The Danger of My Single Story

The YouTube video by Chimamanda Adichie (2009) discusses her life as a storyteller and the danger of the single story. My interpretation of what Adichie means by the danger of the single story is that you cannot and should not make assumptions based on only what you see, hear or read. Growing up in Nigeria, Adichie would make assumptions from literature she read at a very early age and it wasn’t until she grew older when she realized that there was much more to the story. Thus, the danger of the single story.

As I reflect on the video by Adichie (2009), I think about how she courageously stood in front of an audience and told her story. She did a fantastic job of expressing herself to an audience of strangers, peers and friends. For her to convey her story in a compelling way, she needed to use expressions in her speech. Your communication to other people can be broken down into four categories: observations, thoughts, feelings and needs (McKay, Davis & Fanning, 2009, p. 36). Adichie used her observations to depict her story so that the audience could visualize the setting. She used enough detail that still allowed people to come up with their own mental picture of the landscape in her story. Adichie also used thoughts to paint the picture of how her mind was changed about characters in the literature she read and how her family provided food and clothes to those less fortunate, such as her friend Fide. Adichie used feelings in her story to express the emotions she went through as a young child and then as she grew up to learn how very different the world was than she first thought. Lastly, she used needs to communicate her story in that at first, she didn’t see herself as African in the United States, but later took that notion and ran with it. She later stated that the stereotypes placed upon her and her descendants were wrong and through her words those needed to be changed. Adichie used whole messages in her storytelling and it showed by the amazing speech she gave in her video (2009). Whole messages include all four kinds of expressions: what you see, think, feel and need (McKay, Davis & Fanning, 2009, p. 39).

I view Adichie’s speech as a great example of the power of oral communication. Meaning is not solely what you say; it’s what you intend (Whalen, 2007, p. 16). For me, it highlights the practical usage of verbal communication to people using your feelings through words. While she didn’t use much nonverbal communication, such as body language or inflections in her voice to express her emotions, she did, however, express those through her storytelling about her life. Adichie used convincing communication extremely well to express herself to the audience and you could tell she had them engaged and interested. When you do convincing communication, you are working with a collection of more complex and thorny variables: mood, emotion and meaning (Whalen, 2007, p. 5). She also created felt sense in her audience by sharing special experiences in her life that created this stirring story about her journey. As you share your past personal experience, or relate your vision of the future, you create a Felt Sense in your audience (Whalen, 2007, p. 10). Adichie also told her story in her own unique way. She didn’t need to take from someone else’s playbook and mimic other storyteller’s behaviors. The point is that there is no single right way to tell a story (Denning, 2011, p. 32).  

In summary, there is a lot to learn from Adichie and other people’s storytelling. Whether it be the details, the vision, the cadence or the punchline, everyone can put together an amazing story that we can all learn from.

References

Adichie, C. (2009, July). The danger of a single story. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story

Denning, S. (2011). The leader's guide to storytelling: Mastering the art and discipline of business narrative (2nd ed.). San Francisco, Calif: Jossey-Bass.

McKay, M., Davis, M., & Fanning, P. (2009). Messages: The communication skills book (Third ed.). Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

Whalen, D.J. (2007). The Professional Communications Toolkit. SAGE Publications.