The Danger Of A Single Story By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie And Speaking In Tongues By Zadie Smith

Dominant Culture/Dominant Discourse

What this demonstrates, I think, is how impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story, particularly as children. Because all I had read were books in which characters were foreign, I had become convinced that books, by their very nature, had to have foreigners in them, and had to be about things with which I could not personally identify. Now, things changed when I discovered African books. There weren’t many of them available. And they weren’t quite as easy to find as the foreign books.

But because of writers like Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye, I went through a mental shift in my perception of literature. I realized that people like me, girls with skin the color of chocolate, whose kinky hair could not form ponytails, could also exist in literature. I started to write about things I recognized.

Now, I loved those American and British books I read. They stirred my imagination. They opened up new worlds for me. But the unintended consequence was that I did not know that people like me could exist in literature. So what the discovery of African writers did for me was this: it saved me from having a single story of what books are.

I come from a conventional, middle-class Nigerian family. My father was a professor. My mother was an administrator. And so we had, as was the norm, live-in domestic help, who would

1 Originally delivered as a TED Talk in July 2009.

often come from nearby rural villages. So the year I turned eight we got a new house boy. His name was Fide. The only thing my mother told us about him was that his family was very poor. My mother sent yams and rice, and our old clothes, to his family. And when I didn’t finish my dinner, my mother would say, “Finish your food! Don’t you know? People like Fide’s family have nothing.” So I felt enormous pity for Fide’s family.

Then one Saturday, we went to his village to visit. And his mother showed us a beautifully patterned basket, made of dyed raffia, that his brother had made. I was startled. It had not occurred to me that anybody in his family could actually make something. All I had heard about them was how poor they were, so that it had become impossible for me to see them as anything else but poor. Their poverty was my single story of them.

Years later, I thought about this when I left Nigeria to go to university in the United States. I was 19. My American roommate was shocked by me. She asked where I had learned to speak English so well, and was confused when I said that Nigeria happened to have English as one of its official languages. She asked if she could listen to what she called my “tribal music,” and was consequently very disappointed when I produced my tape of Mariah Carey. She assumed that I did not know how to use a stove.

What struck me was this: she had felt sorry for me even before she saw me. Her default position toward me, as an African, was a kind of patronizing, well-meaning, pity. My roommate had a single story of Africa. A single story of catastrophe. In this single story there was no possibility of Africans being similar to her, in any way. No possibility of feelings more complex than pity. No possibility of a connection as human equals.

I must say that before I went to the U.S. I didn’t consciously identify as African. But in the U.S. whenever Africa came up, people turned to me. Never mind that I knew nothing about places like Namibia. But I did come to embrace this new identity. And in many ways I think of myself now as African. Although I still get quite irritable when Africa is referred to as a country. The most recent example being my otherwise wonderful flight from Lagos two days ago, in which there was an announcement on the Virgin flight about the charity work in “India, Africa, and other countries.”

The Danger of a Single Story” By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie“and “Speaking In Tongues” by Zadie Smith 

Dominant Culture/Dominant Discourse
Both authors address the subjects of dominant culture and discourse in their articles. Adichie mentions how surprised her American roommate was on her good grasp over English language, even if she was from Nigeria. Her roommate had a singular view of the African countries and carried a default view on Africans (Adichie, 2009). As for Zadie Smith, she writes as to how the way you speak or the way your speaking changes is read a sign of your identity or where you came from. How she changed her voice from ‘working class Willesden‘to‘ high-class Cambridge ‘shows racism within the dominant culture (Smith, 2009).
Status Quo

The concept of Status Quo is useful in understanding the texts as English is a universal language that is popularly spoken and understood all across the world. It is not just your command over the language but also how you speak the language decides your social status and position. Changing your language and voice can be seen as a mean of climbing the social ladder.
dentity

Adichie and Smith touch upon the ideas of identity in their articles several times. For example, Adichie gets conscious about where she comes from when she moves from Nigeria to the U.S. She is made more acute about her African identity and the African authenticity in her writing (Adichie, 2009). For Smith, her identity relies on the language she speaks. The way you speak and how your way of speaking changes can be seen as a betrayal to your original identity.
Stories and narrative

Both authors use stories and narratives play in their discussions to put across their viewpoints. Smith narrates her own experience and transitions as well as mentions Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion as well as Obama’s candidacy in her essay (Smith, 2009). Adichie uses her personal experiences as a Nigerian in America and different smaller stories to convey the core message itself. The multiple stories and narratives fit together beautifully to make a compelling message.
Language

Both Adichie and Smith assert the significance of language and the power it has over others. Adichie mentions the official status of the English language in her own country, and this is what makes her so fluent in the language (Adichie, 2009). Smith asserts how one forgets his own language if brought to a foreign country, especially at a younger age. He picks up the new language of the adopted country and forgets his own. Thus, the status of one language, the variations within a language leave a powerful impact on one; social status and identity.
Voice

The authors employ the idea of “voice” in meaningful ways in their essays. Smith motions how her voice has taken on a double identity as she has her old voice and a new voice. She regrets the change in her voice and the need of the white sounding voice that sounded more intellectual than her old voice. She fears to lose her original identity she changes her voice as using different voices at different occasions sounds fake to her. Adichi mentions how those single stories about African written from the Western perspective have created a stereotype (Adichie, 2009). She longs for a voice to express the complete story about Africa and Africans and it is only with a heterogeneous compilation of voices that a story becomes complete.
Self-representation

According to Adichie and Smith, we are measured in the society from where we come, what language we speak and how we speak. If we have to present ourselves to the world in a positive manner, we need to follow the universal perspectives or be strong enough to tide over those stereotypes and misunderstandings.
Accent v. Dialect

Accent is how a person speaks and pronounces words while dialect combines both the grammatical features and accent of his language. Even if the grammatical features are same, the accent can vary. Smith mentions how one can lose his accent or use different accents for the same language. One could develop an accent that is neither country nor posh or neither American nor English.
Simple v. Complex

Simplicity and complexity can be seen in the articles by Adichie and Smith. Smith shows how easy and simple it is to lose your original language or accent as one moves from one place to another. The complexity develops when you change your way of speaking, and thus you betray your true identity. For Adichie, complexity develops when she finds herself surrounded by a feeling of pity and all because of the simple fact that she is from Africa.
Power of narrative and language.

Adichie and Smith stress upon the power of language over how one perceives and interacts. Adichie is troubled by the single story of Africa that is being told and retold in the West and has only created a stereotypical image. Smith uses the voice in her narrative and language as a cultural metaphor.

References 

Smith. (2009). Speaking in Tongues, nybooks Retrieved from 

Adichie, C.N. (20098). The Danger of a Single Story, ted.com