The Danger of a Single Story

Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 2009

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The Role of Power in Storytelling

Chimamanda Adichie asserts that “[I]t is impossible to talk about the single story without talking about power” (9:29). To understand why one group is able to define another group, or why one story dominates another story, it is necessary to recognize the underlying power dynamics.

Adichie is clear that anyone can believe a single story; she herself admits to believing single stories about other people. However, those without power are more vulnerable to a single story’s misrepresentation. “Power,” Adichie states, “is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person” (10:03). For this reason, single stories shift in the direction of power. Adichie especially grapples with the single story painted of Africans in Western literature, which stems from the history of European colonialism.

The relationship between power and storytelling ability often reflects the fact that those in power have the resources to create and promote multiple stories from their perspective, whereas those who are relatively powerless may struggle to make their voices heard at all. As a Nigerian woman, Adichie has consumed a wide variety of American media and literature. The American student she met lecturing at a university had not been exposed to the same variety of stories from a Nigerian perspective. Because of this imbalance of storytelling, Adichie can read American Psycho without seeing it as a representation of all Americans, while the student mistakenly interpreted one of her fictional characters as representative of all Nigerians.

Adichie notes the reason for this difference: “This is not because I am a better person than that student, but because of America’s cultural and economic power, I had many stories of America” (11:21). The problem is not with individuals but with structural inequality. To move beyond single stories, those without power must be given the chance to speak.

The Importance of African Literature and Media

Adichie argues that power dictates the creation and promotion of stories. Groups with greater resources are able to control the narrative, sharing a variety of their own stories and sketching stereotypes of other groups. Adichie also highlights how this imbalance of power has affected her personally. Growing up in Nigeria, her exposure to books consisted mostly of Western literature. As a Nigerian woman living in the United States, she often encountered stereotypes in the media about Africa as a whole. The reason for this is rooted in colonial history. For centuries, African nations have not had equal standing with Western nations. Without a platform or ready audience for African stories, the impressions of European explorers such as John Lok became the definitive story of an entire region. This does not mean that the Western story of Africa is always incorrect, Adichie says. Members of her own family have suffered at the hands of the Nigerian government, from the cousin who died due to insufficient healthcare to her parents, who sometimes lost their paycheck due to education cuts. The problem is that focusing on Africa’s “catastrophes” overlooks all that is rich and powerful about its societies and peoples: “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” (16:38).

To move beyond the single story, African literature and media are crucial. These give African authors the power to add their voices and their stories to the world of literature and to speak back to colonial stereotypes. In addition to educating foreign audiences about the continent, this media can also empower African audiences. Like Adichie herself, African children need to see themselves portrayed in media and literature. As a Nigerian author, Adichie is “charmed” and “very moved” when a Nigerian woman she meets suggests a sequel to her novel: “Here was a woman, part of the ordinary masses of Nigerians, who were not supposed to be readers. She had not only read the book, but she had taken ownership of it and felt justified in telling me what to write in the sequel” (15:05).

Everyone is Susceptible to Single Stories

Although Chimamanda Adichie primarily focuses on the West’s single story of Africa, that is not the core point of her speech. She asserts that single stories can involve any region or group, and that everyone is susceptible to believing them. Adichie is very clear that she herself has viewed others through the lens of a single story. As a child, she developed a single story of books as necessarily concerned with Western people and places. She also developed a single story of her houseboy, Fide, and his family. Children, Adichie argues, are especially quick to absorb single stories, presumably because they lack both the variety of experience and the honed critical thinking skills that would allow them to effectively challenge the narratives they encounter.

The stories we learn as children tend to follow us into adulthood. When Adichie moved to the United States she was startled by the offensive stereotypes directed towards her as an African woman. Immediately after describing the prejudice she encountered, however, Adichie admits: “But I must quickly add that I too am just as guilty in the question of the single story” (8:12). She then describes how she traveled to Mexico; she was ashamed to realize that, informed only by American media, she had come to believe a single story about Mexicans. Similarly, Adichie’s classmates and professors weren’t intentionally malicious; they just had accepted the stories that surrounded them. By sharing her own experiences on both sides of the single story, Adichie leads every member of her audience to reflect on the single stories they have accepted.