Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-Chief
Last Modified: 13:20 PM EDT, 15 January 2012
The Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie speaks about the traditions of a single story framed by prejudice, stereotypes, and misinformation. The author of “Half of a Yellow Sun” (2006), she has several other notable books, short stories, plays and poem anthologies under her belt.
Raised in a middle class home with domestic help, Chimamanda related how as a child she viewed the help as being “poor” and equated that with a plethora of negative assumptions. It was only after she came to American and was subjected to “flat” perceptions of Africa and Africans, that she was able to recognize the ubiquity of preconceived notions.
Chimamanda eloquently addresses the hard topics of racism and classism through the nuanced language and concept of the “single story.” At every juncture she rebukes herself before taking the public to task, yet manages to keep the audience engaged as she chastens them. Her words and thoughts on this issue are far more powerful than any opinion written about her, thus, I encourage you to listen to the author speak in the video below.
To learn more about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie check out the bibliography and links below. Watch her speak on Ted TV here.
- The Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Unofficial Website
- The New Face of Nigerian Literature? (BBC News)
- Wikipedia Reference
Novels
- Purple Hibiscus (Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2003)
- Half of a Yellow Sun (London: Fourth Estate, 2006)
- The Thing around Your Neck(London: Fourth Estate, 2009)
Related articles
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to speak on Connecting Cultures at 2012 Commonwealth Lecture (caribbeanbookblog.wordpress.com)
- Half of a Yellow Sun (rheumadroid.wordpress.com)
- Bestselling Books of 2011 (literarychronicles.wordpress.com)
- Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton and Dominic Cooper to Star in ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ (hollywood.com)
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: religious leaders must help end Nigeria violence (guardian.co.uk)
![Rehtaeh Parsons, a teen from Nova Scotia, was a gorgeous, kind, straight-A student with her whole life ahead of her. On Thursday, she hung herself in her bathroom. On Sunday night, her family took her off life-support. Approximately a year and a half earlier, in November 2011, when Rehtaeh was 15 years old, she was reportedly gang-raped by four boys, classmates of hers. The trauma did not end there. One of the boys reportedly took a photo of the act and circulated it among Rehtaeh’s school and community where, as noted, by Rehtaeh’s mother, “it quickly went viral.” Authorities reportedly investigated the sexual assault but claimed there was insufficient evidence to make formal charges. Rehtaeh’s mother recalls the investigation: They didn’t even interview the boys until much, much later. To me, I’d think you’d get the boys right away, separate them…. Nothing was done about [the photos] because they couldn’t prove who had pressed the photo button on the phone. [She was told that the distribution of the photos is] not really a criminal issue, it’s more of a community issue. Even though she was 15 at the time, which is child pornography…. The whole case was full of things like that. We didn’t have a rape kit done because we didn’t even know (anything had happened) until several days later when she had a breakdown in my kitchen. She was trying to keep it to herself. Tormented and bullied, Rehtaeh was forced to leave her school and tried to start fresh in a new community. Despite efforts, she continued to struggle, at one point checking into a hospital to cope with suicidal thoughts, anger, and depression. In an extensive post on a Facebook memorial page, her mother Leah Parsons described how the straight-A high school student became depressed and suicidal after the incident. “The person Rehtaeh once was all changed one dreaded night in November 2011. She went with a friend to another’s home. In that home she was raped by four young boys . . . one of those boys took a photo of her being raped and decided it would be fun to distribute the photo to everyone in Rehtaeh’s school and community where it quickly went viral,” Leah Parsons wrote. “Because the boys already had a ‘slut’ story, the victim of the rape Rehtaeh was considered a slut. “This day changed the lives of our family forever.” Rehtaeh, who was a 15-year-old high school student in Cole Harbour at the time, was repeatedly bullied at school and “suddenly shunned by almost everyone she knew.” “She was never left alone. She had to leave the community. Her friends turned against her. People harassed her. Boys she didn’t know started texting her and Facebooking her asking her to have sex with them. It just never stopped,” her mother told CBC.](http://ayannanahmias.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/rehtaeh-parsons-17-canadian-rape-victim-commits-suicide-3.jpg?w=45&h=45&crop=1){kind=small}
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