Thinking activity: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Hello Readers,
This is a part of my Sunday activity. we see three videos by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and write about her videos, task given by Dr. Dilip Barad.
About Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Talk on importance of Story/Literature
The beginning of the video. she said I'm a storyteller. And I would like to tell you a few personal stories about what I like to call "the danger of the single story."
She said, I I was on early reader and what I read the British & American children's books. She began to write at the age of 7. Story in pencil with crayon illustrations. She said"I was also an early writer, and when I began to write, at about the age of seven, stories in pencil with crayon illustrations that my poor mother was obligated to read, I wrote exactly the kinds of stories I was reading: All my characters were white and blue-eyed."
She said, My character also drinking lot of Ginger beer, because the character in the British books I read ginger beer. Never mind that I had no idea what Ginger beer was.
The line "drank Ginger beer" shows the negative side of British country. She said that Chinua Achebe & Camara Laye change her perspective of literature.
Her words, "But because of writers like Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye, I went through a mental shift in my perception of literature"
Now, she started reading American & British book and opened new words for her. She said that African writers save her from having a single story of what books are. she also said about her family, her father was a professor, her mother was an administrator & she also talked about the poor condition of our country.
Her words, "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 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 its official language. 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."
Her words, "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 its official language."
The roommate can't believe that she speaking English very well. it shows the mentality of white people to black people.
All should be feminist
What is feminist?
"Feminism is a social movement and ideology that fights for the political, economic and social rights for women. Feminists believe that men and women are equal, and women deserve the same rights as men in society. The feminist movement has fought for many different causes, such as the right for women to vote, the right to work and the right to live free from violence."
She start by telling about her friend Okolama Maduewesi & she said," Okoloma was a person I could argue with, laugh with and truly talk to. He was also the first person to call me a feminist."
Her words,"I did not know exactly what this word "feminist" meant, and I did not want Okoloma to know that I did not know. So I brushed it aside, and I continued to argue. And the first thing I planned to do when I got home was to look up the word "feminist" in the dictionary."
She don't know real meaning of feminists. She find out the real meaning with help of the dictionary. that's so funny.
Her word, "At Nigerian woman told me that feminism was not our culture and that feminism wasn't African"
This line shows the mentality or African people. She called her self 'A happy feminist'
Her word,"Now here's a story from my childhood. When I was in primary school, my teacher said at the beginning of term that she would give the class a test and whoever got the highest score would be the class monitor. Now, class monitor was a big deal. If you were a class monitor, you got to write down the names of noisemakers --
"which was having enough power of its own. But my teacher would also give you a cane to hold in your hand while you walk around and patrol the class for noisemakers. Now, of course you were not actually allowed to use the cane. But it was an exciting prospect for the nine-year-old me. I very much wanted to be the class monitor. And I got the highest score on the test. Then, to my surprise, my teacher said that the monitor had to be a boy. She had forgotten to make that clear earlier because she assumed it was ..."
"A boy had the second highest score on the test, and he would be monitor. Now, what was even more interesting about this is that the boy was a sweet, gentle soul who had no interest in patrolling the class with the cane, while I was full of ambition to do so. But I was female and he was male, and so he became the class monitor. And I've never forgotten that incident."
She shared with one incident of classroom monitor & this incident shows the gender differences in African society.
Importance of Truth in post truth Era
What is Post truth Era?
"Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief." According lexico.com
she talked about the courage of speaking truth. truth is a dangerous weapon in this 21st century.
I love the last video, because she talked about truth & never tell lie to yourself. You clone yourself better than other so never hide or never says lie to yourself. In African literature, I studied Black Skin White Mask & Grain Of Wheat by Ngiugu Wa Thiango.
About "Black skin, White Mask"
Click here to open.
Reference & Adaptation:
https://www.chimamanda.com/about-chimamanda/
https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story
https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_we_should_all_be_feminists/transcript
https://www.lexico.com/definition/post-truth
https://www.gradesaver.com/black-skin-white-masks/study-guide/summary
This is a part of my Sunday activity. we see three videos by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and write about her videos, task given by Dr. Dilip Barad.
About Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie grew up in Nigeria.
"Her work has been translated into over thirty languages and has appeared in various publications, including The New Yorker, Granta, The O. Henry Prize Stories, the Financial Times, and Zoetrope. She is the author of the novels Purple Hibiscus, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; Half of a Yellow Sun, which won the Orange Prize and was a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist and a New York Times Notable Book; and Americanah, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was named one of The New York Times Top Ten Best Books of 2013. Ms. Adichie is also the author of the story collection The Thing Around Your Neck."
Talk on importance of Story/Literature
The beginning of the video. she said I'm a storyteller. And I would like to tell you a few personal stories about what I like to call "the danger of the single story."
She said, I I was on early reader and what I read the British & American children's books. She began to write at the age of 7. Story in pencil with crayon illustrations. She said"I was also an early writer, and when I began to write, at about the age of seven, stories in pencil with crayon illustrations that my poor mother was obligated to read, I wrote exactly the kinds of stories I was reading: All my characters were white and blue-eyed."
She said, My character also drinking lot of Ginger beer, because the character in the British books I read ginger beer. Never mind that I had no idea what Ginger beer was.
The line "drank Ginger beer" shows the negative side of British country. She said that Chinua Achebe & Camara Laye change her perspective of literature.
Her words, "But because of writers like Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye, I went through a mental shift in my perception of literature"
Now, she started reading American & British book and opened new words for her. She said that African writers save her from having a single story of what books are. she also said about her family, her father was a professor, her mother was an administrator & she also talked about the poor condition of our country.
Her words, "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 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 its official language. 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."
Her words, "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 its official language."
The roommate can't believe that she speaking English very well. it shows the mentality of white people to black people.
All should be feminist
What is feminist?
"Feminism is a social movement and ideology that fights for the political, economic and social rights for women. Feminists believe that men and women are equal, and women deserve the same rights as men in society. The feminist movement has fought for many different causes, such as the right for women to vote, the right to work and the right to live free from violence."
She start by telling about her friend Okolama Maduewesi & she said," Okoloma was a person I could argue with, laugh with and truly talk to. He was also the first person to call me a feminist."
Her words,"I did not know exactly what this word "feminist" meant, and I did not want Okoloma to know that I did not know. So I brushed it aside, and I continued to argue. And the first thing I planned to do when I got home was to look up the word "feminist" in the dictionary."
She don't know real meaning of feminists. She find out the real meaning with help of the dictionary. that's so funny.
Her word, "At Nigerian woman told me that feminism was not our culture and that feminism wasn't African"
This line shows the mentality or African people. She called her self 'A happy feminist'
Her word,"Now here's a story from my childhood. When I was in primary school, my teacher said at the beginning of term that she would give the class a test and whoever got the highest score would be the class monitor. Now, class monitor was a big deal. If you were a class monitor, you got to write down the names of noisemakers --
"which was having enough power of its own. But my teacher would also give you a cane to hold in your hand while you walk around and patrol the class for noisemakers. Now, of course you were not actually allowed to use the cane. But it was an exciting prospect for the nine-year-old me. I very much wanted to be the class monitor. And I got the highest score on the test. Then, to my surprise, my teacher said that the monitor had to be a boy. She had forgotten to make that clear earlier because she assumed it was ..."
"A boy had the second highest score on the test, and he would be monitor. Now, what was even more interesting about this is that the boy was a sweet, gentle soul who had no interest in patrolling the class with the cane, while I was full of ambition to do so. But I was female and he was male, and so he became the class monitor. And I've never forgotten that incident."
She shared with one incident of classroom monitor & this incident shows the gender differences in African society.
Importance of Truth in post truth Era
What is Post truth Era?
"Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief." According lexico.com
she talked about the courage of speaking truth. truth is a dangerous weapon in this 21st century.
I love the last video, because she talked about truth & never tell lie to yourself. You clone yourself better than other so never hide or never says lie to yourself. In African literature, I studied Black Skin White Mask & Grain Of Wheat by Ngiugu Wa Thiango.
About "Black skin, White Mask"
"In Black Skin, White Masks, Frantz Fanon combines autobiography, case study, philosophy, and psychoanalytic theory in order to describe and analyze the experience of Black men and women in white-controlled societies. He is especially interested in the experience of Black people from French-colonized islands in the Caribbean, like himself, who have come to live in France themselves. He explores how these people are encouraged by a racist society to want to become white, but then experience serious psychological problems because they aren't able to do so."Black skin white masks shows the condition of black people.
Here I try to analysis some quotes of 'Black Skin, White Mask." Click here to open.
Reference & Adaptation:
https://www.chimamanda.com/about-chimamanda/
https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story
https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_we_should_all_be_feminists/transcript
https://www.lexico.com/definition/post-truth
https://www.gradesaver.com/black-skin-white-masks/study-guide/summary
Very well written.. 👌👍
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