TEDGlobal 2009
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story
奇麻曼达-阿迪契 （Chimamanda Adichie）：单一故事的危险性
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Readability: 4.1
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我们的生活，我们的文化，往往是不同故事的交集。小说家Chimamanda Adichie讲述了一个她寻求自己真实的文化嗓音的故事，并且告诫我们：如果我们只去聆听关于一个人、一个国家的单一故事，将会导致非常严重的误解。
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Novelist
Inspired by Nigerian history and tragedies all but forgotten by recent generations of westerners, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novels and stories are jewels in the crown of diasporan literature. Full bio
Inspired by Nigerian history and tragedies all but forgotten by recent generations of westerners, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novels and stories are jewels in the crown of diasporan literature. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:12
I'm a storyteller.
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我是个说书之人。
00:14
And I would like to tell you a few personal stories
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在这里，我想和大家分享一些我本人的故事，
00:17
about what I like to call "the danger of the single story."
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一些关于所谓的“单一故事的危险性”的经历。
00:22
I grew up on a university campus in eastern Nigeria.
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我成长在尼日利亚东部的一所大学校园里。
00:26
My mother says that I started reading at the age of two,
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我母亲常说我从两岁起就开始读书，
00:29
although I think four is probably close to the truth.
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不过我觉得“四岁起”比较接近事实。
00:34
So I was an early reader, and what I read
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所以我从小就开始读书，
00:36
were British and American children's books.
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读的是英国和美国的儿童书籍。
00:39
I was also an early writer,
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我也是从小就开始写作。
00:42
and when I began to write, at about the age of seven,
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当我在七岁那年
00:46
stories in pencil with crayon illustrations
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开始强迫我可怜的母亲阅读我用铅笔写好的故事
00:48
that my poor mother was obligated to read,
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外加上蜡笔描绘的插图时，
00:51
I wrote exactly the kinds of stories I was reading:
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我所写的故事正如我所读到的故事那般。
00:55
All my characters were white and blue-eyed,
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我故事里的人物们都是白皮肤、蓝眼睛的，
01:00
they played in the snow,
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常在雪中嬉戏，
01:02
they ate apples,
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吃着苹果。
01:04
and they talked a lot about the weather,
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（笑声）
01:06
how lovely it was
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而且他们经常讨论天气，
01:08
that the sun had come out.
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讨论太阳出来时，一切都多么美好。
01:10
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
01:12
Now, this despite the fact that I lived in Nigeria.
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我一直写着这样故事，虽然说我当时住在尼日利亚，
01:15
I had never been outside Nigeria.
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并且从来没有出过国。
01:19
We didn't have snow, we ate mangoes,
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虽然说我们从来没见过雪；虽然说我们实际上只能吃到芒果；
01:22
and we never talked about the weather,
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虽然说我们从不讨论天气
01:24
because there was no need to.
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因为根本没这个必要。
01:26
My characters also drank a lot of ginger beer
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我故事里的人物们也常喝姜汁啤酒，
01:29
because the characters in the British books I read
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因为我所读的那些英国书中的人物们
01:31
drank ginger beer.
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常喝姜汁啤酒，
01:33
Never mind that I had no idea what ginger beer was.
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虽然说我当时完全不知道姜汁啤酒是什么东西。
01:36
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
01:37
And for many years afterwards, I would have a desperate desire
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事隔多年，我一直都怀揣着一个深切的渴望
01:40
to taste ginger beer.
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想尝尝姜汁啤酒的味道。
01:42
But that is another story.
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不过这要另当别论了。
01:44
What this demonstrates, I think,
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这一切所表明的
01:46
is how impressionable and vulnerable we are
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正是在一个个的故事面前
01:49
in the face of a story,
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我们是何等得脆弱，何等得易受影响，
01:51
particularly as children.
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尤其当我们还是孩子的时候。
01:53
Because all I had read were books
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因为我当时读的所有书中
01:55
in which characters were foreign,
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只有外国人物，
01:57
I had become convinced that books
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我因而坚信：书要想被称为书，
01:59
by their very nature had to have foreigners in them
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就必须有外国人在里面，
02:02
and had to be about things with which
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就必须是关于
02:04
I could not personally identify.
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我无法亲身体验的事情。
02:07
Things changed when I discovered African books.
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而这一切都在我接触了非洲书籍之后发生了改变。
02:11
There weren't many of them available, and they weren't
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当时非洲书并不多，
02:13
quite as easy to find as the foreign books.
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而且它们也不像国外书籍那样好找。
02:15
But because of writers like Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye
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不过因为Chinua Achebe和Camara Laye之类的作家，
02:19
I went through a mental shift in my perception
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我思维中对于文学的概念
02:21
of literature.
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产生了质的改变。
02:23
I realized that people like me,
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我意识到像我这样的人──
02:25
girls with skin the color of chocolate,
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有着巧克力般的肤色
02:27
whose kinky hair could not form ponytails,
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和永远无法梳成马尾辫的蜷曲头发的女孩子们──
02:30
could also exist in literature.
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也可以出现在文学作品中的。
02:32
I started to write about things I recognized.
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我开始撰写我所熟知的事物。
02:36
Now, I loved those American and British books I read.
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但这并不是说我不喜爱那些美国和英国书籍，
02:40
They stirred my imagination. They opened up new worlds for me.
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恰恰相反，那些书籍激发了我的想象力，为我开启了新的世界。
02:44
But the unintended consequence
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但随之而来的后果就是
02:46
was that I did not know that people like me
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我不知道原来像我这样的人
02:48
could exist in literature.
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也是可以存在于文学作品之中的。
02:50
So what the discovery of African writers did for me was this:
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而与非洲作家的结缘
02:54
It saved me from having a single story
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则是将我从对于书籍的单一故事(认识)中
02:57
of what books are.
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拯救了出来。
02:59
I come from a conventional, middle-class Nigerian family.
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我来自一个传统的尼日利亚中产家庭。
03:02
My father was a professor.
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我的父亲是一名教授，
03:04
My mother was an administrator.
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我的母亲是一名大学管理员。
03:07
And so we had, as was the norm,
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因此我们和很多其他家庭一样
03:10
live-in domestic help, who would often come from nearby rural villages.
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都会从附近的村庄中雇佣一些帮手来打理家事。
03:15
So the year I turned eight we got a new house boy.
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在我八岁那一年，我们家招来了一位新的男仆。
03:19
His name was Fide.
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他的名字叫做Fide。
03:21
The only thing my mother told us about him
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我父亲只告诉我们说，
03:24
was that his family was very poor.
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Fide是来自一个非常穷苦的家庭。
03:27
My mother sent yams and rice,
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我的母亲会时不时地将山芋、大米
03:29
and our old clothes, to his family.
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还有我们穿旧的衣服送到他的家里。
03:32
And when I didn't finish my dinner my mother would say,
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每当我剩下晚饭的时候，我的母亲就会说：
03:34
"Finish your food! Don't you know? People like Fide's family have nothing."
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“吃干净你的食物！难道你不知道嘛？像Fide家这样的人可是一无所有的。”
03:39
So I felt enormous pity for Fide's family.
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因此我对Fide的家人充满了怜悯。
03:43
Then one Saturday we went to his village to visit,
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后来的一个星期六，我们去Fide的村庄拜访，
03:46
and his mother showed us a beautifully patterned basket
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她的母亲向我们展示了一个精美别致的草篮──
03:50
made of dyed raffia that his brother had made.
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是Fide的哥哥用染过色的酒椰叶编织的。
03:53
I was startled.
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我当时完全被震惊了。
03:55
It had not occurred to me that anybody in his family
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我从来没有想过Fide的家人
03:58
could actually make something.
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居然有亲手制造东西的才能。
04:01
All I had heard about them was how poor they were,
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在那之前，我对Fide家唯一的了解就是他们是何等的穷苦，
04:04
so that it had become impossible for me to see them
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正因为如此，他们在我脑中的印象
04:06
as anything else but poor.
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只是一个字──“穷”。
04:09
Their poverty was my single story of them.
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他们的贫穷是我赐予他们的单一故事。
04:13
Years later, I thought about this when I left Nigeria
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多年之后，在我离开尼日利亚前往美国读大学的时候，
04:15
to go to university in the United States.
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我又想到了这件事。
04:18
I was 19.
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我那时19岁。
04:20
My American roommate was shocked by me.
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我的美国室友当时完全对我感到十分惊讶了。
04:24
She asked where I had learned to speak English so well,
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她问我是从哪里学得讲一口如此流利的英语，
04:27
and was confused when I said that Nigeria
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而当我告知她尼日利亚刚巧是以英语作为官方语言的时候，
04:29
happened to have English as its official language.
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她的脸上则是写满了茫然。
04:34
She asked if she could listen to what she called my "tribal music,"
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她问我是否可以给她听听她所谓的“部落音乐”。
04:38
and was consequently very disappointed
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可想而知，当我拿出玛丽亚凯莉的磁带时，
04:40
when I produced my tape of Mariah Carey.
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她是何等的失望。
04:42
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
04:45
She assumed that I did not know how
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她断定我不知道如何使用
04:47
to use a stove.
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电炉。
04:50
What struck me was this: She had felt sorry for me
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我猛然意识到：在她见到我之间，
04:52
even before she saw me.
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她就已经对我充满了怜悯之心。
04:54
Her default position toward me, as an African,
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她对我这个非洲人的预设心态
04:58
was a kind of patronizing, well-meaning pity.
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是一种充满施恩与好意的怜悯之情。
05:02
My roommate had a single story of Africa:
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我那位室友的脑中有一个关与非洲的单一故事。
05:05
a single story of catastrophe.
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一个充满了灾难的单一故事。
05:08
In this single story there was no possibility
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在这个单一故事中，非洲人是完全没有可能
05:10
of Africans being similar to her in any way,
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在任何方面和她有所相似的；
05:14
no possibility of feelings more complex than pity,
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没有可能接受到比怜悯更复杂的感情；
05:17
no possibility of a connection as human equals.
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没有可能以一个平等的人类的身份与她沟通。
05:21
I must say that before I went to the U.S. I didn't
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我不得不强调，在我前往美国之前，
05:23
consciously identify as African.
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我从来没有有意识地把自己当作个非洲人。
05:26
But in the U.S. whenever Africa came up people turned to me.
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但在美国的时候，每当人们提到“非洲”时，大家都回转向我，
05:29
Never mind that I knew nothing about places like Namibia.
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虽然说我对纳米比亚之类的地方一无所知。
05:33
But I did come to embrace this new identity,
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但我渐渐的开始接受这个新的身份。
05:35
and in many ways I think of myself now as African.
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现在很多时候我都是把自己当作一个非洲人来看待。
05:38
Although I still get quite irritable when
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不过当人们把非洲当作一个国家来讨论的时候，
05:40
Africa is referred to as a country,
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我还是觉得挺反感的。
05:42
the most recent example being my otherwise wonderful flight
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最近的一次例子就发生在两天前，
05:46
from Lagos two days ago, in which
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我从拉各斯搭乘航班。旅程原本相当愉快，
05:48
there was an announcement on the Virgin flight
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直到广播里开始介绍在“印度、非洲以及其他国家”
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about the charity work in "India, Africa and other countries."
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所进行的慈善事业。
05:55
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
05:56
So after I had spent some years in the U.S. as an African,
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当我以一名非洲人的身份在美国度过几年之后，
06:00
I began to understand my roommate's response to me.
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我开始理解我那位室友当时对我的反应。
06:04
If I had not grown up in Nigeria, and if all I knew about Africa
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如果我不是在尼日利亚长大，如果我对非洲的一切认识
06:07
were from popular images,
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都来自于大众流行的影像，
06:09
I too would think that Africa was a place of
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我相信我眼中的非洲也同样是充满了
06:12
beautiful landscapes, beautiful animals,
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美丽的地貌、美丽的动物、
06:16
and incomprehensible people,
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以及一群难以理解的人们
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fighting senseless wars, dying of poverty and AIDS,
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进行着毫无意义的战争、死于艾滋和贫穷、
06:21
unable to speak for themselves
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无法为自己辩护
06:24
and waiting to be saved
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并且等待着一位慈悲的、
06:26
by a kind, white foreigner.
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白种的外国人的救赎。
06:29
I would see Africans in the same way that I,
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我看待非洲的方式将会和我儿时
06:31
as a child, had seen Fide's family.
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看待Fide一家的方式是一样的。
06:35
This single story of Africa ultimately comes, I think, from Western literature.
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我认为，关于非洲的这个单一故事从根本上来自于西方的文学。
06:39
Now, here is a quote from
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这是来自伦敦商人John Locke的一段话。
06:41
the writing of a London merchant called John Locke,
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他在1561年的时候
06:44
who sailed to west Africa in 1561
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曾游历非洲西部，
06:47
and kept a fascinating account of his voyage.
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并且为他的航行做了番很有趣的记录。
06:52
After referring to the black Africans
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他先是把黑色的非洲人称为
06:54
as "beasts who have no houses,"
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“没有房子的野兽”，
06:56
he writes, "They are also people without heads,
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随后又写到：“他们也是一群无头脑的人，
07:00
having their mouth and eyes in their breasts."
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他们的嘴和眼睛都长在了他们的胸口上。”
07:05
Now, I've laughed every time I've read this.
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我每次读到这一段的时候，都不禁大笑起来。
07:07
And one must admire the imagination of John Locke.
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John Locke的想象力真的是让人敬佩。
07:11
But what is important about his writing is that
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但关于他这段作品极其重要的一点是
07:13
it represents the beginning
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它昭示着西方社会讲述非洲故事
07:15
of a tradition of telling African stories in the West:
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的一个传统。
07:18
A tradition of Sub-Saharan Africa as a place of negatives,
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在这个传统中，撒哈拉以南的非洲充满了消极、
07:21
of difference, of darkness,
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差异以及黑暗，
07:23
of people who, in the words of the wonderful poet
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是伟大的诗人Rudyard Kipling笔下
07:27
Rudyard Kipling,
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所形容的“半恶魔、半孩童”
07:29
are "half devil, half child."
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的奇异人种。
07:32
And so I began to realize that my American roommate
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正因此，我开始意识到我的那位美国室友
07:35
must have throughout her life
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一定在她成长的过程中
07:37
seen and heard different versions
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看过并且听过关于这个单一故事的
07:39
of this single story,
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不同版本，
07:41
as had a professor,
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就如同之前一位
07:43
who once told me that my novel was not "authentically African."
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曾经批判我的小说缺乏“真实的非洲感”的教授一样。
07:48
Now, I was quite willing to contend that there were a number of things
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话说我倒是甘愿承认我的小说
07:50
wrong with the novel,
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有几处写的不好的地方，
07:52
that it had failed in a number of places,
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有几处败笔。
07:56
but I had not quite imagined that it had failed
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但我很难相像我的小说
07:58
at achieving something called African authenticity.
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竟然会缺乏“真实的非洲感”。
08:01
In fact I did not know what
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事实上，我甚至不知道“真实的非洲感”
08:03
African authenticity was.
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到底是个什么东西。
08:06
The professor told me that my characters
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那位教授跟我说我书中的人物
08:08
were too much like him,
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都和他太接近了，
08:10
an educated and middle-class man.
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都是受过教育的中产人物。
08:12
My characters drove cars.
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我的人物会开车。
08:14
They were not starving.
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他们没有受到饥饿的困扰。
08:17
Therefore they were not authentically African.
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正因此，他们缺少了真实的非洲感。
08:21
But I must quickly add that I too am just as guilty
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我在这里不得不指出，我本人
08:24
in the question of the single story.
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也常常被单一的故事蒙蔽双眼。
08:27
A few years ago, I visited Mexico from the U.S.
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几年前，我从美国探访墨西哥。
08:31
The political climate in the U.S. at the time was tense,
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当时美国的政治气候比较紧张。
08:33
and there were debates going on about immigration.
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关于移民的辩论一直在进行着。
08:37
And, as often happens in America,
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而在美国，“移民”和“墨西哥人”
08:39
immigration became synonymous with Mexicans.
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常常被当作同义词来使用。
08:42
There were endless stories of Mexicans
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关于墨西哥人的故事是源源不绝，
08:44
as people who were
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讲的都是
08:46
fleecing the healthcare system,
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欺诈医疗系统、
08:48
sneaking across the border,
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偷渡边境、
08:50
being arrested at the border, that sort of thing.
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在边境被捕之类的事情。
08:54
I remember walking around on my first day in Guadalajara,
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我还记得当我到达瓜达拉哈拉(墨西哥西部一城市)的第一天，
08:58
watching the people going to work,
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看着人们前往工作，
09:00
rolling up tortillas in the marketplace,
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在市集上吃着墨西哥卷、
09:02
smoking, laughing.
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抽着烟、大笑着。
09:05
I remember first feeling slight surprise.
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我记得我刚看到这一切时是何等的惊讶，
09:08
And then I was overwhelmed with shame.
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但随后我的心中便充满了羞耻感。
09:11
I realized that I had been so immersed
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我意识到我当时完全被沉浸在
09:14
in the media coverage of Mexicans
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媒体上关于墨西哥人的报道，
09:16
that they had become one thing in my mind,
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以致于他们在我的脑中幻化成一个单一的个体──
09:18
the abject immigrant.
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卑贱的移民。
09:21
I had bought into the single story of Mexicans
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我完全相信了关于墨西哥人的单一故事，
09:23
and I could not have been more ashamed of myself.
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对此我感到无比的羞愧。
09:26
So that is how to create a single story,
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这就是创造单一故事的经过，
09:28
show a people as one thing,
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将一群人一遍又一遍地
09:31
as only one thing,
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呈现为一个事物，并且只是一个事物，
09:33
over and over again,
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时间久了
09:35
and that is what they become.
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他们就变成了那个食物。
09:38
It is impossible to talk about the single story
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而说到单一的故事，
09:40
without talking about power.
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就自然而然地要讲到权力这个问题。
09:43
There is a word, an Igbo word,
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每当我想到这个世界的权力结构的时候，
09:45
that I think about whenever I think about
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我都会想起一个伊博语中的单词，
09:47
the power structures of the world, and it is "nkali."
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叫做“nkali”。
09:50
It's a noun that loosely translates
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它是一个名词，可以在大意上被翻译成
09:52
to "to be greater than another."
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“比另一个人强大”。
09:55
Like our economic and political worlds,
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就如同我们的经济和政治界一样，
09:58
stories too are defined
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我们所讲的故事也是建立在
10:00
by the principle of nkali:
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nkali的原则上的。
10:03
How they are told, who tells them,
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这些故事是怎样被讲述的、由谁来讲述、
10:05
when they're told, how many stories are told,
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何时被讲述、有多少故事被讲述，
10:08
are really dependent on power.
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这一切都取决于权力。
10:12
Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person,
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所谓的权力，不单单是讲述一个关于别人的故事的能力，
10:15
but to make it the definitive story of that person.
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而是将那个故事转变为关于那个人的决定性故事。
10:19
The Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti writes
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巴勒斯坦诗人Mourid Barghouti曾经写到：
10:21
that if you want to dispossess a people,
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如果你想剥夺一群人的权利，
10:24
the simplest way to do it is to tell their story
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最简单的办法就是讲述一个关于他们的故事，
10:27
and to start with, "secondly."
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并且从“第二点”开始讲起。
10:30
Start the story with the arrows of the Native Americans,
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从印第安土著人的弓箭讲起，
10:34
and not with the arrival of the British,
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而不是英国人的侵占，
10:37
and you have an entirely different story.
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整个故事将变得完全不同。
10:40
Start the story with
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讲述一个故事，
10:42
the failure of the African state,
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从非洲国家的失败谈起，
10:44
and not with the colonial creation of the African state,
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而不是殖民者瓜分创建这些非洲国家的过程，
10:48
and you have an entirely different story.
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整个故事将变得完全不同。
10:52
I recently spoke at a university where
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我最近刚刚在一个大学做了一篇讲座，
10:54
a student told me that it was
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一个学生对我说：
10:56
such a shame
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非常可悲，
10:58
that Nigerian men were physical abusers
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尼日利亚的男人都和我书中的父亲角色一样，
11:01
like the father character in my novel.
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都是施暴者。
11:04
I told him that I had just read a novel
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我告诉他我最近刚刚读了一本小说，
11:06
called American Psycho --
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叫做《 美国精神狂魔》，
11:08
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
11:10
-- and that it was such a shame
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对此我也感到很惋惜，
11:12
that young Americans were serial murderers.
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美国青年都是连环杀手。
11:15
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
11:19
(Applause)
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（掌声）
11:25
Now, obviously I said this in a fit of mild irritation.
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当然了，那是我一时的气话。
11:28
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
11:30
But it would never have occurred to me to think
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我绝不会认为
11:32
that just because I had read a novel
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仅仅因为我对了一本
11:34
in which a character was a serial killer
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以连环杀手为主角的小说，
11:36
that he was somehow representative
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他便可以代表
11:38
of all Americans.
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所有的美国人。
11:40
This is not because I am a better person than that student,
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这并不是因为我比那位学生出色，
11:43
but because of America's cultural and economic power,
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而是因为，美国的文化以及经济雄厚实力
11:46
I had many stories of America.
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使得我有机会掌握了关于美国的多重故事。
11:48
I had read Tyler and Updike and Steinbeck and Gaitskill.
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我读过泰勒、厄普代克、斯坦贝克以及盖茨克尔。
11:52
I did not have a single story of America.
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因此，我对美国的了解并不是来自单一的故事。
11:55
When I learned, some years ago, that writers were expected
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当我多年前听说作家们
11:58
to have had really unhappy childhoods
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必须有极其不幸的童年
12:02
to be successful,
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才能取得成功的时候，
12:04
I began to think about how I could invent
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我开始思考如何捏造一些
12:06
horrible things my parents had done to me.
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我父母对我做过的恶行。
12:08
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
12:10
But the truth is that I had a very happy childhood,
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但是事实，我的童年非常愉快，
12:14
full of laughter and love, in a very close-knit family.
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充满了欢笑和关爱，也有着一个非常亲密的家庭。
12:17
But I also had grandfathers who died in refugee camps.
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但我也有在难民营中死去的祖父。
12:21
My cousin Polle died because he could not get adequate healthcare.
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我的表兄Polle因为无法得到充足的医疗而去世。
12:25
One of my closest friends, Okoloma, died in a plane crash
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我最亲近的朋友之一Okoloma死于一场飞机失事
12:28
because our fire trucks did not have water.
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因为我们的消防车中没有水。
12:31
I grew up under repressive military governments
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我在不重视教育、充满压迫性的
12:34
that devalued education,
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军权政府下长大，
12:36
so that sometimes my parents were not paid their salaries.
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以致于我的父母有时根本拿不到他们的工资。
12:39
And so, as a child, I saw jam disappear from the breakfast table,
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因此，年少的我目睹果酱从早餐桌上消失，
12:43
then margarine disappeared,
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随后黄油也消失了，
12:45
then bread became too expensive,
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面包变得无比昂贵，
12:48
then milk became rationed.
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牛奶需要限量供应。
12:51
And most of all, a kind of normalized political fear
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最重要的是，政治恐惧
12:54
invaded our lives.
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成了我们生活中习以为常的一部分。
12:58
All of these stories make me who I am.
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所有这些故事都塑造了我。
13:00
But to insist on only these negative stories
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但如果我仅仅关注这些悲观的故事，
13:04
is to flatten my experience
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那么我就简化了我的生命历程，
13:07
and to overlook the many other stories
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并且忽视了许多其他
13:09
that formed me.
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同样塑造了我的故事。
13:11
The single story creates stereotypes,
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单一的故事衍生单一的传统典型。
13:14
and the problem with stereotypes
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而这些以偏概全的想法所存在的问题
13:17
is not that they are untrue,
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并不是在于它们不真实，
13:19
but that they are incomplete.
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而是在于它们不完整。
13:21
They make one story become the only story.
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它们将一个故事转变成了唯一的故事。
13:25
Of course, Africa is a continent full of catastrophes:
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当然了，非洲大陆充满了灾难。
13:27
There are immense ones, such as the horrific rapes in Congo
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有的灾难，比如刚果猖獗的强奸，是无比巨大的；
13:31
and depressing ones, such as the fact that
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而有的现实，比如尼日利亚5千人申请一个工作职位，
13:33
5,000 people apply for one job vacancy in Nigeria.
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则更让人无比的压抑。
13:38
But there are other stories that are not about catastrophe,
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但与此同时，非洲大陆也有许多和灾难不相关的故事。
13:41
and it is very important, it is just as important, to talk about them.
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谈论这些故事也是相当重要的，也是同等重要的。
13:45
I've always felt that it is impossible
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我一直都觉得要想充分理解
13:47
to engage properly with a place or a person
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一个地区、一个民族，
13:50
without engaging with all of the stories of that place and that person.
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就必须充分理解和那个地区、那个民族相关的所有故事。
13:54
The consequence of the single story
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而单一故事的结果就是：
13:57
is this: It robs people of dignity.
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它夺走了人们的尊严。
14:00
It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult.
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它使得我们难以意识到人与人之间的平等。
14:04
It emphasizes how we are different
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它强调我们之间的不同，
14:07
rather than how we are similar.
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而不是我们之间的相同。
14:09
So what if before my Mexican trip
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如果在我的墨西哥之行开始前，
14:11
I had followed the immigration debate from both sides,
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我去同时聆听移民辩论美墨两边的论点，
14:15
the U.S. and the Mexican?
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结果会是怎样呢？
14:17
What if my mother had told us that Fide's family was poor
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如果我的母亲告诉我们Fide一家虽然穷，但是很努力，
14:21
and hardworking?
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结果会是怎样呢？
14:23
What if we had an African television network
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如果我们有一个非洲电视台在全世界播报关于非洲的不同故事，
14:25
that broadcast diverse African stories all over the world?
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结果会是怎样呢？
14:29
What the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe calls
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播报尼日利亚作家奇努阿·阿契贝所谓的
14:31
"a balance of stories."
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“平衡的故事”。
14:34
What if my roommate knew about my Nigerian publisher,
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我杰出的尼日利亚出版商Mukta Bakaray
14:37
Mukta Bakaray,
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是个让人难以置信的男人，
14:39
a remarkable man who left his job in a bank
308
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他离弃了原本在银行的工作，去追逐自己的理想，成立了个出版社，
14:41
to follow his dream and start a publishing house?
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如果我的室友听说过他，结果又会是怎样呢？
14:44
Now, the conventional wisdom was that Nigerians don't read literature.
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世俗告诉Mukta Bakaray：尼日利亚人是不读文学作品的。
14:48
He disagreed. He felt
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他不这样认为。
14:50
that people who could read, would read,
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他觉得尼日利亚人会读书、想读书，
14:52
if you made literature affordable and available to them.
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但前提是这些书价格不能太昂贵，并且要普及到人民大众。
14:56
Shortly after he published my first novel
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在他发布了我的第一部小说的不久后，
14:59
I went to a TV station in Lagos to do an interview,
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我前往拉各斯的一家电视台接受访问。
15:02
and a woman who worked there as a messenger came up to me and said,
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期间一位在那里做通信员的女士走向我，并且说道：
15:05
"I really liked your novel. I didn't like the ending.
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“我真的非常喜欢你的小说。但我不喜欢那个结尾。
15:08
Now you must write a sequel, and this is what will happen ..."
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你必须写一个续集，并且要这么写...”
15:11
(Laughter)
319
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（笑声）
15:14
And she went on to tell me what to write in the sequel.
320
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她滔滔不绝地告诉我在续集中要写些什么。
15:17
I was not only charmed, I was very moved.
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她的言语不仅仅让我充满欢喜，也让我充满了感动。
15:20
Here was a woman, part of the ordinary masses of Nigerians,
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她只是一个平凡的女士，尼日利亚普罗大众中的一员，
15:23
who were not supposed to be readers.
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一个本不应该读书的分子。
15:26
She had not only read the book, but she had taken ownership of it
324
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但她不仅仅是读了那本书，而且充满参与创作的欲望，
15:28
and felt justified in telling me
325
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并且觉得有足够的权力
15:31
what to write in the sequel.
326
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来告诉我在续集中要写些什么。
15:33
Now, what if my roommate knew about my friend Fumi Onda,
327
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我的朋友Fumi Onda是个无畏的女人，
15:37
a fearless woman who hosts a TV show in Lagos,
328
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她在拉各斯主持一档电视节目，旨在揭露那些被掩埋的故事，
15:40
and is determined to tell the stories that we prefer to forget?
329
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如果的室友听说过她，一切会变得不同吗？
15:43
What if my roommate knew about the heart procedure
330
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如果我的室友听说过上周在拉各斯医院进行的心脏手术，
15:47
that was performed in the Lagos hospital last week?
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一切会变得不同吗？
15:50
What if my roommate knew about contemporary Nigerian music,
332
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如果我的室友听说过尼日利亚的当代音乐呢？
15:54
talented people singing in English and Pidgin,
333
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3000
极富才能的人们用英语、皮钦语、
15:57
and Igbo and Yoruba and Ijo,
334
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2000
伊博语、约鲁巴语和伊乔语演唱，
15:59
mixing influences from Jay-Z to Fela
335
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4000
将杰斯、费拉、鲍勃·马利以及
16:03
to Bob Marley to their grandfathers.
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他们祖父们的音乐混杂在一起。
16:06
What if my roommate knew about the female lawyer
337
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最近有一名女律师
16:08
who recently went to court in Nigeria
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在尼日利亚的法庭上挑战一条极其不可思议的法案──
16:10
to challenge a ridiculous law
339
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妇女必须经过她们老公的许可
16:12
that required women to get their husband's consent
340
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才可以更新她们的护照，
16:15
before renewing their passports?
341
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如果我的室友听说过她，结果会怎样呢？
16:18
What if my roommate knew about Nollywood,
342
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如果我的室友听说过“尼莱坞”以及那些
16:21
full of innovative people making films despite great technical odds,
343
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冲破技术上的缺陷，不断地创作影视作品的创新者呢？
16:25
films so popular
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他们制作的电影在本地极其流行，
16:27
that they really are the best example
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是尼日利亚人自给自足的
16:29
of Nigerians consuming what they produce?
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最佳例子。
16:32
What if my roommate knew about my wonderfully ambitious hair braider,
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给我辫辫子的朋友最近刚刚成了自己的事业，开始售卖她的接发片，
16:35
who has just started her own business selling hair extensions?
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如果我的室友听说过她，结果会怎样呢？
16:39
Or about the millions of other Nigerians
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或者是其他数以百万的尼日利亚人，创办自己的产业，
16:41
who start businesses and sometimes fail,
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虽然难免失利，但却不曾放弃雄心，
16:43
but continue to nurse ambition?
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如果我的室友听说过他们，又会怎样呢？
16:47
Every time I am home I am confronted with
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我每次回家的时候，都会面临
16:49
the usual sources of irritation for most Nigerians:
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那些令众多尼日利亚人头疼的事情：
16:52
our failed infrastructure, our failed government,
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失败的基础设施，失败的政府。
16:55
but also by the incredible resilience of people who
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但与此同时，我也看到了人们面对这个政府
16:58
thrive despite the government,
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所展现出的坚韧不拔，
17:01
rather than because of it.
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而不是被它给击垮。
17:03
I teach writing workshops in Lagos every summer,
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每年夏天我都在拉各斯开办写作班。♪
17:06
and it is amazing to me how many people apply,
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都会被申请的人数震惊到，
17:09
how many people are eager to write,
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有这么多的人想要学习写作，
17:12
to tell stories.
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想要讲述他们的故事。
17:14
My Nigerian publisher and I have just started a non-profit
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我的尼日利亚出版商和我刚刚成立了个非营利性的组织
17:17
called Farafina Trust,
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叫做Farafina信托。
17:19
and we have big dreams of building libraries
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我们充满了伟大的梦想：我们想建造图书馆，
17:22
and refurbishing libraries that already exist
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并且重新装修已有的图书馆，
17:24
and providing books for state schools
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对于那些图书馆内空空如也的政府学校
17:27
that don't have anything in their libraries,
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我们会捐赠图书，
17:29
and also of organizing lots and lots of workshops,
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我们也会组织大量的阅读班、写作班
17:31
in reading and writing,
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来帮助那些
17:33
for all the people who are eager to tell our many stories.
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渴望讲述我们身上故事的人们。
17:36
Stories matter.
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故事很重要。
17:38
Many stories matter.
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多重性的故事很重要。
17:40
Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign,
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故事一直被用来剥夺、用来中伤。
17:44
but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize.
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但故事也可以赋予力量与人性化。
17:48
Stories can break the dignity of a people,
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故事可以击毁一个民族的尊严，
17:51
but stories can also repair that broken dignity.
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但也可以修补那被击毁的尊严。
17:56
The American writer Alice Walker wrote this
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美国作家Alice Walker曾写过
17:58
about her Southern relatives
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她那些搬迁至北方的
18:00
who had moved to the North.
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南方亲戚们。
18:02
She introduced them to a book about
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她为他们推荐了一本书，
18:04
the Southern life that they had left behind:
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一本关于他们已挥别的南方生活的书。
18:07
"They sat around, reading the book themselves,
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“他们团团坐在一起，读着这本书，
18:11
listening to me read the book, and a kind of paradise was regained."
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或是听我给他们读这本书，一种天堂因此而被重拾。”
18:17
I would like to end with this thought:
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我想以此来结束我的演讲：
18:20
That when we reject the single story,
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当我们拒绝单一的故事，
18:23
when we realize that there is never a single story
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当我们认识到任何地方
18:26
about any place,
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都没有单一的故事时，
18:28
we regain a kind of paradise.
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我们将重拾一份天堂。
18:30
Thank you.
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谢谢。
18:32
(Applause)
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（掌声）
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - NovelistInspired by Nigerian history and tragedies all but forgotten by recent generations of westerners, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novels and stories are jewels in the crown of diasporan literature.
Why you should listen
In Nigeria, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel Half of a Yellow Sun has helped inspire new, cross-generational communication about the Biafran war. In this and in her other works, she seeks to instill dignity into the finest details of each character, whether poor, middle class or rich, exposing along the way the deep scars of colonialism in the African landscape.
Adichie's newest book, The Thing Around Your Neck, is a brilliant collection of stories about Nigerians struggling to cope with a corrupted context in their home country, and about the Nigerian immigrant experience.
Adichie builds on the literary tradition of Igbo literary giant Chinua Achebe—and when she found out that Achebe liked Half of a Yellow Sun, she says she cried for a whole day. What he said about her rings true: “We do not usually associate wisdom with beginners, but here is a new writer endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers.”
(Photo: Wani Olatunde)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | Speaker | TED.com