Peoples Geography — Reclaiming space

Creating people's geographies

The danger of a single story – Chimamanda Adichie

An excellent talk by Chimamanda Adichie on the dangers of a single story on how we view the world … and ourselves. It also speaks to the power of storytelling and the importance of people telling their own stories, rather than having their narratives written for them as has happened in colonialism. As we become more aware of the power of narrative and of authoring our own wor(l)ds, we may head towards a situation of creative multiplicity where, in John Berger’s words, “Never again will a single story be told as if it is the only one.” For a wonderful related piece see Binyavanga Wainaina’s How to write about Africa.

Visit Chimamanda’s website.

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This entry was posted on 29 November, 2009 by in Africa, Colonialism, Literature, Nigeria, Video and tagged .

Timely Reminders

"Those who crusade, not for God in themselves, but against the devil in others, never succeed in making the world better, but leave it either as it was, or sometimes perceptibly worse than what it was, before the crusade began. By thinking primarily of evil we tend, however excellent our intentions, to create occasions for evil to manifest itself."
-- Aldous Huxley

"The only war that matters is the war against the imagination. All others are subsumed by it."
-- Diane DiPrima, "Rant", from Pieces of a Song.

"It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there"
-- William Carlos Williams, "Asphodel, That Greeny Flower"


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