of paradise” and see people as more than just one incomplete idea
  • (Adichie 18:17).
• What this demonstrates, I think, is how impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story, particularly as children.”
  • (1:35, Page N/A)
• But because of writers like Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye, I went through a mental shift in my perception of literature. I realized that people like me, girls with skin the color of chocolate, whose kinky hair could not form ponytails, could also exist in literature. I started to write about things I recognized.”
  • (2:07, Page N/A)
• We have big dreams of building libraries and providing books for state schools that don’t have anything in their libraries, and also of organizing lots and lots of workshops, in reading and writing”
  • (17:05)

External links

• [1]
• Super summary
• https://www.supersummary.com/the-danger-of-a-single-story/important-quotes/ super summary quotes]