0:00:00.000,0:00:01.976
I'm a storyteller.

0:00:02.000,0:00:04.976
And I would like to tell you[br]a few personal stories

0:00:05.000,0:00:09.976
about what I like to call[br]"the danger of the single story."

0:00:10.746,0:00:13.976
I grew up on a university campus[br]in eastern Nigeria.

0:00:14.158,0:00:17.467
My mother says that I started[br]reading at the age of two,

0:00:17.491,0:00:20.507
although I think four[br]is probably close to the truth.

0:00:21.753,0:00:23.564
So I was an early reader,

0:00:23.588,0:00:26.976
and what I read were British[br]and American children's books.

0:00:27.706,0:00:29.976
I was also an early writer,

0:00:30.000,0:00:33.976
and when I began to write,[br]at about the age of seven,

0:00:34.000,0:00:36.048
stories in pencil[br]with crayon illustrations

0:00:36.072,0:00:39.604
that my poor mother was obligated to read,

0:00:39.628,0:00:43.196
I wrote exactly the kinds[br]of stories I was reading:

0:00:43.220,0:00:47.976
All my characters were[br]white and blue-eyed,

0:00:48.000,0:00:50.307
they played in the snow,

0:00:50.331,0:00:52.418
they ate apples,

0:00:52.442,0:00:53.839
(Laughter)

0:00:54.013,0:00:56.024
and they talked a lot about the weather,

0:00:56.048,0:00:58.176
how lovely it was[br]that the sun had come out.

0:00:58.409,0:01:00.373
(Laughter)

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

0:01:03.555,0:01:05.333
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,

0:01:12.300,0:01:13.976
because there was no need to.

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My characters also drank[br]a lot of ginger beer,

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because the characters[br]in the British books I read

0:01:19.405,0:01:20.976
drank ginger beer.

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

0:01:24.000,0:01:25.531
(Laughter)

0:01:25.555,0:01:27.005
And for many years afterwards,

0:01:27.029,0:01:29.976
I would have a desperate desire[br]to taste ginger beer.

0:01:30.476,0:01:31.976
But that is another story.

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What this demonstrates, I think,

0:01:34.507,0:01:37.361
is how impressionable[br]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[br]in which characters were foreign,

0:01:45.433,0:01:47.552
I had become convinced that books

0:01:47.576,0:01:50.746
by their very nature[br]had to have foreigners in them

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

0:01:55.600,0:01:58.219
Now, things changed[br]when I discovered African books.

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There weren't many of them available,

0:02:01.000,0:02:03.869
and they weren't quite as easy to find[br]as the foreign books.

0:02:03.893,0:02:06.976
But because of writers like[br]Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye,

0:02:07.000,0:02:10.976
I went through a mental shift[br]in my perception of literature.

0:02:11.000,0:02:13.214
I realized that people like me,

0:02:13.238,0:02:15.245
girls with skin the color of chocolate,

0:02:15.269,0:02:18.531
whose kinky hair could not form ponytails,

0:02:18.555,0:02:20.365
could also exist in literature.

0:02:20.682,0:02:23.976
I started to write[br]about things I recognized.

0:02:24.737,0:02:27.976
Now, I loved those[br]American and British books I read.

0:02:28.000,0:02:31.976
They stirred my imagination.[br]They opened up new worlds for me.

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But the unintended consequence

0:02:34.000,0:02:36.048
was that I did not know[br]that people like me

0:02:36.072,0:02:37.498
could exist in literature.

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

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

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I come from a conventional,[br]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,

0:02:58.195,0:03:02.544
live-in domestic help, who would often[br]come from nearby rural villages.

0:03:03.182,0:03:06.468
So, the year I turned eight,[br]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[br]was that his family was very poor.

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

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

0:03:22.644,0:03:26.976
"Finish your food! Don't you know?[br]People like Fide's family have nothing."

0:03:27.000,0:03:30.976
So I felt enormous pity for Fide's family.

0:03:31.576,0:03:34.473
Then one Saturday,[br]we went to his village to visit,

0:03:34.497,0:03:37.976
and his mother showed us[br]a beautifully patterned basket

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made of dyed raffia[br]that his brother had made.

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I was startled.

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It had not occurred to me[br]that anybody in his family

0:03:46.000,0:03:48.976
could actually make something.

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

0:03:52.000,0:03:56.467
so that it had become impossible for me[br]to see them as anything else but poor.

0:03:57.143,0:03:59.514
Their poverty was my single story of them.

0:04:01.000,0:04:03.524
Years later, I thought about this[br]when I left Nigeria

0:04:03.548,0:04:06.230
to go to university in the United States.

0:04:06.341,0:04:07.674
I was 19.

0:04:08.421,0:04:11.198
My American roommate was shocked by me.

0:04:12.000,0:04:15.586
She asked where I had learned[br]to speak English so well,

0:04:15.610,0:04:17.698
and was confused when I said that Nigeria

0:04:17.722,0:04:20.436
happened to have English[br]as its official language.

0:04:21.753,0:04:25.976
She asked if she could listen[br]to what she called my "tribal music,"

0:04:26.000,0:04:27.976
and was consequently very disappointed

0:04:28.000,0:04:29.976
when I produced my tape of Mariah Carey.

0:04:30.000,0:04:32.976
(Laughter)

0:04:33.000,0:04:36.693
She assumed that I did not know[br]how to use a stove.

0:04:37.782,0:04:39.038
What struck me was this:

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She had felt sorry for me[br]even before she saw me.

0:04:42.528,0:04:45.976
Her default position[br]toward me, as an African,

0:04:46.000,0:04:49.036
was a kind of patronizing,[br]well-meaning pity.

0:04:50.000,0:04:53.496
My roommate had a single story of Africa:

0:04:53.623,0:04:55.977
a single story of catastrophe.

0:04:56.412,0:04:57.698
In this single story,

0:04:57.722,0:05:01.976
there was no possibility of Africans[br]being similar to her in any way,

0:05:02.000,0:05:04.976
no possibility of feelings[br]more complex than pity,

0:05:05.000,0:05:08.976
no possibility of a connection[br]as human equals.

0:05:09.000,0:05:11.123
I must say that before I went to the U.S.,

0:05:11.147,0:05:13.428
I didn't consciously identify as African.

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

0:05:17.000,0:05:19.746
Never mind that I knew nothing[br]about places like Namibia.

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But I did come to embrace[br]this new identity,

0:05:23.120,0:05:25.976
and in many ways I think[br]of myself now as African.

0:05:26.000,0:05:29.976
Although I still get quite irritable[br]when Africa is referred to as a country,

0:05:30.000,0:05:33.976
the most recent example being[br]my otherwise wonderful flight

0:05:34.000,0:05:35.285
from Lagos two days ago,

0:05:35.309,0:05:38.191
in which there was an announcement[br]on the Virgin flight

0:05:38.215,0:05:42.976
about the charity work in "India,[br]Africa and other countries."

0:05:43.000,0:05:44.317
(Laughter)

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

0:05:48.000,0:05:51.174
I began to understand[br]my roommate's response to me.

0:05:52.000,0:05:54.025
If I had not grown up in Nigeria,

0:05:54.049,0:05:57.190
and if all I knew about Africa[br]were from popular images,

0:05:57.214,0:06:02.386
I too would think that Africa[br]was a place of beautiful landscapes,

0:06:02.410,0:06:03.976
beautiful animals,

0:06:04.000,0:06:05.976
and incomprehensible people,

0:06:06.000,0:06:09.631
fighting senseless wars,[br]dying of poverty and AIDS,

0:06:09.655,0:06:11.976
unable to speak for themselves

0:06:12.000,0:06:16.155
and waiting to be saved[br]by a kind, white foreigner.

0:06:16.928,0:06:19.097
I would see Africans[br]in the same way that I,

0:06:19.121,0:06:21.824
as a child, had seen Fide's family.

0:06:23.000,0:06:26.976
This single story of Africa ultimately[br]comes, I think, from Western literature.

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

0:06:32.000,0:06:34.976
who sailed to west Africa in 1561

0:06:35.000,0:06:38.663
and kept a fascinating[br]account of his voyage.

0:06:40.203,0:06:43.976
After referring to the black Africans[br]as "beasts who have no houses,"

0:06:44.000,0:06:47.976
he writes, "They are also[br]people without heads,

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having their mouth and eyes[br]in their breasts."

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Now, I've laughed[br]every time I've read this.

0:06:55.120,0:06:58.500
And one must admire[br]the imagination of John Locke.

0:06:59.373,0:07:01.239
But what is important about his writing

0:07:01.263,0:07:02.976
is that it represents the beginning

0:07:03.000,0:07:05.976
of a tradition of telling[br]African stories in the West:

0:07:06.000,0:07:09.367
A tradition of Sub-Saharan Africa[br]as a place of negatives,

0:07:09.479,0:07:11.634
of difference, of darkness,

0:07:11.658,0:07:16.976
of people who, in the words[br]of the wonderful poet Rudyard Kipling,

0:07:17.000,0:07:18.941
are "half devil, half child."

0:07:20.211,0:07:22.976
And so, I began to realize[br]that my American roommate

0:07:23.000,0:07:24.976
must have throughout her life

0:07:25.000,0:07:28.976
seen and heard different versions[br]of this single story,

0:07:29.000,0:07:30.976
as had a professor,

0:07:31.000,0:07:34.766
who once told me that my novel[br]was not "authentically African."

0:07:35.869,0:07:37.560
Now, I was quite willing to contend

0:07:37.584,0:07:40.679
that there were a number of things[br]wrong with the novel,

0:07:40.703,0:07:43.976
that it had failed in a number of places,

0:07:44.000,0:07:46.239
but I had not quite imagined[br]that it had failed

0:07:46.263,0:07:48.976
at achieving something[br]called African authenticity.

0:07:49.000,0:07:52.706
In fact, I did not know[br]what African authenticity was.

0:07:54.000,0:07:58.396
The professor told me that my characters[br]were too much like him,

0:07:58.420,0:08:00.396
an educated and middle-class man.

0:08:00.420,0:08:02.522
My characters drove cars.

0:08:02.546,0:08:04.976
They were not starving.

0:08:05.000,0:08:07.927
Therefore they were not[br]authentically African.

0:08:09.000,0:08:11.976
But I must quickly add[br]that I too am just as guilty

0:08:12.000,0:08:14.070
in the question of the single story.

0:08:15.000,0:08:17.991
A few years ago,[br]I visited Mexico from the U.S.

0:08:19.000,0:08:21.667
The political climate in the U.S.[br]at the time was tense,

0:08:21.691,0:08:24.976
and there were debates going on[br]about immigration.

0:08:25.000,0:08:26.976
And, as often happens in America,

0:08:27.000,0:08:29.976
immigration became[br]synonymous with Mexicans.

0:08:30.698,0:08:32.631
There were endless stories of Mexicans

0:08:32.655,0:08:35.976
as people who were[br]fleecing the healthcare system,

0:08:36.000,0:08:37.976
sneaking across the border,

0:08:38.000,0:08:40.465
being arrested at the border,[br]that sort of thing.

0:08:42.163,0:08:45.976
I remember walking around[br]on my first day in Guadalajara,

0:08:46.000,0:08:47.976
watching the people going to work,

0:08:48.000,0:08:49.976
rolling up tortillas in the marketplace,

0:08:50.000,0:08:51.973
smoking, laughing.

0:08:53.195,0:08:55.976
I remember first feeling slight surprise.

0:08:56.000,0:08:58.976
And then, I was overwhelmed with shame.

0:08:59.341,0:09:03.976
I realized that I had been so immersed[br]in the media coverage of Mexicans

0:09:04.000,0:09:06.000
that they had become one thing in my mind,

0:09:06.024,0:09:07.849
the abject immigrant.

0:09:08.769,0:09:11.191
I had bought into[br]the single story of Mexicans

0:09:11.215,0:09:13.722
and I could not have[br]been more ashamed of myself.

0:09:14.071,0:09:16.618
So that is how to create a single story,

0:09:16.642,0:09:18.976
show a people as one thing,

0:09:19.000,0:09:20.976
as only one thing,

0:09:21.000,0:09:22.976
over and over again,

0:09:23.000,0:09:24.515
and that is what they become.

0:09:25.793,0:09:28.239
It is impossible to talk[br]about the single story

0:09:28.263,0:09:29.952
without talking about power.

0:09:31.496,0:09:33.244
There is a word, an Igbo word,

0:09:33.268,0:09:36.919
that I think about whenever I think about[br]the power structures of the world,

0:09:36.943,0:09:38.133
and it is "nkali."

0:09:38.332,0:09:42.976
It's a noun that loosely translates[br]to "to be greater than another."

0:09:43.554,0:09:46.482
Like our economic and political worlds,

0:09:46.506,0:09:50.976
stories too are defined[br]by the principle of nkali:

0:09:51.000,0:09:52.976
How they are told, who tells them,

0:09:53.000,0:09:56.237
when they're told,[br]how many stories are told,

0:09:56.261,0:09:58.468
are really dependent on power.

0:10:00.000,0:10:03.143
Power is the ability not just to tell[br]the story of another person,

0:10:03.167,0:10:06.976
but to make it the definitive[br]story of that person.

0:10:07.000,0:10:09.096
The Palestinian poet[br]Mourid Barghouti writes

0:10:09.120,0:10:11.976
that if you want to dispossess a people,

0:10:12.000,0:10:14.976
the simplest way to do it[br]is to tell their story

0:10:15.000,0:10:17.230
and to start with, "secondly."

0:10:18.484,0:10:22.382
Start the story with the arrows[br]of the Native Americans,

0:10:22.406,0:10:24.976
and not with the arrival of the British,

0:10:25.000,0:10:27.977
and you have an entirely different story.

0:10:28.001,0:10:32.433
Start the story with[br]the failure of the African state,

0:10:32.457,0:10:35.976
and not with the colonial[br]creation of the African state,

0:10:36.000,0:10:38.742
and you have an entirely different story.

0:10:40.000,0:10:41.976
I recently spoke at a university

0:10:42.000,0:10:45.785
where a student told me[br]that it was such a shame

0:10:45.809,0:10:48.928
that Nigerian men were physical abusers

0:10:48.952,0:10:50.896
like the father character in my novel.

0:10:52.000,0:10:55.976
I told him that I had just read a novel[br]called "American Psycho" --

0:10:56.000,0:10:57.976
(Laughter)

0:10:58.000,0:10:59.976
-- and that it was such a shame

0:11:00.000,0:11:02.976
that young Americans[br]were serial murderers.

0:11:03.000,0:11:06.976
(Laughter)

0:11:07.000,0:11:12.976
(Applause)

0:11:13.000,0:11:15.976
Now, obviously I said this[br]in a fit of mild irritation.

0:11:16.000,0:11:17.976
(Laughter)

0:11:18.000,0:11:20.191
But it would never have[br]occurred to me to think

0:11:20.215,0:11:23.976
that just because I had read a novel[br]in which a character was a serial killer

0:11:24.000,0:11:27.976
that he was somehow[br]representative of all Americans.

0:11:28.000,0:11:30.976
This is not because I am[br]a better person than that student,

0:11:31.000,0:11:33.976
but because of America's cultural[br]and economic power,

0:11:34.000,0:11:35.976
I had many stories of America.

0:11:36.000,0:11:39.976
I had read Tyler and Updike[br]and Steinbeck and Gaitskill.

0:11:40.000,0:11:42.560
I did not have a single story of America.

0:11:43.671,0:11:45.377
When I learned, some years ago,

0:11:45.401,0:11:49.742
that writers were expected[br]to have had really unhappy childhoods

0:11:49.766,0:11:51.976
to be successful,

0:11:52.000,0:11:56.000
I began to think about how I could invent[br]horrible things my parents had done to me.

0:11:56.024,0:11:57.976
(Laughter)

0:11:58.000,0:12:01.976
But the truth is that I had[br]a very happy childhood,

0:12:02.000,0:12:04.976
full of laughter and love,[br]in a very close-knit family.

0:12:05.000,0:12:08.211
But I also had grandfathers[br]who died in refugee camps.

0:12:08.750,0:12:12.976
My cousin Polle died because[br]he could not get adequate healthcare.

0:12:13.000,0:12:15.976
One of my closest friends,[br]Okoloma, died in a plane crash

0:12:16.000,0:12:18.976
because our fire trucks[br]did not have water.

0:12:19.000,0:12:21.976
I grew up under repressive[br]military governments

0:12:22.000,0:12:23.976
that devalued education,

0:12:24.000,0:12:26.976
so that sometimes, my parents[br]were not paid their salaries.

0:12:27.000,0:12:30.977
And so, as a child, I saw jam[br]disappear from the breakfast table,

0:12:31.001,0:12:33.498
then margarine disappeared,

0:12:33.522,0:12:35.976
then bread became too expensive,

0:12:36.000,0:12:37.871
then milk became rationed.

0:12:39.000,0:12:42.657
And most of all, a kind[br]of normalized political fear

0:12:42.681,0:12:44.363
invaded our lives.

0:12:45.823,0:12:47.960
All of these stories make me who I am.

0:12:48.457,0:12:51.976
But to insist on only[br]these negative stories

0:12:52.000,0:12:54.976
is to flatten my experience

0:12:55.000,0:12:58.664
and to overlook the many other[br]stories that formed me.

0:12:59.394,0:13:01.976
The single story creates stereotypes,

0:13:02.000,0:13:06.976
and the problem with stereotypes[br]is not that they are untrue,

0:13:07.000,0:13:08.976
but that they are incomplete.

0:13:09.357,0:13:11.960
They make one story become the only story.

0:13:13.000,0:13:15.572
Of course, Africa is a continent[br]full of catastrophes:

0:13:15.596,0:13:18.976
There are immense ones,[br]such as the horrific rapes in Congo

0:13:19.000,0:13:20.626
and depressing ones,

0:13:20.650,0:13:25.150
such as the fact that 5,000 people apply[br]for one job vacancy in Nigeria.

0:13:26.000,0:13:29.563
But there are other stories[br]that are not about catastrophe,

0:13:29.587,0:13:32.976
and it is very important, it is just[br]as important, to talk about them.

0:13:33.000,0:13:34.976
I've always felt that it is impossible

0:13:35.000,0:13:37.976
to engage properly[br]with a place or a person

0:13:38.000,0:13:41.976
without engaging with all of the stories[br]of that place and that person.

0:13:42.000,0:13:45.580
The consequence[br]of the single story is this:

0:13:45.604,0:13:47.561
It robs people of dignity.

0:13:48.332,0:13:51.976
It makes our recognition[br]of our equal humanity difficult.

0:13:52.000,0:13:56.164
It emphasizes how we are different[br]rather than how we are similar.

0:13:57.000,0:13:59.489
So what if before my Mexican trip,

0:13:59.513,0:14:02.976
I had followed the immigration[br]debate from both sides,

0:14:03.000,0:14:04.976
the U.S. and the Mexican?

0:14:05.000,0:14:08.976
What if my mother had told us[br]that Fide's family was poor

0:14:09.000,0:14:10.976
and hardworking?

0:14:11.000,0:14:13.096
What if we had an African[br]television network

0:14:13.120,0:14:16.976
that broadcast diverse[br]African stories all over the world?

0:14:17.000,0:14:21.331
What the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe[br]calls "a balance of stories."

0:14:21.355,0:14:25.331
What if my roommate knew[br]about my Nigerian publisher,

0:14:25.355,0:14:26.976
Muhtar Bakare,

0:14:27.000,0:14:29.048
a remarkable man who left[br]his job in a bank

0:14:29.072,0:14:31.977
to follow his dream[br]and start a publishing house?

0:14:32.001,0:14:35.688
Now, the conventional wisdom[br]was that Nigerians don't read literature.

0:14:35.712,0:14:36.966
He disagreed.

0:14:36.990,0:14:40.076
He felt that people[br]who could read, would read,

0:14:40.100,0:14:43.976
if you made literature affordable[br]and available to them.

0:14:44.666,0:14:46.976
Shortly after he published my first novel,

0:14:47.000,0:14:49.976
I went to a TV station[br]in Lagos to do an interview,

0:14:50.000,0:14:53.191
and a woman who worked there[br]as a messenger came up to me and said,

0:14:53.215,0:14:55.976
"I really liked your novel.[br]I didn't like the ending.

0:14:56.000,0:14:59.239
Now, you must write a sequel,[br]and this is what will happen ..."

0:14:59.263,0:15:01.977
(Laughter)

0:15:02.001,0:15:04.977
And she went on to tell me[br]what to write in the sequel.

0:15:05.564,0:15:07.976
I was not only charmed, I was very moved.

0:15:08.000,0:15:10.976
Here was a woman, part of the ordinary[br]masses of Nigerians,

0:15:11.000,0:15:13.003
who were not supposed to be readers.

0:15:13.901,0:15:15.525
She had not only read the book,

0:15:15.549,0:15:17.358
but she had taken ownership of it

0:15:17.382,0:15:20.485
and felt justified in telling me[br]what to write in the sequel.

0:15:21.580,0:15:24.976
Now, what if my roommate knew[br]about my friend Funmi Iyanda,

0:15:25.000,0:15:27.976
a fearless woman who hosts[br]a TV show in Lagos,

0:15:28.000,0:15:31.000
and is determined to tell the stories[br]that we prefer to forget?

0:15:31.695,0:15:34.976
What if my roommate knew[br]about the heart procedure

0:15:35.000,0:15:37.976
that was performed in the Lagos[br]hospital last week?

0:15:38.000,0:15:41.976
What if my roommate knew[br]about contemporary Nigerian music,

0:15:42.000,0:15:44.976
talented people singing[br]in English and Pidgin,

0:15:45.000,0:15:46.976
and Igbo and Yoruba and Ijo,

0:15:47.000,0:15:50.976
mixing influences from Jay-Z to Fela

0:15:51.000,0:15:53.182
to Bob Marley to their grandfathers.

0:15:54.000,0:15:56.239
What if my roommate knew[br]about the female lawyer

0:15:56.263,0:15:59.976
who recently went to court in Nigeria[br]to challenge a ridiculous law

0:16:00.000,0:16:02.976
that required women to get[br]their husband's consent

0:16:03.000,0:16:05.976
before renewing their passports?

0:16:06.000,0:16:08.976
What if my roommate knew about Nollywood,

0:16:09.000,0:16:13.380
full of innovative people making[br]films despite great technical odds,

0:16:13.404,0:16:14.976
films so popular

0:16:15.000,0:16:19.976
that they really are the best example[br]of Nigerians consuming what they produce?

0:16:20.000,0:16:23.286
What if my roommate knew about[br]my wonderfully ambitious hair braider,

0:16:23.310,0:16:26.976
who has just started her own business[br]selling hair extensions?

0:16:27.000,0:16:30.976
Or about the millions of other Nigerians[br]who start businesses and sometimes fail,

0:16:31.000,0:16:33.938
but continue to nurse ambition?

0:16:35.000,0:16:36.976
Every time I am home I am confronted

0:16:37.000,0:16:39.976
with the usual sources of irritation[br]for most Nigerians:

0:16:40.000,0:16:43.444
our failed infrastructure,[br]our failed government,

0:16:43.468,0:16:45.523
but also by the incredible resilience

0:16:45.547,0:16:48.976
of people who thrive[br]despite the government,

0:16:49.000,0:16:50.261
rather than because of it.

0:16:51.373,0:16:53.976
I teach writing workshops[br]in Lagos every summer,

0:16:54.000,0:16:56.976
and it is amazing to me[br]how many people apply,

0:16:57.000,0:16:59.976
how many people are eager to write,

0:17:00.000,0:17:01.386
to tell stories.

0:17:02.275,0:17:05.298
My Nigerian publisher and I[br]have just started a non-profit

0:17:05.322,0:17:06.976
called Farafina Trust,

0:17:07.000,0:17:09.976
and we have big dreams[br]of building libraries

0:17:10.000,0:17:12.143
and refurbishing libraries[br]that already exist

0:17:12.167,0:17:14.976
and providing books for state schools

0:17:15.000,0:17:17.096
that don't have anything[br]in their libraries,

0:17:17.120,0:17:19.501
and also of organizing lots[br]and lots of workshops,

0:17:19.525,0:17:20.976
in reading and writing,

0:17:21.000,0:17:24.199
for all the people who are eager[br]to tell our many stories.

0:17:24.326,0:17:25.976
Stories matter.

0:17:26.000,0:17:27.976
Many stories matter.

0:17:28.000,0:17:31.976
Stories have been used[br]to dispossess and to malign,

0:17:32.000,0:17:35.976
but stories can also be used[br]to empower and to humanize.

0:17:36.642,0:17:38.976
Stories can break the dignity of a people,

0:17:39.000,0:17:42.703
but stories can also repair[br]that broken dignity.

0:17:44.000,0:17:46.048
The American writer[br]Alice Walker wrote this

0:17:46.072,0:17:49.976
about her Southern relatives[br]who had moved to the North.

0:17:50.000,0:17:51.976
She introduced them to a book about

0:17:52.000,0:17:54.068
the Southern life[br]that they had left behind.

0:17:55.592,0:17:58.976
"They sat around,[br]reading the book themselves,

0:17:59.000,0:18:04.528
listening to me read the book,[br]and a kind of paradise was regained."

0:18:05.579,0:18:08.441
I would like to end with this thought:

0:18:08.465,0:18:10.976
That when we reject the single story,

0:18:11.000,0:18:13.976
when we realize that[br]there is never a single story

0:18:14.000,0:18:16.441
about any place,

0:18:16.465,0:18:17.976
we regain a kind of paradise.

0:18:18.695,0:18:19.817
Thank you.

0:18:19.841,0:18:22.841
(Applause)