Chimamanda Adichie El peligro de una sola historia (sub castellano y francés)

00:18:29
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3cIVHUnbXI

Summary

TLDRLa autora comparte su experiencia personal sobre los peligros de la "historia única", comenzando con cómo de niña en Nigeria solo leía libros británicos y americanos, lo que le hizo pensar que la literatura tenía que representar a personajes extranjeros. Este concepto cambió cuando descubrió la literatura africana, que la llevó a reconocer su propia identidad en los libros. Al mudarse a Estados Unidos, encontró que su compañera de cuarto tenía percepciones preconcebidas de África basadas en la "historia única". Reflexionando sobre sus propias experiencias y prejuicios, como durante su viaje a México, argumenta que las historias únicas reducen la dignidad de las personas al limitar nuestra visión de ellas. La narrativa dominante, a menudo controlada por quienes tienen poder, puede definir y limitar una cultura o grupo. La autora destaca la importancia de múltiples historias para una comprensión rica y humana, promoviendo que contemos diversas historias para empoderar y humanizar.

Takeaways

  • 📚 Las historias que leemos pueden formar nuestra percepción del mundo desde una edad temprana.
  • 👥 Las historias únicas reducen la complejidad de las personas a simples estereotipos.
  • 🌍 El poder influye en la narrativa dominante, a menudo perpetuando historias únicas.
  • 📖 La literatura africana hizo que la autora rompiera con la visión estereotipada de los libros.
  • 📰 La autora también se encontró presa de la "historia única" al visitar México.
  • 🤔 Reflexionar sobre diversas historias puede cambiar prejuicios y enriquecer nuestra comprensión.
  • 🔄 Las historias pueden tanto robar como reparar la dignidad de una persona.
  • 🗣️ Contar múltiples historias empodera a las comunidades minoritarias y desfavorecidas.
  • 🇳🇬 Los esfuerzos por promover literatura diversa en Nigeria demuestran las historias no contadas del país.
  • ✈️ Viajar y experimentar directamente desafían las percepciones creadas por historias únicas.

Timeline

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    La narradora comparte su experiencia de crecer en Nigeria leyendo libros infantiles británicos y estadounidenses, lo que la llevó a escribir historias con personajes completamente ajenos a su realidad. Luego, al descubrir literatura africana, tomó consciencia de que personas como ella también podían ser personajes literarios, lo que cambió su percepción sobre la literatura y la salvó de tener una "única historia" sobre lo que son los libros.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    Al mudarse a Estados Unidos, enfrenta los estereotipos que los estadounidenses tienen sobre África, similar a cómo ella misma tuvo una única historia sobre los mexicanos debido a la descripción de los medios estadounidenses. Reflexiona sobre el poder de las historias únicas y cómo estas refuerzan los estereotipos y simplifican la complejidad de otras culturas y personas.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:18:29

    Explica cómo las historias únicas son creadas y mantenidas por el poder, determinando qué historias se cuentan, cómo y cuántas. Las historias incompletas crean estereotipos y descartan la dignidad y complejidad de las personas y culturas. Propone que el equilibrio de historias permitiría una mejor comprensión y reconocimiento de la humanidad compartida, finalizando con la importancia de múltiples historias para contrarrestar las narrativas dominantes y permitir reconstruir la dignidad y la humanidad de las personas.

Mind Map

Mind Map

Frequently Asked Question

  • ¿Qué es una historia única?

    Es una percepción limitada y simplificada de una situación o grupo de personas, basada en una sola narrativa repetida.

  • ¿Cómo afectó la 'historia única' a la autora cuando era niña?

    La hizo creer que los personajes de los libros tenían que ser extranjeros y no se imaginaba que había espacio para personas como ella.

  • ¿Qué cambio trajo a su percepción la literatura africana?

    Le mostró que personas como ella podían existir en la literatura, ampliando su visión y comprensión.

  • ¿Cuál fue la percepción de su compañera de cuarto sobre África?

    Tenía una visión estereotipada y limitada de África, llena de prejuicios y desinformación.

  • ¿Qué reveló la experiencia de la autora en México?

    Le mostró sus propios prejuicios sobre los mexicanos, formados por una narrativa dominante negativa.

  • ¿Cómo afectan las historias únicas a la dignidad humana?

    Roban a las personas de su dignidad al simplificar y estereotipar sus experiencias.

  • ¿Cuál es la relación entre el poder y las historias únicas?

    El poder determina quién cuenta una historia y de qué manera, a menudo fijando la narrativa dominante.

  • ¿Qué efecto quería lograr la autora al compartir estas historias?

    Quería provocar una reflexión sobre cómo las historias múltiples pueden enriquecer la comprensión mutua y devolver la dignidad.

  • ¿Qué hizo la autora para cambiar la narrativa sobre Nigeria?

    Trabajó en iniciativas que promueven historias diversas, como talleres de escritura y un proyecto sin fines de lucro para mejorar bibliotecas.

  • ¿Por qué son importantes las historias múltiples según la autora?

    Permiten una comprensión compleja de personas y lugares, evitando estereotipos simplistas y limitantes.

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  • 00:00:00
    [Applause]
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    I'm a Storyteller and I would like to
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    tell you a few personal stories about
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    what I like to call the danger of the
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    single
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    story I grew up on a University campus
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    in eastern Nigeria my mother says that I
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    started reading at the age of two
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    although I think four is probably close
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    to the
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    truth so I was an early reader and what
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    I read were British and American
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    children's books I was also an early
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    writer and when I began to write at
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    about the age of seven stories in pencil
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    with crayon illustrations that my poor
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    mother was obligated to read I wrote
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    exactly the kinds of stories I was
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    reading all my characters were white and
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    blue-eyed they played in the
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    snow they ate
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    apples and they talked a lot about the
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    weather how lovely it was that the sun
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    had come out
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    now this despite the fact that I lived
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    in Nigeria had never been outside
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    Nigeria we didn't have snow we ate
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    mangoes and we never talked about the
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    weather because there was no need to my
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    characters also drank a lot of ginger
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    beer because the characters in the
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    British books I read drank ginger beer
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    never mind that I had no idea what
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    ginger beer
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    was and for many years afterwards I
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    would have a desperate desire to taste
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    ginger beer
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    but that is another story what this
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    demonstrates I think is how
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    impressionable and vulnerable we are in
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    the face of a story particularly as
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    children because all I had read were
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    books in which characters were foreign I
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    had become convinced that books by their
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    very nature had to have foreigners in
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    them and had to be about things with
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    which I could not personally
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    identify now things changed when I
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    discovered African books there weren't
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    many of them available and they weren't
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    quite as easy to find as the foreign
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    books but because of writers like Chino
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    a and Kamar L I went through a mental
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    shift in my perception of literature I
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    realized that people like me girls with
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    skin the color of chocolate whose kinky
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    hair could not form ponytails could also
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    exist in literature I started to write
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    about things I
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    recognized now I loved those American
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    and British books I read they stirred my
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    imagination the opened up new walls for
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    me but the unintended consequence was
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    that I did not know that people like me
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    could exist in
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    literature so what the discovery of
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    African writers did for me was this it
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    saved me from having a single story of
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    what books
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    are I come from a conventional
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    middleclass Nigerian family my father
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    was a professor my mother was an
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    administrator and so we had as was the
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    norm living domestic help who would
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    often come from nearby rural Villages so
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    the year I turned eight we got a new
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    house boy his name was
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    FID the only thing my mother told us
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    about him was that his family was very
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    poor my mother sent yams and rice and
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    our old clothes to his family and when I
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    didn't finish my dinner my mother would
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    say finish your food don't you know
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    people like F's family have nothing so I
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    felt enormous pity for
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    family then one Saturday we went to his
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    village to visit and his mother showed
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    us a beautifully patterned basket made
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    of died Rafia that his brother had made
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    I was
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    startled it had not occurred to me that
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    anybody in his family could actually
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    make something all I had heard about
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    them was how poor they were so that it
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    had become impossible for me to see them
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    as anything else but poor their poverty
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    was my single story of them
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    years later I thought about this when I
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    left Nigeria to go to university in the
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    United States I was
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    19 my American roommate was shocked by
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    me she asked where I had learned to
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    speak English so well and was confused
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    when I said that Nigeria happened to
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    have English as its official
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    language she asked if she could listen
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    to what she called my tribal music and
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    was consequently very disappointed when
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    I produced my tape of Mariah car
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    sry she assumed that I did not know how
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    to use a
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    stove what struck me was this she had
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    felt sorry for me even before she saw me
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    her default position toward me as an
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    African was a kind of patronizing
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    well-meaning
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    pity my roommate had a single story of
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    Africa a single story of
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    catastrophe in this single story there
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    was no possibility of Africans being
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    similar to her in any way no possibility
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    of feelings more complex than pity no
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    possibility of a connection as human
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    equals I must say that before I went to
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    the US I didn't consciously identify as
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    African but in the US whenever Africa
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    came up people turned to me never mind
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    that I knew nothing about places like
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    namia but I did come to embrace this new
  • 00:05:22
    identity and in many ways I think of
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    myself now as African although I still
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    get quite irritable when Africa is
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    referred to as a country the most recent
  • 00:05:30
    example being my otherwise wonderful
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    flight from Lagos two days ago in which
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    um there was an announcement on the
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    Virgin Flight about the Charity Walk in
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    India Africa and other
  • 00:05:43
    countries so after I had spent some
  • 00:05:45
    years in the US as an African I began to
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    understand my roommate's response to me
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    if I had not grown up in Nigeria and if
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    all I knew about Africa were from
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    popular images I too would think that
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    Africa was a place of beautiful
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    landscapes beautiful animals and
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    incomprehensible people fighting
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    senseless Wars dying of poverty and AIDS
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    unable to speak for themselves and
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    waiting to be saved by a kind white
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    Foreigner I would see Africans in the
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    same way that I as a child had seen
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    fed's
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    family this single story of Africa
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    ultimately comes I think from Western
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    literature now here's a quote from the
  • 00:06:29
    writer of a London Merchant called John
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    Lock who sailed to West Africa in
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    1561 and kept a fascinating account of
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    his
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    voyage after referring to the black
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    Africans as beasts who have no houses he
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    writes they are also people without
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    heads having their mouths and eyes in
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    their
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    breasts now I've laughed every time I've
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    read this and one must admire the
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    imagination of John lock but what is
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    important about his writing is that it
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    represents the beginning of a tradition
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    of telling African stories in the west a
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    tradition of subsaharan Africa as a
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    place of negatives of difference of
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    Darkness of people who in the words of
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    the wonderful poet rad Kipling a half
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    devil half
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    child and so I began to realize that my
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    American roommate must have throughout
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    her life seen and heard different
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    versions of this single story as had a
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    professor who once told me that my novel
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    was not authentically
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    African now I was quite willing to
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    contend that there were a number of
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    things wrong with the novel that it had
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    failed in a number of places but I had
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    not quite imagined that it had failed at
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    achieving something called African
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    authenticity in fact I did not know what
  • 00:07:51
    African authenticity
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    was the professor told me that my
  • 00:07:55
    characters were too much like him an
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    educated and middle class man my
  • 00:08:00
    characters drove cars they were not
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    starving therefore they were not
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    authentically
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    African but I must quickly add that I
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    too am just as guilty in the question of
  • 00:08:13
    the single story a few years ago I
  • 00:08:16
    visited Mexico from the
  • 00:08:18
    US the political climate in the us at
  • 00:08:20
    the time was tense and there were
  • 00:08:22
    debates going on about
  • 00:08:24
    immigration and as often happens in
  • 00:08:26
    America immigration became synonymous
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    with Mexican
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    there were endless stories of Mexicans
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    as people who were fleecing the Health
  • 00:08:35
    Care System sneaking across the border
  • 00:08:38
    being arrested at the border that sort
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    of
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    thing I remember walking around on my
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    first day in
  • 00:08:45
    guadalahara watching the people going to
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    walk rolling up to tears in the
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    marketplace smoking
  • 00:08:52
    laughing I remember first feeling slight
  • 00:08:55
    surprise and then I was overwhelmed with
  • 00:08:58
    shame I realized that I had been so
  • 00:09:01
    immersed in the media coverage of
  • 00:09:03
    Mexicans that they had become one thing
  • 00:09:05
    in my mind the abject
  • 00:09:07
    immigrant I had bought into the single
  • 00:09:10
    story of Mexicans and I could not have
  • 00:09:11
    been more ashamed of myself so that is
  • 00:09:14
    how to create a single story show a
  • 00:09:17
    people as one thing as only one thing
  • 00:09:21
    over and over again and that is what
  • 00:09:23
    they
  • 00:09:24
    become it is impossible to talk about
  • 00:09:27
    the single story without talking about
  • 00:09:30
    power there is a word an EO word that I
  • 00:09:33
    think about whenever I think about the
  • 00:09:35
    power structures of the world and it is
  • 00:09:37
    inali it's a noun that Loosely
  • 00:09:40
    translates to to be greater than another
  • 00:09:43
    like our economic and political worlds
  • 00:09:46
    stories too are defined by the principle
  • 00:09:49
    of anali how they are told who tells
  • 00:09:52
    them when they are told how many stories
  • 00:09:55
    are told are really dependent on power
  • 00:10:00
    power is the ability not just to tell
  • 00:10:01
    the story of another person but to make
  • 00:10:03
    it the definitive story of that person
  • 00:10:07
    the Palestinian poet mid bouti writes
  • 00:10:09
    that if you want to dispossess a people
  • 00:10:12
    the simplest way to do it is to tell
  • 00:10:14
    their story and to start with
  • 00:10:17
    secondly start the story with the arrows
  • 00:10:21
    of the Native Americans and not with the
  • 00:10:23
    arrival of the British and you have an
  • 00:10:25
    entirely different story start the story
  • 00:10:29
    with with the failure of the African
  • 00:10:31
    State and not with the colonial creation
  • 00:10:34
    of the African State and you have an
  • 00:10:36
    entirely different
  • 00:10:39
    story I recently spoke at a university
  • 00:10:41
    where a student told me that it was such
  • 00:10:44
    a shame that Nigerian men were were
  • 00:10:48
    physical abusers like the father
  • 00:10:49
    character in my
  • 00:10:51
    novel I told him that I had just read a
  • 00:10:53
    novel called American
  • 00:10:55
    Psycho
  • 00:10:57
    and and that it was such a shame that
  • 00:11:00
    Young Americans were serial
  • 00:11:03
    murderers now
  • 00:11:10
    now now now obviously I said this in a
  • 00:11:14
    fit of mild irritation
  • 00:11:16
    but it would never have occurred to me
  • 00:11:19
    to think that just because I had read a
  • 00:11:21
    novel in which a character was a serial
  • 00:11:23
    killer that he was somehow
  • 00:11:24
    representative of all Americans and now
  • 00:11:28
    this is not because I'm a better person
  • 00:11:30
    than that student but because of
  • 00:11:32
    America's cultural and economic power I
  • 00:11:34
    had many stories of America I had read
  • 00:11:37
    thaan opdik and steinber and Gat skill I
  • 00:11:40
    did not have a single story of
  • 00:11:42
    America when I learned some years ago
  • 00:11:45
    that writers were expected to have had
  • 00:11:48
    really unhappy childhoods to be
  • 00:11:50
    successful I began to think about how I
  • 00:11:53
    could invent horrible things my parents
  • 00:11:55
    had done to
  • 00:11:57
    me but the truth truth is that I had a
  • 00:12:00
    very happy childhood full of laughter
  • 00:12:02
    and love in a very close-nit family but
  • 00:12:05
    I also had grandfathers who died in
  • 00:12:07
    refugee camps my cousin Polly died
  • 00:12:10
    because he could not get adequate Health
  • 00:12:12
    Care one of my closest friends okoma
  • 00:12:15
    died in a plane crash because our fired
  • 00:12:17
    trucks did not have
  • 00:12:18
    water I grew up under repressive
  • 00:12:21
    military governments that devalued
  • 00:12:23
    education so that sometimes my parents
  • 00:12:25
    would not pay their salaries and so as a
  • 00:12:27
    child I saw Jam dis appear from The
  • 00:12:29
    Breakfast Table then maerin
  • 00:12:32
    disappeared then bread became too
  • 00:12:34
    expensive then milk became
  • 00:12:37
    rationed and most of all a kind of
  • 00:12:40
    normalized political fear invaded Our
  • 00:12:44
    Lives all of these stories make me who I
  • 00:12:47
    am but to insist on only these negative
  • 00:12:51
    stories is to flatten my
  • 00:12:54
    experience and to overlook the many
  • 00:12:56
    other stories that formed me the single
  • 00:12:59
    story creates stereotypes and the
  • 00:13:02
    problem with stereotypes is not that
  • 00:13:05
    they are untrue but that they are
  • 00:13:08
    incomplete they make one story become
  • 00:13:10
    the only
  • 00:13:11
    story of course Africa is a continent
  • 00:13:14
    full of catastrophes the immense ones
  • 00:13:17
    such as the horrific rapes in Congo and
  • 00:13:19
    depressing ones such as the fact that
  • 00:13:21
    5,000 people apply for one job vacancy
  • 00:13:24
    in
  • 00:13:25
    Nigeria but there are other stories that
  • 00:13:28
    are not about catastrophe
  • 00:13:29
    and it is very important it is just as
  • 00:13:31
    important to talk about them I've always
  • 00:13:34
    felt that it is impossible to engage
  • 00:13:36
    properly with a place or a person
  • 00:13:38
    without engaging with all of the stories
  • 00:13:40
    of that place and that person the
  • 00:13:42
    consequence of the single story is this
  • 00:13:45
    it robs people of dignity it makes our
  • 00:13:49
    recognition of our equal Humanity
  • 00:13:51
    difficult it emphasizes how we are
  • 00:13:53
    different rather than how we are similar
  • 00:13:57
    so what if before my Mexican trip
  • 00:13:59
    I had followed the immigration debate
  • 00:14:01
    from both sides the US and the Mexican
  • 00:14:05
    what if my mother had told us that fed's
  • 00:14:07
    family was poor and had
  • 00:14:10
    working what if we had an African
  • 00:14:12
    television network that broadcast
  • 00:14:14
    diverse African stories all over the
  • 00:14:16
    world what the Nigerian writer Chino
  • 00:14:18
    Achebe calls a balance of stories what
  • 00:14:22
    if my roommate knew about my Nigerian
  • 00:14:24
    publisher MTAR bakari a remarkable man
  • 00:14:27
    who left his job in a bank to follow his
  • 00:14:29
    dream and start a publishing house now
  • 00:14:32
    the conventional wisdom was that
  • 00:14:33
    Nigerians don't read literature he
  • 00:14:36
    disagreed he felt that people who could
  • 00:14:39
    read would read if you made literature
  • 00:14:41
    affordable and available to them shortly
  • 00:14:45
    after he published my first novel I went
  • 00:14:47
    to a TV station in Lagos to do an
  • 00:14:49
    interview and a woman who walked there
  • 00:14:51
    as a messenger came up to me and said I
  • 00:14:53
    really liked your novel I didn't like
  • 00:14:55
    the ending now you must write a sequel
  • 00:14:58
    and this is what will happen
  • 00:15:02
    and she went on to tell me what to write
  • 00:15:04
    in the sequel now I was not only Charmed
  • 00:15:06
    I was very moved here was a woman part
  • 00:15:09
    of the ordinary masses of Nigerians who
  • 00:15:11
    were not supposed to be
  • 00:15:12
    readers she had not only read the book
  • 00:15:15
    but she had taken ownership of it and
  • 00:15:16
    felt justified in telling me what to
  • 00:15:19
    write in the
  • 00:15:20
    SE now what if my roommate knew about my
  • 00:15:23
    friend fumi y a Fearless woman who hosts
  • 00:15:26
    a TV show in Lagos and is deter to tell
  • 00:15:29
    the stories that we prefer to forget
  • 00:15:31
    what if my roommate knew about the heart
  • 00:15:34
    procedure that was performed in the
  • 00:15:36
    Lagos hospital last week what if my
  • 00:15:38
    roommate knew about contemporary
  • 00:15:40
    Nigerian music talented people singing
  • 00:15:43
    in English and pigeon and IO and Yuba
  • 00:15:46
    and E mixing influences from JayZ to
  • 00:15:50
    fella to Bob Marley to their
  • 00:15:53
    grandfathers what if my roommate knew
  • 00:15:55
    about the female lawyer who recently
  • 00:15:57
    went to court in Nigeria to challenge a
  • 00:15:59
    ridiculous law that required women to
  • 00:16:01
    get their husband's consent before
  • 00:16:04
    renewing their passports what if my
  • 00:16:06
    roommate knew about Nollywood full of
  • 00:16:09
    innovative people making films despite
  • 00:16:11
    great technical odds films so popular
  • 00:16:15
    that they really are the best example of
  • 00:16:17
    Nigerians consuming what they produce
  • 00:16:20
    what if my roommate knew about my
  • 00:16:21
    wonderfully ambitious hair braider who
  • 00:16:23
    has just started her own business
  • 00:16:25
    selling hair
  • 00:16:26
    extensions or about the millions of
  • 00:16:28
    other Nigerians Who start businesses
  • 00:16:30
    and sometimes fail but continue to nurse
  • 00:16:34
    ambition every time I am home I'm
  • 00:16:36
    confronted with the usual sources of
  • 00:16:38
    irritation for most Nigerians our failed
  • 00:16:40
    infrastructure our failed government but
  • 00:16:43
    also by the incredible resilience of
  • 00:16:45
    people who Thrive despite the government
  • 00:16:48
    rather than because of
  • 00:16:50
    it I teach writing workshops in Lagos
  • 00:16:53
    every summer and it is amazing to me how
  • 00:16:55
    many people apply how many people are
  • 00:16:58
    eager to write to tell
  • 00:17:01
    stories my Nigerian publisher and I have
  • 00:17:03
    just started a nonprofit called farafina
  • 00:17:06
    trust and we have big dreams of building
  • 00:17:09
    libraries and refurbishing libraries
  • 00:17:11
    that already exist and providing books
  • 00:17:14
    for State schools that don't have
  • 00:17:15
    anything in their libraries and also of
  • 00:17:17
    organizing lots and lots of workshops
  • 00:17:19
    and reading and writing for all the
  • 00:17:21
    people who are eager to tell our many
  • 00:17:23
    stories stories matter many stories
  • 00:17:27
    matter stories have been used to
  • 00:17:29
    dispossess and to malign but stories can
  • 00:17:33
    also be used to empower and to humanize
  • 00:17:36
    stories can break the Dignity of a
  • 00:17:39
    people but stories can also repair that
  • 00:17:41
    broken
  • 00:17:43
    dignity the American writer Alice Walker
  • 00:17:45
    wrote this about um her Southern
  • 00:17:47
    relatives who had moved to the north and
  • 00:17:49
    she introduced them to a book about the
  • 00:17:52
    southern life that they had left
  • 00:17:54
    behind they sat around reading the book
  • 00:17:58
    themselves listening to me read the book
  • 00:18:01
    and the kind of paradise was
  • 00:18:04
    regained I would like to end with this
  • 00:18:07
    thought that when we reject the single
  • 00:18:10
    story when we realize that there is
  • 00:18:12
    never a single story about any
  • 00:18:15
    place we regain a kind of paradise thank
  • 00:18:19
    you
  • 00:18:20
    [Applause]
Tags
  • historias únicas
  • narrativas dominantes
  • literatura africana
  • estereotipos
  • diversidad cultural
  • Nigeria
  • identidad
  • poder y narrativa
  • percepción cultural
  • impacto de las historias