Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today. A good story can make or break a presentation, article, or conversation. Stories are the way to reach out to people and emotionally connect. In TED Global 2009, a program constructed by a roster of powerful speakers and performers to explore the substance of things that run unseen through our lives. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian writer of novels, short stories, and nonfiction who believes in the power of stories, gave a speech called “The Danger of a Single Story”. It was one of the top ten most-viewed TED talks of all time, where she talked about what happens when diverse and complex human beings and situations are reduced to a single narrative, a single story. When we judge a group of people by one person’s action, or when generalize a whole culture manners, habits and ethics by a single image and idea in our heads, a single story.
Adichie takes us through a series of her own life stories trying to illustrate and warn from the dangers of a single story. That hearing only a single story about a people or a nation leads to ignorance and critical cultural misunderstanding. And how a single story can deny some people from their humanity and complexity.