Danger of A Single Story

Chimamanda Adichie’s The Dangers of a Single Story recognizes the influence of power in
establishing stereotypes and reflects the idea that individuals have the capacity to shatter the inferiority
mindset imposed by their colonizers by reforming their perspective and looking beyond others’ defining
story. Chimamanda Adichie makes use of personal reflections and anecdotes to illustrate how colonialism
has left an impact on her upbringing and has influenced the way she perceived people and literature. In
the beginning of the text, Chimamanda Adichie explains the influence of her experience of British and
American children’s books to her own stories. “My characters also drank a lot of because the characters
in the British books I read drank ginger beer.” This statement highlights the character’s vulnerability to
the inferiority mindset at a young age and made her think that the representation of non-foreign
characters, like her, is exotic or out of the norm. However, Chimamanda Adichie was able to shatter this
mindset when she discovered African writers who represented people of her kind and made her realize
that individuals she recognized can also exist in literature. This shows the capacity of colonized people to
break through the postcolonial legacy imposed by their colonizers upon them and how non-foreign and
marginalized characters can also be made central.
Chimamanda Adichie presented various instances where her inferiority mindset influenced the
way she perceived people and lead her to box them into a certain standard, similar to the way the
colonizers did to her country years in the past. Her perception of Fide’s family, for instance, as shown in
the line “It had not occurred to me that anybody in his family could actually make something. All I had
heard about them is how poor they were, so that it had become impossible for me to see them as anything
else but poor” exemplifies how she boxed them into a certain standard and refused to see them as
anything but inferior. This shows the colonial legacy left by the colonizers to the people of Nigeria which
lead them to look at people in a certain standard and influenced them to box others into a single &
defining story or perspective, the same way it was done to them in the past.
In the latter part of her speech, Chimamanda Adichie highlighted the influence of power in
creating the world’s perception of certain groups — that in turn, shapes their identity. She illustrated
these with her personal experience in dealing with her professor and her room mate who both perceived
Africa and its people the way it was shown popularly on media in the United States. “If I had not grown
up in Nigeria, and if all I knew about Africa were from popular images, I too would think that Africa was
a place of beautiful landscapes […] incomprehensible people, fighting senseless wars, dying of poverty
and AIDS, unable to speak for themselves, waiting to be saved, by a kind, white foreigner.” This gave
both her room mate and her professor a set standard for her and who she was supposed to be based on the
preconceived notions presented to them by the powerful media of the United States. Furthermore, they are
unable to look beyond these notions because Africa has less power than the U.S. and only those with
immense power are able to determine the single, definitive story of others. Chimamanda Adichie
highlights the negative implication of this power-play when she says, “It robs people of dignity. It makes
our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we
are similar.”
Through her speech, Chimamanda Adichie reiterates the need to look beyond one’s stereotype,
that portrays incomplete representations of people, in order to break free from this colonial legacy.
Instead, we must choose to look at all sides of their stories — the experiences that make them just as real,
capable, and complex as anyone else. All of these start with a change in perspective; similarly,
Chmimamanda Adichie illustrates this in the line “Every time I am home I am confronted with the usual
sources of irritation for most Nigerians: our failed infrastructure, our failed government. But also by the
incredible resilience of people who thrive despite the government, rather than because of it.” When we
reject a stereotype and look at things in its complexity, only then do we have the capacity to empower,
humanize, and restore the dignity of those who are shown as inferior.
Chimamanda Adichie’s The Dangers of a Single Story reflects an underlying calling to break
through the inferiority mindset established by those in power. It has become a norm for individuals from
previously colonized countries to look at themselves as subaltern to those in the west; the author,
however, aims to reinvent this narrative and encourages its readers to look beyond the single stories
imposed on them by those in power and instead, engage with them through stories and experiences that
moulded them into the people that they are today. In the words of Chimamanda Adichie, “[…] 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.”

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How did Chimamanda Adichie's experience with British literature influence her perception of non-foreign characters?

How did Chimamanda Adichie's perception of Fide's family exemplify the colonial legacy left by colonizers?

Chimamanda Adichie’s The Dangers of a Single Story recognizes the influence of power in

marginalized characters can also be made central.

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