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I'm a storyteller.

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And I would like to tell you
a few personal stories

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about what I like to call
"the danger of the single story."

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I grew up on a university campus
in eastern Nigeria.

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My mother says that I started
reading at the age of two,

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although I think four
is probably close to the truth.

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So I was an early reader,

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and what I read were British
and American children's books.

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I was also an early writer,

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and when I began to write,
at about the age of seven,

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stories in pencil
with crayon illustrations

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that my poor mother was obligated to read,

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I wrote exactly the kinds
of stories I was reading:

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All my characters were
white and blue-eyed,

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they played in the snow,

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they ate apples,

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(Laughter)

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and they talked a lot about the weather,

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how lovely it was
that the sun had come out.

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(Laughter)

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Now, this despite the fact
that I lived in Nigeria.

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I had never been outside Nigeria.

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We didn't have snow, we ate mangoes,

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and we never talked about the weather,

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because there was no need to.

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My characters also drank
a lot of ginger beer,

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because the characters
in the British books I read

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drank ginger beer.

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Never mind that I had no idea
what ginger beer was.

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(Laughter)

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And for many years afterwards,

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I would have a desperate desire
to taste ginger beer.

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But that is another story.

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What this demonstrates, I think,

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is how impressionable
and vulnerable we are

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in the face of a story,

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particularly as children.

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Because all I had read were books
in which characters were foreign,

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I had become convinced that books

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by their very nature
had to have foreigners in them

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and had to be about things with which
I could not personally identify.

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Now, things changed
when I discovered African books.

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There weren't many of them available,

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and they weren't quite as easy to find
as the foreign books.

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But because of writers like
Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye,

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I went through a mental shift
in my perception of literature.

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I realized that people like me,

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girls with skin the color of chocolate,

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whose kinky hair could not form ponytails,

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could also exist in literature.

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I started to write
about things I recognized.

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Now, I loved those
American and British books I read.

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They stirred my imagination.
They opened up new worlds for me.

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But the unintended consequence

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was that I did not know
that people like me

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could exist in literature.

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So what the discovery of African writers
did for me was this:

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It saved me from having a single story
of what books are.

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I come from a conventional,
middle-class Nigerian family.

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My father was a professor.

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My mother was an administrator.

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And so we had, as was the norm,

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live-in domestic help, who would often
come from nearby rural villages.

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So, the year I turned eight,
we got a new house boy.

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His name was Fide.

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The only thing my mother told us about him
was that his family was very poor.

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My mother sent yams and rice,
and our old clothes, to his family.

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And when I didn't finish my dinner,
my mother would say,

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"Finish your food! Don't you know?
People like Fide's family have nothing."

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So I felt enormous pity for Fide's family.

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Then one Saturday,
we went to his village to visit,

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and his mother showed us
a beautifully patterned basket

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made of dyed raffia
that his brother had made.

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I was startled.

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It had not occurred to me
that anybody in his family

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could actually make something.

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All I had heard about them
was how poor they were,

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so that it had become impossible for me
to see them as anything else but poor.

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Their poverty was my single story of them.

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Years later, I thought about this
when I left Nigeria

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to go to university in the United States.

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I was 19.

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My American roommate was shocked by me.

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She asked where I had learned
to speak English so well,

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and was confused when I said that Nigeria

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happened to have English
as its official language.

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She asked if she could listen
to what she called my "tribal music,"

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and was consequently very disappointed

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when I produced my tape of Mariah Carey.

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(Laughter)

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She assumed that I did not know
how to use a stove.

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What struck me was this:

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She had felt sorry for me
even before she saw me.

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Her default position
toward me, as an African,

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was a kind of patronizing,
well-meaning pity.

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My roommate had a single story of Africa:

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a single story of catastrophe.

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In this single story,

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there was no possibility of Africans
being similar to her in any way,

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no possibility of feelings
more complex than pity,

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no possibility of a connection
as human equals.

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I must say that before I went to the U.S.,

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I didn't consciously identify as African.

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But in the U.S., whenever Africa came up,
people turned to me.

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Never mind that I knew nothing
about places like Namibia.

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But I did come to embrace
this new identity,

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and in many ways I think
of myself now as African.

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Although I still get quite irritable
when Africa is referred to as a country,

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the most recent example being
my otherwise wonderful flight

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from Lagos two days ago,

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in which there was an announcement
on the Virgin flight

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about the charity work in "India,
Africa and other countries."

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(Laughter)

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So, after I had spent some years
in the U.S. as an African,

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I began to understand
my roommate's response to me.

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If I had not grown up in Nigeria,

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and if all I knew about Africa
were from popular images,

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I too would think that Africa
was a place of beautiful landscapes,

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beautiful animals,

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and incomprehensible people,

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fighting senseless wars,
dying of poverty and AIDS,

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unable to speak for themselves

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and waiting to be saved
by a kind, white foreigner.

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I would see Africans
in the same way that I,

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as a child, had seen Fide's family.

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This single story of Africa ultimately
comes, I think, from Western literature.

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Now, here is a quote from the writing
of a London merchant called John Lok,

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who sailed to west Africa in 1561

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and kept a fascinating
account of his voyage.

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After referring to the black Africans
as "beasts who have no houses,"

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he writes, "They are also
people without heads,

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having their mouth and eyes
in their breasts."

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Now, I've laughed
every time I've read this.

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And one must admire
the imagination of John Lok.

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But what is important about his writing

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is that it represents the beginning

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of a tradition of telling
African stories in the West:

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A tradition of Sub-Saharan Africa
as a place of negatives,

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of difference, of darkness,

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of people who, in the words
of the wonderful poet Rudyard Kipling,

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are "half devil, half child."

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And so, I began to realize
that my American roommate

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must have throughout her life

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seen and heard different versions
of this single story,

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as had a professor,

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who once told me that my novel
was not "authentically African."

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Now, I was quite willing to contend

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that there were a number of things
wrong with the novel,

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that it had failed in a number of places,

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but I had not quite imagined
that it had failed

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at achieving something
called African authenticity.

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In fact, I did not know
what African authenticity was.

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The professor told me that my characters
were too much like him,

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an educated and middle-class man.

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My characters drove cars.

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They were not starving.

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Therefore they were not
authentically African.

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But I must quickly add
that I too am just as guilty

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in the question of the single story.

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A few years ago,
I visited Mexico from the U.S.

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The political climate in the U.S.
at the time was tense,

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and there were debates going on
about immigration.

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And, as often happens in America,

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immigration became
synonymous with Mexicans.

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There were endless stories of Mexicans

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as people who were
fleecing the healthcare system,

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sneaking across the border,

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being arrested at the border,
that sort of thing.

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I remember walking around
on my first day in Guadalajara,

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watching the people going to work,

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rolling up tortillas in the marketplace,

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smoking, laughing.

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I remember first feeling slight surprise.

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And then, I was overwhelmed with shame.

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I realized that I had been so immersed
in the media coverage of Mexicans

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that they had become one thing in my mind,

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the abject immigrant.

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I had bought into
the single story of Mexicans

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and I could not have
been more ashamed of myself.

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So that is how to create a single story,

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show a people as one thing,

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as only one thing,

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over and over again,

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and that is what they become.

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It is impossible to talk
about the single story

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without talking about power.

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There is a word, an Igbo word,

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that I think about whenever I think about
the power structures of the world,

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and it is "nkali."

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It's a noun that loosely translates
to "to be greater than another."

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Like our economic and political worlds,

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stories too are defined
by the principle of nkali:

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How they are told, who tells them,

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when they're told,
how many stories are told,

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are really dependent on power.

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Power is the ability not just to tell
the story of another person,

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but to make it the definitive
story of that person.

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The Palestinian poet
Mourid Barghouti writes

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that if you want to dispossess a people,

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the simplest way to do it
is to tell their story

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and to start with, "secondly."

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Start the story with the arrows
of the Native Americans,

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and not with the arrival of the British,

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and you have an entirely different story.

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Start the story with
the failure of the African state,

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and not with the colonial
creation of the African state,

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and you have an entirely different story.

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I recently spoke at a university

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where a student told me
that it was such a shame

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that Nigerian men were physical abusers

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like the father character in my novel.

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I told him that I had just read a novel
called "American Psycho" --

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(Laughter)

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-- and that it was such a shame

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that young Americans
were serial murderers.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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Now, obviously I said this
in a fit of mild irritation.

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(Laughter)

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But it would never have
occurred to me to think

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that just because I had read a novel
in which a character was a serial killer

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that he was somehow
representative of all Americans.

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This is not because I am
a better person than that student,

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but because of America's cultural
and economic power,

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I had many stories of America.

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I had read Tyler and Updike
and Steinbeck and Gaitskill.

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I did not have a single story of America.

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When I learned, some years ago,

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that writers were expected
to have had really unhappy childhoods

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to be successful,

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I began to think about how I could invent
horrible things my parents had done to me.

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00:11:56,024 --> 00:11:57,976
(Laughter)

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But the truth is that I had
a very happy childhood,

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full of laughter and love,
in a very close-knit family.

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But I also had grandfathers
who died in refugee camps.

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My cousin Polle died because
he could not get adequate healthcare.

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One of my closest friends,
Okoloma, died in a plane crash

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because our fire trucks
did not have water.

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I grew up under repressive
military governments

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that devalued education,

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so that sometimes, my parents
were not paid their salaries.

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And so, as a child, I saw jam
disappear from the breakfast table,

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then margarine disappeared,

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00:12:33,522 --> 00:12:35,976
then bread became too expensive,

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then milk became rationed.

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00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:42,657
And most of all, a kind
of normalized political fear

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invaded our lives.

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00:12:45,823 --> 00:12:47,960
All of these stories make me who I am.

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00:12:48,457 --> 00:12:51,976
But to insist on only
these negative stories

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00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:54,976
is to flatten my experience

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00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:58,664
and to overlook the many other
stories that formed me.

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The single story creates stereotypes,

253
00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:06,976
and the problem with stereotypes
is not that they are untrue,

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but that they are incomplete.

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00:13:09,357 --> 00:13:11,960
They make one story become the only story.

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00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:15,572
Of course, Africa is a continent
full of catastrophes:

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There are immense ones,
such as the horrific rapes in Congo

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00:13:19,000 --> 00:13:20,626
and depressing ones,

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00:13:20,650 --> 00:13:25,150
such as the fact that 5,000 people apply
for one job vacancy in Nigeria.

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00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:29,563
But there are other stories
that are not about catastrophe,

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00:13:29,587 --> 00:13:32,976
and it is very important, it is just
as important, to talk about them.

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00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:34,976
I've always felt that it is impossible

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to engage properly
with a place or a person

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00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:41,976
without engaging with all of the stories
of that place and that person.

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00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:45,580
The consequence
of the single story is this:

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00:13:45,604 --> 00:13:47,561
It robs people of dignity.

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00:13:48,332 --> 00:13:51,976
It makes our recognition
of our equal humanity difficult.

268
00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:56,164
It emphasizes how we are different
rather than how we are similar.

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00:13:57,000 --> 00:13:59,489
So what if before my Mexican trip,

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00:13:59,513 --> 00:14:02,976
I had followed the immigration
debate from both sides,

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00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:04,976
the U.S. and the Mexican?

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00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:08,976
What if my mother had told us
that Fide's family was poor

273
00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:10,976
and hardworking?

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00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:13,096
What if we had an African
television network

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00:14:13,120 --> 00:14:16,976
that broadcast diverse
African stories all over the world?

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00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:21,331
What the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe
calls "a balance of stories."

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00:14:21,355 --> 00:14:25,331
What if my roommate knew
about my Nigerian publisher,

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00:14:25,355 --> 00:14:26,976
Muhtar Bakare,

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00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:29,048
a remarkable man who left
his job in a bank

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00:14:29,072 --> 00:14:31,977
to follow his dream
and start a publishing house?

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00:14:32,001 --> 00:14:35,688
Now, the conventional wisdom
was that Nigerians don't read literature.

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00:14:35,712 --> 00:14:36,966
He disagreed.

283
00:14:36,990 --> 00:14:40,076
He felt that people
who could read, would read,

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00:14:40,100 --> 00:14:43,976
if you made literature affordable
and available to them.

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00:14:44,666 --> 00:14:46,976
Shortly after he published my first novel,

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00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:49,976
I went to a TV station
in Lagos to do an interview,

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00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:53,191
and a woman who worked there
as a messenger came up to me and said,

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00:14:53,215 --> 00:14:55,976
"I really liked your novel.
I didn't like the ending.

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00:14:56,000 --> 00:14:59,239
Now, you must write a sequel,
and this is what will happen ..."

290
00:14:59,263 --> 00:15:01,977
(Laughter)

291
00:15:02,001 --> 00:15:04,977
And she went on to tell me
what to write in the sequel.

292
00:15:05,564 --> 00:15:07,976
I was not only charmed, I was very moved.

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00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:10,976
Here was a woman, part of the ordinary
masses of Nigerians,

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00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:13,003
who were not supposed to be readers.

295
00:15:13,901 --> 00:15:15,525
She had not only read the book,

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00:15:15,549 --> 00:15:17,358
but she had taken ownership of it

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00:15:17,382 --> 00:15:20,485
and felt justified in telling me
what to write in the sequel.

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00:15:21,580 --> 00:15:24,976
Now, what if my roommate knew
about my friend Funmi Iyanda,

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00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:27,976
a fearless woman who hosts
a TV show in Lagos,

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00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:31,000
and is determined to tell the stories
that we prefer to forget?

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00:15:31,695 --> 00:15:34,976
What if my roommate knew
about the heart procedure

302
00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:37,976
that was performed in the Lagos
hospital last week?

303
00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:41,976
What if my roommate knew
about contemporary Nigerian music,

304
00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:44,976
talented people singing
in English and Pidgin,

305
00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:46,976
and Igbo and Yoruba and Ijo,

306
00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:50,976
mixing influences from Jay-Z to Fela

307
00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:53,182
to Bob Marley to their grandfathers.

308
00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:56,239
What if my roommate knew
about the female lawyer

309
00:15:56,263 --> 00:15:59,976
who recently went to court in Nigeria
to challenge a ridiculous law

310
00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:02,976
that required women to get
their husband's consent

311
00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:05,976
before renewing their passports?

312
00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:08,976
What if my roommate knew about Nollywood,

313
00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:13,380
full of innovative people making
films despite great technical odds,

314
00:16:13,404 --> 00:16:14,976
films so popular

315
00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:19,976
that they really are the best example
of Nigerians consuming what they produce?

316
00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:23,286
What if my roommate knew about
my wonderfully ambitious hair braider,

317
00:16:23,310 --> 00:16:26,976
who has just started her own business
selling hair extensions?

318
00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:30,976
Or about the millions of other Nigerians
who start businesses and sometimes fail,

319
00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:33,938
but continue to nurse ambition?

320
00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:36,976
Every time I am home I am confronted

321
00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:39,976
with the usual sources of irritation
for most Nigerians:

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00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:43,444
our failed infrastructure,
our failed government,

323
00:16:43,468 --> 00:16:45,523
but also by the incredible resilience

324
00:16:45,547 --> 00:16:48,976
of people who thrive
despite the government,

325
00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:50,261
rather than because of it.

326
00:16:51,373 --> 00:16:53,976
I teach writing workshops
in Lagos every summer,

327
00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:56,976
and it is amazing to me
how many people apply,

328
00:16:57,000 --> 00:16:59,976
how many people are eager to write,

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00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:01,386
to tell stories.

330
00:17:02,275 --> 00:17:05,298
My Nigerian publisher and I
have just started a non-profit

331
00:17:05,322 --> 00:17:06,976
called Farafina Trust,

332
00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:09,976
and we have big dreams
of building libraries

333
00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:12,143
and refurbishing libraries
that already exist

334
00:17:12,167 --> 00:17:14,976
and providing books for state schools

335
00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:17,096
that don't have anything
in their libraries,

336
00:17:17,120 --> 00:17:19,501
and also of organizing lots
and lots of workshops,

337
00:17:19,525 --> 00:17:20,976
in reading and writing,

338
00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:24,199
for all the people who are eager
to tell our many stories.

339
00:17:24,326 --> 00:17:25,976
Stories matter.

340
00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:27,976
Many stories matter.

341
00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:31,976
Stories have been used
to dispossess and to malign,

342
00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:35,976
but stories can also be used
to empower and to humanize.

343
00:17:36,642 --> 00:17:38,976
Stories can break the dignity of a people,

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00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:42,703
but stories can also repair
that broken dignity.

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00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:46,048
The American writer
Alice Walker wrote this

346
00:17:46,072 --> 00:17:49,976
about her Southern relatives
who had moved to the North.

347
00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:51,976
She introduced them to a book about

348
00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:54,068
the Southern life
that they had left behind.

349
00:17:55,592 --> 00:17:58,976
"They sat around,
reading the book themselves,

350
00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:04,528
listening to me read the book,
and a kind of paradise was regained."

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00:18:05,579 --> 00:18:08,441
I would like to end with this thought:

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00:18:08,465 --> 00:18:10,976
That when we reject the single story,

353
00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:13,976
when we realize that
there is never a single story

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00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:16,441
about any place,

355
00:18:16,465 --> 00:18:17,976
we regain a kind of paradise.

356
00:18:18,695 --> 00:18:19,817
Thank you.

357
00:18:19,841 --> 00:18:22,841
(Applause)