I saw this video a couple of years ago and was impressed by it, especially since she speaks my mind in an amazingly succinct way. A way I sincerely wish I could.
This week's readings reminded me of it so I thought I should share. It's a bit long, almost 20 minutes, but worth every second.
Thank you for sharing this video Betty!
ReplyDeleteI have watched this TED Talk many times but each time, it always brings a new lesson. In the context of our class readings and discussion, Chimamanda Adichie’s talk about the danger of a single story is clearly calling for the same thing as postcolonial scholar – a re-alignment of the balance of power in the creation and dissemination of knowledge. Postcolonial feminists are arguing for many stories of women from varying places, not the single story that was the norm in some initial writings about Third World women. Sadly, despite the critique and efforts of many scholars, I think a single story continues to be told about many women and other people from ‘poor’ ‘developing countries’.
An example that comes to mind is the story that is told of Haiti. As a Caribbean scholar who is interested development practice and discourse, I was particularly disappointed in the media coverage of the recent earthquake in Haiti because it portrayed the same story that we have always heard about Haiti – they are a set of poor, disorganized, devil-worshipping people who cannot be trusted to make proper use of the aid that donors provide. It is on the basis of this story that major aid organizations can justify hiring non-Haitians to oversee the implementation of development projects, while overlooking equally (if not more) qualified Haitians who could do a better job because of their familiarity with the local context.
Adichie’s story of Mexico is also a lesson to all of us…we too can fall prey to the lure of a single story. As a result, we should try to always be cognizant of the fact that while stereotypes are usually true, they are always incomplete! May we always be open to the multiple stories that combine to create each person, community and society.
Thanks Betty for posting this thoughtful talk :). I think Chimamanda Adichie’s stories on how Africa been portrait in the west knowledge is similar to the Dayak studies (indigenous tribe of Kalimantan island, Indonesia) during 1900s. Most of the books about Dayak narrated that this beautiful and rich of natural resources island were resided by uncivilized people (the Dayak) who love to kill each other by practicing head-hunting, those people thence in need to be saved, modernized (given proper dresses) and Christianized.
ReplyDeleteThis single story on Dayak built recent society's consciousness that the Dayak are backwards, marginalized and in need of saving. Furthermore, because of the single story narration, the Dayak now just seem to never be as equal as other groups of society in Kalimantan.
Listening to this post and remembering our class on our post-colonial and feminist class, it is now time for us to see beyond our own understanding of the "truth". We need to pluralize our understanding of cultures and world differences in order to be just even from our thoughts and our minds (Pramudya Ananta Toer, This earth of human kind).
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ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the video. I always find something interesting and inspirational whenever I check out TED. One of the important factor for a story to be heard is its power. In other words, is the story powerful enough to be heard and disseminated. The second question for us - as development practitioners/scholars to ask is: if the story is heard, can any action be taken to change the story and life of people depicted in the story?
ReplyDeleteI read "I live here", a wonderful collection of stories haven't been told in many parts of the developing world while they should be told. Reading these stories which were beautifully designed through participatory photos and graphics, I feel more empowered to act whatever my role can be to make people voluntarily tell their stories to me. I can be a journalist, a researcher or a scholar, it doesn't matter as long as I want to hear the unspoken stories.
However, I am aware of the fact that if stories are not objectively understood, it can be stereotype of certain people or culture and will hamper me from knowing the underlied truth. Therefore, when we talk about power, it can also be understood as the power to define the story in a way it is told and perceived. Colonization left a impactful legacy to colonized countries because they made the local people believe that they were born subordinate and they need to depend on colonizers to be civilized and empowered. As a consequence, many local cultures are endangered of being abolished due to the spread of globalization which is in fact a postcolonial cultural domination.
Thank you for posting this. It is true that hearing only one story about a people or nation leads to ignorance. The truth may relieved by many tales. One story about anything, can be dangerous because if the single story is believed, there may follow certain prejudices or bias. When I watched the clips I remembered a novel by H. Rider Haggard King Solomon’s mine. If I remember well I was told that Haggard wrote the novel through imaginations of what he was told about Africa .But he himself was never in Africa before he wrote the novel. But the plot of the novel is African people full of ignorance, believes in witch craft, and practicing violence. The African people were ignorance to the extent that they don’t know false teeth or lunar eclipse. Well, my point is, all this is the danger of single story that Haggard has for Africa.
ReplyDeleteLast summer I went to the hospital, the nurse who came to attend me asked me if I came from Africa and when I said yes she began to cry feeling pity to those children who are dying of hunger out there in Africa. But what took me by surprise is when she suddenly stopped crying and asked if it is true that if Good Samaritan sends the humanitarian assistance they not really go to those children. I asked her what makes her say that, and she said that is what many people believe and that people in Africa cannot be trusted to make proper use of the humanitarian assistance that good Samaritans provide. Having watched danger of single story I came to realize that, the nurse is under false of single story narration.