Thinking Activity

Sunday Reading: Talks by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 

Hello friends, 

I am Nidhi Dave a student of Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University. This blog is response of my Sunday Reading Activity given by professor, Dr. Dilip Barad sir. Here I am disscus my learning outcomes from these talks. 

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born on September 15, 1977 in Enugu, Nigeria. Before her birth, Adichie's family lost nearly everything as a result of the Nigerian Civil War. She was raised in Nsukka, near the University of Nigeria. Her father, James Nwoye Adichie, was a professor of statistics and later became the deputy vice chancellor of the university. Her mother, Ifeoma Aidichie, was the university's first female registrar. Adichie is the fifth child in a family of six children. Her family is of Igbo descent. 

Adichie, a feminist,has written the novels Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), and Americanah (2013), the short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), and the book-length essay We Should All Be Feminists (2014). Her most recent books are Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017), Zikora (2020) and Notes on Grief (2021).In 2008, she was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant.She was the recipient of the PEN Pinter Prize in 2018.

1, Talk on importance of Story / Literature: 

In this talk - Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

1.Did the first talk help you in understanding of Post colonialism?

The “Danger of a Single Story”, a 2009 TED Talk by Chimamanda Adichie, a young Nigerian author. 

Whether we're conscious of it or not, stories influence our understanding of other people and places. In July 2009, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave a TED talk presentation about her experiences as related to her concept of the 'single story.' Adichie describes the 'single story' as a narrative that presents only one perspective, repeated again and again. She asserts that the danger of the 'single story' is that it can result in perspectives based on stereotypes. 

it’s about the danger of a single story. Adichie explains that if we only hear about a people, place or situation from one point of view, we risk accepting one experience as the whole truth. 

Adichie grew up in Nigeria. In her presentation, she describes herself as a long-time storyteller and early reader. The children's books that were available to her then were British and American. 

“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete,” Adichie says in the video. “They make one story become the only story.”

Instead, she explains, we must seek diverse perspectives — and in turn, writers must tell our own stories. Telling the stories that only we can tell, about our experiences, hopes and fears, helps break down the power of cliches and stereotypes.

From her own childhood writing featuring only blue-eyed children frolicking in snow — because though she had never seen snow, all her books included it — to her American college roommate’s confusion that an African could speak English, Adichie explores the power of stories:

“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."

 Last she end with this, I would like to end with this thought: That when we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise. 

2, We Should All Be Feminist: 

Nowadays, the word “feminist” is frequently used as a derogatory term and thrown around as an insult. Many people are under the impression that to be a feminist, one must abhor men, must hate housewives, and must not wear makeup. Strangely, none of these are what defines a feminist. A feminist is an individual who believes in the equality of both sexes, as argued by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her TED Talk, We Should All Be Feminists. 

Another aspect Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie focuses on in this personal essay is the usage of the term ‘feminism’. Some people oppose the idea of feminism by calling themselves ‘humanist’. To quote the author here, “Feminism is, of course, part of human rights in general – but to choose to use the vague expression human rights is to deny the specific and particular problem of gender”. 

The word feminist invariably is weighed down with negative interpretations. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie shared a incident when she was called a feminist in her childhood by her male best friend. “It was not a compliment. I could tell from his tone – the same tone with which a person would say, ‘You’re a supporter of terrorism."

She encourages us to dream of a world that is just and that has men and women who are happier because they are true to themselves. 

Adichie then focuses on the wage gap and the gendered nature of economic power. In Nigeria, for instance, it's assumed that any woman with money has gotten that money from a man.

Adichie concludes by saying that people do a great disservice to both men and women by teaching them to adhere to strict gender roles. 

3, Talk on Importance of Truth in Post - Truth Era. 

We are living in the world of 21st century. Post-modern era in which people are highly sophisticated and love to do Showoff and also putting down their moral values. So, Chimamanda said that telling lies is telling lies to yourself. A few years ago, I spoke at an event in London. The English woman who was to introduce me had written my name phonetically on a piece of paper. And backstage she held on tightly to this paper while repeating the pronunciation over and over. I could tell, she was very eager to get it right.

And then she went on to the stage and gave a lovely introduction and ended with the words “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Chimichanga.”

I told — I told this story at a dinner party shortly afterwards. And one of the guests seemed very annoyed that I was laughing about it. “That was so insulting”, he said, “that English woman could have tried harder.”

But the truth is she did try very hard. In fact, she ended up calling me a fried burrito because she had tried very hard and then ended up with an utterly human mistake that was the result of anxiety.

So, the point of this story is not to say that you can call me Chimichanga. Don’t even think about it.

The point is that intent matters, that context matters. Somebody might very well call me Chimichanga out of a malicious desire to mock my name, and that I would certainly not laugh about. But there is a difference between malice and a mistake.

We now live in a culture of calling out, a culture of outrage, and you should call people out. You should be outraged. But always remember context and never disregard intent 

Whenever you wake-up  

That is your morning, what matters is you wake up.

So, It is very interesting to know about Chimamanda African author with voice of Marginalized people. Presenting very new and fresh thought about feminism and importance of truth in post-truth era.