Chimanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimanda Ngozi Adichi was born in Nigeria in 1977. She is a famous storyteller and the author of three novels and a short story collection. She has received several awards and distinctions and some of her works have been translated into thirty different languages.

"The danger of a single story”




Chimanda explains using her personal life and experiences as a black child, the danger of believing in a “Single Story”. She outlines that reducing people to a single story could create negative stereotypes, intensifying the differences between humans rather than their similarities. To supports her thoughts, she employs diverse examples. Firstly she mentions the story of a poor boy and her concept about him and his family, based on the poverty single story about them. Secondly, she tells the audience about her roommate´s reaction when she arrived at the university in the United States. She explains that he was stunned because of her good use of English language, due to the fact that Africans were believed to be suffering people, inferior and an alphabet. Lastly, she describes an  experience during her stay in the powerful country, where Mexicans were known as immigrants. However, her vision about them changed completely when she visited the country and saw that in fact Mexicans were people with emotions, culture, and feelings, looking for a better standard of living.  To conclude, hearing a Single Story creates an incomplete and misleading perception about the true version. Taking into account that stories can be used to empower and to humanize let give us the chance to see beyond them. 

 “Connecting Cultures”

Chimanda Adichie delivered the 15^th Commonwealth Lecture. In 2012, it was celebrated “Connecting Cultures” where 54 nations of different believes and traditions exposed their culture identity in order to create a cultural exchange. During the conference, Chimanda highlights the importance of realistic literature in people´s lives. To begin with, she explains that books not only enlarge readers’ imagination but also connect the fictional word with reality. Secondly, she outstands the concept that trough a real story people can become conscious about how different humans are, thus immerse ourselves in other culture, notions and feelings. In addition, Chimanda explains that by means of books and her words she touches humans being and that although she makes the effort to think in the audience once writing, most of the time she loses control because of her strong emotions and inspiration. Lastly, she mentions that books help us to see other people way of life, comprehend their thoughts and finally, turning facts into truths.

http://www.l3.ulg.ac.be/adichie/cnabio.htmlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmsYJDP8g2U