The dangers of a single story

A few days ago J and I were watching 'Coming to America'. Eddie Murphy's '88 movie that showcases an African prince from Zamunda traveling to America to find the woman of his dreams. If you haven't seen this original (since I am sure you'd have seen some hybrid Indian remake of this) please do. It's one of the few movies where you don't see Eddie going nuts with his performance – well, not as himself anyway. Once the movie ended, J said 'That was probably the first movie I've seen where Africa was shown to have rich people!' I agreed instantly. In all my experiences with Hollywood, most movies dealing with that continent have been of pain, despair, brutal cruelty, hunger and absolute human misery. We have seen such movies in shock and reflected upon how there is no end to the tragedies one man can inflict upon another. Be it 'Amistad', 'Blood Diamond', 'The Constant Gardener' or 'Hotel Rwanda' – despite their historic accuracy, these were stories that focused primarily on the negatives. A story we believed represented the entire African continent hence painting our imaginative minds instantly with a deep set stereotype. Why, even the more adventure based flicks like 'The Ghost and the Darkness' show hapless Tsavo residents fleeing in panic at the arrival of the two lions. How awful, we thought and moved on while placing a sympathetic eye on every African face thereafter feeling extremely sorry for them without even bothering to investigate their story – their individual story.

Incidentally, being the avid TED Talks viewer that I am, I happened to chance upon a talk given by noted Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie where she talks about what she refers to as 'the dangers of a single story'. She says one of the biggest problems in the world is the telling and retelling of these 'single stories' that focus so much on one singular aspect of a community or land, that it ends up becoming what or who the people from there are. She spoke of her experience of being overwhelmed with shame on visiting Mexico and finding a completely different aspect to the country than the 'America-crazy illegal immigrant public' that they're so often portrayed as, during the journey of her writing. The best quote of the video for me was – 'The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.'

These two incidents made me think back to my own brushes with stereotypes. In India, if there is no dearth for something, then it is this. Everyone has a set image of folks from each state – Sardars, Mallus, Gujjus, Biharis, Bongs and of course the crass generalization of every South Indian as 'Madrasi' – the list is endless. What then if we choose to read literature that attempts to break these set frames of people and who they truly are? How different would societies be if they weren't based purely on one story – that all consuming singular tale that sometimes tramples all possibilities for an alternative? How different would the cities in our minds be if we heard stories that didn't paint every wall in a house with the same color?

I must confess, now I cannot wait to read Adichie's novels and experience a totally new perspective of what is often, quite unfortunately, referred to as the 'dark continent'. I invite you to watch the video (link below) and, hopefully, find a new definition of that paradisaical light I now find myself thrilled by.