June 2013
Beginner
368 pages
10h 8m
English
Nigerians do not know how to use a stove.
They cannot speak English. They listen to “tribal music.” And they are in need of saving from themselves—their poverty, “senseless wars,” and scourges such as AIDS.
In a public talk in 2009, Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie recounted that, years before, her American college roommate actually believed these and many other falsities about her and her African homeland.
“She had felt sorry for me even before she saw me,” said Adichie. “Her default position toward me as an African was a kind of patronizing, well-meaning pity.”
Why? From Adichie's perspective, it is ...
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