7 comment(s)

1. Dare | Oct 26, 2009 | Reply

   This is awesome!

2. Omotaylor | Oct 27, 2009 | Reply

   “show a people as one thing… and they become only one thing, over and over again”

   Very true. I commend this lady. She spoke well and in truth and makes me proud.

   Now I tell a story of my aunty Lape Oyewole who in the 50s while schooling in England loved to eat her chicken and crack the bones to suck out the tasty juices like we did in Nigeria. Her colleagues in the dining room (whites of course) were always dismayed and watch her with interest and wonder. Seeing this she made sure sure cracked the bones and chewed them well all the time. One day one of them who could not hold it anymore asked her nicely:
   “Lape, when you chew up all the bones like this in Africa, what do you leave for your dogs to eat?”

   I love her answer to counter the “single story”…

   “The dogs in Nigeria drink tea she said” – lol!

   Let us all from now on work harder to “reject the single story” and “regain some (level) of paradise” -thank you.

3. piper02 | Oct 31, 2009 | Reply

   Yes, she really “brings home the bacon” (to all audiences), so that “the penny may drop”, and I thank her here, just as I have thanked her in my last blog post “Prayers for Bobbie Reverberate” at http://community.africanloft.com/_Prayers-for-Bobby-Reverberate/blog/1452147/4392.html , and send her greetings from the land of Aus, “down under”.

4. piper02 | Nov 1, 2009 | Reply

   Yes, and she looks and speaks well too ! My bags are packed, and I’m just waiting for her invitation, since it would be my pleasure to be of service to her in any way she can think of. That is, if she doesn’t mind the wrinkles on this aged prune-like figure that still calls itself “me”.

   Just joking, really ! I needed to correct my website info this time around…. But again, what a wonderfully mature thinker we have in Chimamanda. Long may she grace the world stage !

5. Misi Coker | Nov 5, 2009 | Reply

   She is certainly very good speaker and raises a valid point.

6. Poor African | Nov 7, 2009 | Reply

   “Stereotype”… it kills slowly and it leads to a painful death.. they don’t know you but they do know almost everything about you.. they prejudge and classify you based on what they think not who you are. It is just sad. Thanks very much for sharing.

7. piper02 | May 12, 2010 | Reply

   I’ve just revisited the link to http://www.africanloft.com/the-power-of-stereotypesthe-danger-of-a-single-story and have taken the liberty of taking some quotes from Chimamanda Adichie ’s speech.

   I am so glad that “we” (collectively) commend Chimamanda and acknowledge that she speaks “well, and in truth” – and makes us (all) proud….

   So that we can have a written record of the “gist” or “essence” of what she said (and what we have all agreed on), here is my summary of her main points:

   “If we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding…The “single story” creates stereotypes.

   The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story…. They rob people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different, rather than how we are similar….

   Determine to tell the stories “we” would prefer to forget… to achieve a balance.

   Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity….

   When we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story – about any place (or person) – we regain a kind of paradise….”

   Which brings me to another story, made from other “self-affirming” and “truth-full” quotes:

   “Truth is not an unveiling which destroys the secret, but a revelation that does it justice”. “We cannot afford any longer to allow those ‘who do not know’ – to speak, and for those ‘who do know’ – to find themselves voiceless”.

   “How impressionable and vulnerable we are, in the face of a story – particularly as children”. So remember: “Before we echo ‘Amen’ in our homes or places of worship, think, and remember: A child is listening”.

   “Our willingness to wrestle with our (own) demons will cause our (own) angels to sing”.

   Be assured, by every good there is in us, that “Prolonged, direct and immediate interaction with TRUTH lays waste to all the fear, all of the programming, all the condemnation – and all the hatred – that this world can spew out – about being ‘gay’ “.

   “Truth decimates these anxieties through a gradual yet cataclysmic change – in perspective” (end of collection of quotes).

   Yes,stories do matter ! There can be no doubt that where-ever possible, we should seek to use our stories “to empower, and to humanize” – just as our Nigerian friend Chimamanda has reminded us. And as American mother Mary Griffith also reminds us.

   You may see her remarkable “makeover” (a “coming to term” – to a fully “ripened maturity”) at the following link (which I hope will encourage you to look at all nine episodes of her honest account of loss, and a life lived, loving):

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlUjdJhlqTU&feature=player_embedded# .

   You may also wish to take a look at another story, of a Nigerian son, who was lost, but now walks with the redeemed:

   http://www.houseofrainbow.org . Don’t forget to to take a look at the whole of the post, which will also link you to more “Prayers for Bobby”.

   This all help us to remember that: “Before we echo ‘Amen’ in our homes or places of worship, think, and remember: A child is listening”.

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