Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story | TED

Prevodilac: Sandra Gojic Lektor: Ivana Korom

I'm a storyteller.

Ja sam pripovedač.

And I would like to tell you a few personal stories

I želela bih da vam ispričam nekoliko ličnih priča

about what I like to call "the danger of the single story."

o nečemu što volim da zovem "opasnost pojedinačne priče".

I grew up on a university campus in eastern Nigeria.

Odrasla sam u univerzitetskom kampusu u istočnoj Nigeriji.

My mother says that I started reading at the age of two,

Moja majka tvrdi da sam počela da čitam sa dve godine,

although I think four is probably close to the truth.

iako ja mislim da je to verovatnije bilo sa 4.

So I was an early reader,

Dakle, rano sam počela da čitam. A čitala sam

and what I read were British and American children's books.

britanske i američke knjige za decu.

I was also an early writer,

Isto tako, počela sam rano i da pišem.

and when I began to write, at about the age of seven,

A kad sam počela da pišem, negde oko sedme godine,

stories in pencil with crayon illustrations

priče pisane olovkom i ilustrovane bojicama,

that my poor mother was obligated to read,

koje je moja jadna majka imala obavezu da čita,

I wrote exactly the kinds of stories I was reading:

pisala sam upravo onakve priče kakve sam i čitala.

All my characters were white and blue-eyed,

Svi moji likovi su bili beli i plavooki.

they played in the snow,

Igrali su se u snegu.

they ate apples,

Jeli su jabuke.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

and they talked a lot about the weather,

I mnogo su razgovarali o vremenu,

how lovely it was that the sun had come out.

kako je bilo lepo što je izašlo sunce.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

Now, this despite the fact that I lived in Nigeria.

Sad, ovo je uprkos činjenici da sam živela u Nigeriji.

I had never been outside Nigeria.

Nikada nisam bila izvan Nigerije.

We didn't have snow, we ate mangoes,

Nismo imali sneg. Jeli smo mango.

and we never talked about the weather,

I nikada nismo govorili o vremenu,

because there was no need to.

jer nije bio potrebe za tim.

My characters also drank a lot of ginger beer,

Moji likovi su takođe pili mnogo piva od đumbira,

because the characters in the British books I read

jer su likovi u britanskim knjigama koje sam čitala

drank ginger beer.

pili pivo od đumbira.

Never mind that I had no idea what ginger beer was.

Nije bilo važno što nisam imala pojma šta je pivo od đumbira.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

And for many years afterwards,

I mnogo godina nakon toga, ja sam imala očajničku želju

I would have a desperate desire to taste ginger beer.

da probam pivo od đumbira.

But that is another story.

Ali to je druga priča.

What this demonstrates, I think,

Mislim da ovo pokazuje

is how impressionable and vulnerable we are

kako smo ranjivi i impresionirani

in the face of a story,

pred nekom pričom

particularly as children.

naročito kao deca.

Because all I had read were books in which characters were foreign,

Jer jedino što sam čitala bile su knjige

gde su likovi bili stranci.

I had become convinced that books

Postala sam ubeđena da knjige,

by their very nature had to have foreigners in them

po svojoj prirodi, moraju da imaju strance u sebi,

and had to be about things with which I could not personally identify.

i da moraju su da budu o stvarima sa kojima

lično nisam mogla da se identifikujem.

Now, things changed when I discovered African books.

E sad, stvari su se promenile kad sam otkrila afričke knjige.

There weren't many of them available,

Nije bilo mnogo dostupnih. I nisu bile

and they weren't quite as easy to find as the foreign books.

tako lake za pronaći, poput stranih knjiga.

Ali zbog pisaca poput Ćinua Aćibe i Kamara Laje

But because of writers like Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye,

I went through a mental shift in my perception of literature.

prošla sam kroz mentalni pomak u mojoj percepciji

književnosti.

I realized that people like me,

Shvatila sam da ljudi poput mene,

girls with skin the color of chocolate,

devojke sa kožom boje čokolade,

whose kinky hair could not form ponytails,

čija kovrdžava kosa nije mogla da se veže u konjski rep,

could also exist in literature.

takođe mogu da postoje u književnosti.

I started to write about things I recognized.

Počela sam da pišem o stvarima koje sam mogla da prepoznam.

Now, I loved those American and British books I read.

Volela sam te američke i britanske knjige koje sam pročitala.

They stirred my imagination. They opened up new worlds for me.

One su pokrenule moju maštu. Otvorile su nove svetove za mene.

But the unintended consequence

Ali nenamerna posledica

was that I did not know that people like me

je da nisam znala da ljudi poput mene

could exist in literature.

mogu da postoje u literaturi.

So what the discovery of African writers did for me was this:

Tako da je otkriće afričkih pisaca učinilo sledeće za mene:

It saved me from having a single story of what books are.

spasilo me je od imanja samo jedne priče

o tome šta su knjige.

I come from a conventional, middle-class Nigerian family.

Potičem iz konvencionalne nigerijske porodice, srednje klase.

My father was a professor.

Moj otac je bio profesor.

My mother was an administrator.

Moja majka administrativni radnik.

And so we had, as was the norm,

Tako da smo imali, jer tako su norme nalagale,

live-in domestic help, who would often come from nearby rural villages.

osoblje, koje je živelo sa nama u kući, a dolazilo je iz susednih ruralnih sela.

So, the year I turned eight, we got a new house boy.

Te godine kada sam napunila osam, stigao nam je novi dečak na ispomoć.

His name was Fide.

Njegovo ime je bilo Fide.

The only thing my mother told us about him was that his family was very poor.

Jedina stvar koju nam je majka o njemu rekla

jeste da je njegova porodica veoma siromašna.

My mother sent yams and rice, and our old clothes, to his family.

Moja majka je poslala povrće i pirinač,

i našu staru odeću njegovoj porodici.

And when I didn't finish my dinner, my mother would say,

I kada ne bih završila svoju večeru, majka bi rekla,

"Finish your food! Don't you know? People like Fide's family have nothing."

"Pojedi svoju večeru! Zar ne znaš? Ljudi poput Fideove porodice nemaju ništa."

So I felt enormous pity for Fide's family.

Tako da sam užasno sažaljevala Fideovu porodicu.

Then one Saturday, we went to his village to visit,

Onda, jedne subote, otišli smo do njegovog sela u posetu.

and his mother showed us a beautifully patterned basket

I njegova majka mi je pokazala divno išaranu korpu

made of dyed raffia that his brother had made.

napravljenu od obojene palme, koju je njegov brat napravio.

I was startled.

Trgla sam se.

It had not occurred to me that anybody in his family

Nije mi palo na pamet da bi bilo ko u njegovoj porodici

could actually make something.

mogao nešto da napravi.

All I had heard about them was how poor they were,

Sve što sam čula o njima, jeste koliko su oni siromašni,

so that it had become impossible for me to see them as anything else but poor.

tako da je postalo nemoguće za mene da ih vidim

drugačije nego siromašne.

Their poverty was my single story of them.

Ovo siromaštvo je bila moja pojedinačna priča o njima.

Years later, I thought about this when I left Nigeria

Godinama kasnije kada sam napustila Nigeriju, da bih studirala u Americi,

to go to university in the United States.

razmišljala sam o tome.

I was 19.

Imala sam 19 godina.

My American roommate was shocked by me.

Moja američka cimerka je bila šokirana mnome.

She asked where I had learned to speak English so well,

Pitala me je gde sam naučila engleski tako dobro,

and was confused when I said that Nigeria

i bila je zbunjena kada sam joj rekla da Nigerija

happened to have English as its official language.

slučajno ima engleski kao zvanični jezik.

She asked if she could listen to what she called my "tribal music,"

Pitala me je da li može da čuje moju "plemensku muziku" - kako ju je nazvala

and was consequently very disappointed

i bila je posledično veoma razočarana

when I produced my tape of Mariah Carey.

kada sam joj pustila moju Maraja Keri kasetu.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

She assumed that I did not know how to use a stove.

Pretpostavila je da ne znam

da koristim štednjak.

What struck me was this:

Ono što me pogodilo je sledeće: Sažaljevala me je

She had felt sorry for me even before she saw me.

i pre nego što me je upoznala.

Her default position toward me, as an African,

Njen podrazumevani stav prema meni, kao Afrikanki,

was a kind of patronizing, well-meaning pity.

bio je starateljski, dobronamerni i sažaljevajući.

My roommate had a single story of Africa:

Moja cimerka je imala pojedinačnu priču o Africi.

a single story of catastrophe.

Pojedinačnu priču katastrofe.

In this single story,

U ovoj pojedinačnoj priči nije bilo šanse

there was no possibility of Africans being similar to her in any way,

da afrikanci liče na nju, na bilo koji način.

no possibility of feelings more complex than pity,

Nema mogućnosti za osećanja složenija od sažaljenja.

no possibility of a connection as human equals.

Nema mogućnosti za povezivanje kao ravnopravnih pojedinaca.

I must say that before I went to the U.S.,

Moram da kažem da se pre odlaska u SAD nisam

I didn't consciously identify as African.

svesno identifikovala kao Afrikanka.

But in the U.S., whenever Africa came up, people turned to me.

Ali u Sjedinjenim Državama, kad god se spomenula Afrika, ljudi su se okretali meni.

Never mind that I knew nothing about places like Namibia.

Nema veze što ništa nisam znala o mestima poput Namibije.

But I did come to embrace this new identity,

Ali sam došla do toga da prihvatim ovaj identitet.

and in many ways I think of myself now as African.

I na mnogo načina sada mislim o sebi kao o Afrikanki.

Although I still get quite irritable when Africa is referred to as a country,

Mada se još uvek prilično uznemirim kada

Afriku pominju kao zemlju.

the most recent example being my otherwise wonderful flight

Najnoviji primer je moj inače divan let

from Lagos two days ago,

iz Lagosa pre dva dana, gde je

in which there was an announcement on the Virgin flight

na Virdžin letu najavljen

about the charity work in "India, Africa and other countries."

humanitarni rad u "Indiji, Africi i drugim zemljama."

(Laughter)

(smeh)

So, after I had spent some years in the U.S. as an African,

Nakon što sam provela nekoliko godina u Sjedinjenim Državama kao Afrikanka,

I began to understand my roommate's response to me.

počela sam da razumevam kako me je cimerka doživela.

If I had not grown up in Nigeria,

Da nisam odrasla u Nigeriji i da sve što znam o Africi

and if all I knew about Africa were from popular images,

dolazi od popularnih slika,

I too would think that Africa was a place of beautiful landscapes,

i ja bih mislila o Africi kao o mestu

prelepih panorama, prelepih životinja,

beautiful animals,

and incomprehensible people,

i neshvatljivih ljudi,

fighting senseless wars, dying of poverty and AIDS,

koji vode besmislene ratove, umiru od siromaštva i SIDE,

unable to speak for themselves

nisu u stanju da govore u svoje ime,

and waiting to be saved by a kind, white foreigner.

i čekaju da ih spase

dobri, beli stranac.

I would see Africans in the same way that I,

Videla bih afrički narod na isti način na koji sam ja,

as a child, had seen Fide's family.

kao dete, videla Fideovu porodicu.

This single story of Africa ultimately comes, I think, from Western literature.

Ova priča dolazi, bar mislim, iz Zapadne literature.

Now, here is a quote from the writing of a London merchant called John Lok,

Ovo je citat iz

pisanja londonskog trgovca, Džona Loka,

who sailed to west Africa in 1561

koji je plovio prema zapadnoj Africi 1561.

and kept a fascinating account of his voyage.

i vodio fascinantan dnevnik svog putovanja.

After referring to the black Africans as "beasts who have no houses,"

Nakon što govori o crnim Afrikancima

kao o "zverima koje nemaju kuću",

he writes, "They are also people without heads,

on piše, "Oni su takođe ljudi bez glava,

having their mouth and eyes in their breasts."

sa ustima i očima na grudima."

Now, I've laughed every time I've read this.

E sad, smejala sam se svaki put kad bih ovo pročitala.

And one must admire the imagination of John Lok.

I moramo se diviti mašti Džona Loka.

But what is important about his writing

Ali ono što je važno u vezi sa ovim, jeste

is that it represents the beginning

da to predstavlja početak

of a tradition of telling African stories in the West:

tradicije zapadnjačkog pričanja afričkih priča.

A tradition of Sub-Saharan Africa as a place of negatives,

Tradiciju sub-saharske Afrike kao negativnog mesta,

of difference, of darkness,

različitog, mračnog,

of people who, in the words of the wonderful poet Rudyard Kipling,

sa ljudima koji, po rečima divnog pesnika,

Radjarda Kiplinga,

are "half devil, half child."

su "pola đavo, pola dete".

And so, I began to realize that my American roommate

Tako da sam počela da shvatam da je moja američka cimerka

must have throughout her life

morala tokom svog života

seen and heard different versions of this single story,

videti i čuti različite verzije

ove jedne priče,

as had a professor,

poput profesora,

who once told me that my novel was not "authentically African."

koji mi je jedanput rekao da moj roman nije bio "autentično afrički".

Now, I was quite willing to contend

Bila sam prilično voljna da tvrdim da je bilo mnogo stvari u knjizi

that there were a number of things wrong with the novel,

koje su bile pogrešne,

that it had failed in a number of places,

da je podbacila na mnogo mesta.

but I had not quite imagined that it had failed

Ali nisam mogla da zamislim da nije uspela

at achieving something called African authenticity.

da dostigne nešto što se zove afrička autentičnost.

In fact, I did not know what African authenticity was.

Ustvari, ja nisam znala šta je

to afrička autentičnost.

The professor told me that my characters were too much like him,

Profesor mi je rekao da moji likovi

previše podsećaju na njega,

an educated and middle-class man.

obrazovanog čoveka iz srednje klase.

My characters drove cars.

Moji likovi su vozili kola.

They were not starving.

Nisu bili izgladneli.

Therefore they were not authentically African.

Prema tome, nisu bili autentično afrički.

But I must quickly add that I too am just as guilty

Ali moram brzo da dodam da sam i ja kriva

in the question of the single story.

kada je u pitanju jedna priča.

A few years ago, I visited Mexico from the U.S.

Pre nekoliko godina, otišla sam iz Amerike u posetu Meksiku.

The political climate in the U.S. at the time was tense,

Politička klima u Americi, u to vreme, je bila napeta.

and there were debates going on about immigration.

I postojale su debate u vezi sa imigracijom.

And, as often happens in America,

I kao što to često biva u Americi,

immigration became synonymous with Mexicans.

imigracija je postala sinonim za Meksikance.

There were endless stories of Mexicans

Nije bilo kraja pričama o Meksikancima

as people who were fleecing the healthcare system,

kao o ljudima koji

potkradaju zdravstveni sistem,

sneaking across the border,

koji se šunjaju preko granica,

being arrested at the border, that sort of thing.

bivaju uhapšeni na granicama, takve stvari.

I remember walking around on my first day in Guadalajara,

Sećam se svoje prve šetnje kroz Gvadalaharu,

watching the people going to work,

gledala sam mlade ljude kako idu na posao,

rolling up tortillas in the marketplace,

zavijaju tortilje na pijaci,

smoking, laughing.

puše, smeju se.

I remember first feeling slight surprise.

Sećam se da je prvi utisak bio malo iznenađujuć.

And then, I was overwhelmed with shame.

A onda sam bila preplavljena sramom.

I realized that I had been so immersed in the media coverage of Mexicans

Shvatila sam da sam toliko utonula

u medijsku priču o Meksikancima

that they had become one thing in my mind,

da su oni postali jedna stvar u mojim mislima,

the abject immigrant.

bedni imigranti.

I had bought into the single story of Mexicans

Prihvatila sam jednu priču o Meksikancima

and I could not have been more ashamed of myself.

i mnogo sam se stidela same sebe.

So that is how to create a single story,

Dakle tako kreirate jednu priču,

show a people as one thing,

pokažete neki narod kao jednu stvar,

as only one thing,

samo jednu,

over and over again,

iznova i iznova

and that is what they become.

i oni to i postanu.

It is impossible to talk about the single story

Nemoguće je govoriti o pojedinačnoj priči,

without talking about power.

bez spominjanja moći.

There is a word, an Igbo word,

Postoji reč, Igbo reč,

that I think about whenever I think about the power structures of the world,

o kojoj mislim svaki put kada razmišljam o

strukturi moći u svetu, a to je "nkali."

and it is "nkali."

It's a noun that loosely translates to "to be greater than another."

To je imenica koja u slobodnom prevodu

znači "biti veći od onog drugog."

Like our economic and political worlds,

Poput naših ekonomskih i političkih svetova,

stories too are defined by the principle of nkali:

i priče su definisane

"nkali" principom.

How they are told, who tells them,

Kako su ispričane, ko ih je ispričao,

when they're told, how many stories are told,

gde su ispričane, koliko je priča ispričano,

are really dependent on power.

ustvari zavisi od moći.

Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person,

Moć je sposobnost ne samo da ispričate priču o drugoj osobi,

but to make it the definitive story of that person.

već i da je načinite isključivom pričom o toj osobi.

The Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti writes

Palestinski pesnik Murid Bargoti piše

that if you want to dispossess a people,

da ukoliko želite da iselite ljude,

the simplest way to do it is to tell their story

najjednostavniji način je da ispričate njihovu priču,

and to start with, "secondly."

i da počnete sa, "drugo".

Start the story with the arrows of the Native Americans,

Počnite priču sa strelama američkih urođenika,

and not with the arrival of the British,

a ne sa dolaskom Britanaca,

and you have an entirely different story.

i imate potpuno drugačiju priču.

Start the story with the failure of the African state,

Počnite priču sa

neuspehom afričke države,

and not with the colonial creation of the African state,

a ne sa kolonijalnim stvaranjem afričke države,

and you have an entirely different story.

i imate potpuno drugu priču.

I recently spoke at a university

Nedavno sam govorila na univerzitetu gde

where a student told me that it was such a shame

mi je student rekao kako

je sramotno

that Nigerian men were physical abusers

što su nigerijski muškarci fizički zlostavljači

like the father character in my novel.

poput lika oca u mojoj knjizi.

I told him that I had just read a novel called "American Psycho" --

Rekla sam mu da sam upravo pročitala knjigu

"Američki psiho" -

(Laughter)

(smeh)

-- and that it was such a shame

i da je prava šteta

that young Americans were serial murderers.

to što su mladi amerikanci serijske ubice.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

(Applause)

(aplauz)

Now, obviously I said this in a fit of mild irritation.

Očigledno sam nastupila iz pozicije blage iritiranosti.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

But it would never have occurred to me to think

Ne bi mi nikada palo na pamet da pomislim

that just because I had read a novel in which a character was a serial killer

da samo zato što sam pročitala knjigu

u kojoj je lik bio serijski ubica

that he was somehow representative of all Americans.

da je on nekako predstavnik

svih Amerikanaca.

This is not because I am a better person than that student,

E sad, to nije zato što sam bolja osoba od tog studenta,

but because of America's cultural and economic power,

već zbog američke kulturne i ekonomske moći,

I had many stories of America.

imala sam mnogo priča o Americi.

I had read Tyler and Updike and Steinbeck and Gaitskill.

Pročitala sam Taljera i Apdajka i Stajnbeka i Gejtskila.

I did not have a single story of America.

Nisam imala jednu priču o Americi.

When I learned, some years ago,

Kada sam naučila, pre nekoliko godina, da se od pisaca očekuje

that writers were expected to have had really unhappy childhoods

da imaju zaista nesrećno detinjstvo

to be successful,

da bi bili uspešni,

I began to think about how I could invent horrible things my parents had done to me.

počela sam da razmišljam kako bih mogla da izmislim

strašne stvari koje su mi roditelji radili.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

But the truth is that I had a very happy childhood,

Ali istina je da sam imala veoma srećno detinjstvo,

full of laughter and love, in a very close-knit family.

puno smeha i ljubavi, u veoma bliskoj porodici.

But I also had grandfathers who died in refugee camps.

Ali sam takođe imala dede koji su umrli u izbegličkim kampovima.

My cousin Polle died because he could not get adequate healthcare.

Moj rođak Poli je umro zato što nije mogao da dobije odgovarajuću negu.

One of my closest friends, Okoloma, died in a plane crash

Jedna od mojih najbližih prijateljica, Okoloma, umrla je u avionskoj nesreći

because our fire trucks did not have water.

zato što naša vatrogasna kola nisu imala vodu.

I grew up under repressive military governments

Odrasla sam pod represivnim vojnim vladama

that devalued education,

koje su obezvredile obrazovanje,

so that sometimes, my parents were not paid their salaries.

tako da moji roditelji nekad nisu dobijali svoje plate.

And so, as a child, I saw jam disappear from the breakfast table,

Tako da sam, kao dete, videla kako džem nestaje sa stola za ručavanje,

then margarine disappeared,

onda kako margarin nestaje,

then bread became too expensive,

kako hleb postaje previše skup,

then milk became rationed.

kako mleko počinje da se deli u porcijama.

And most of all, a kind of normalized political fear

Ali najviše od svega, neka vrsta normalizovanog političkog straha

invaded our lives.

izvršila je invaziju na naše živote.

All of these stories make me who I am.

Sve ove priče me čine onim što sam.

But to insist on only these negative stories

Ali insistirati samo na ovim negativnim pričama

is to flatten my experience

značilo bi izravnati moje iskustvo,

and to overlook the many other stories that formed me.

i preći preko mnogih drugih priča

koje su me oblikovale.

The single story creates stereotypes,

Jedna priča stvara stereotipe.

and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue,

A problem sa stereotipima

nije to što su neistiniti,

but that they are incomplete.

nego što su nepotpuni.

They make one story become the only story.

Oni čine da jedna priča postane jedina priča.

Of course, Africa is a continent full of catastrophes:

Naravno, Afrika je kontinent prepun katastrofa.

There are immense ones, such as the horrific rapes in Congo

Postoje one ogromne, poput strašnih silovanja u Kongu.

and depressing ones,

I depresivne, poput činjenice da

such as the fact that 5,000 people apply for one job vacancy in Nigeria.

5 000 ljudi konkuriše za jedan posao u Nigeriji.

But there are other stories that are not about catastrophe,

Ali postoje druge priče koje nemaju veze sa katastrofom.

and it is very important, it is just as important, to talk about them.

I veoma je važno, jednako je važno, da govorimo o njima.

I've always felt that it is impossible

Uvek sam osećala da je nemoguće

to engage properly with a place or a person

povezati se na pravi način sa mestom ili osobom

without engaging with all of the stories of that place and that person.

bez povezivanja svih priča tog mesta i te osobe.

The consequence of the single story is this:

Posledica pojedinačne priče

It robs people of dignity.

je sledeća: oduzima ljudima dostojanstvo.

It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult.

Otežava priznavanje jednakog čovečanstva.

It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar.

Ističe kako smo različiti

pre nego koliko smo slični.

So what if before my Mexican trip,

Šta da sam pre mog puta za Meksiko

I had followed the immigration debate from both sides,

pratila debate o imigrantima sa obe strane,

the U.S. and the Mexican?

SAD-a i Meksika?

What if my mother had told us that Fide's family was poor

Šta da nam je moja majka rekla da je Fideova porodica siromašna

and hardworking?

i vredna?

What if we had an African television network

Šta da smo imali afričku televizijsku mrežu

that broadcast diverse African stories all over the world?

koja je emitovala različite afričke priče širom sveta?

What the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe calls "a balance of stories."

Ono što nigerijski pisac Činua Ačebe naziva

"ravnoteža pirča".

What if my roommate knew about my Nigerian publisher,

Šta da je moja cimerka znala o mom nigerijskom izdavaču

Muhtar Bakare,

Mukti Bakaraju,

a remarkable man who left his job in a bank

izuzetnom čoveku koji je napustio svoj posao u banci

to follow his dream and start a publishing house?

kako bi pratio svoj san i otvorio izdavačku kuću?

Now, the conventional wisdom was that Nigerians don't read literature.

Sada, konvencionalno shvatanje je bilo da Nigerijci ne čitaju literaturu.

He disagreed.

On se nije slagao. Osetio je

He felt that people who could read, would read,

da ljudi koji mogu da čitaju, bi čitali,

if you made literature affordable and available to them.

ukoliko učinite da im literatura bude dostupna i da mogu da je priušte.

Shortly after he published my first novel,

Ubrzo nakon što je izdao moj prvi roman

I went to a TV station in Lagos to do an interview,

otišla sam u TV stanicu u Lagosu da uradim intervju.

and a woman who worked there as a messenger came up to me and said,

I žena koja je radila tamo kako kurir došla je do mene i rekla,

"I really liked your novel. I didn't like the ending.

"Zaista mi se dopao vaš roman. Nije mi se dopao kraj.

Now, you must write a sequel, and this is what will happen ..."

Sada morate da napišete nastavak i evo šta će se dogoditi..."

(Laughter)

(smeh)

And she went on to tell me what to write in the sequel.

I nastavila je da mi govori šta da napišem u nastavku.

I was not only charmed, I was very moved.

Nisam bila samo očarana, već i pogođena.

Here was a woman, part of the ordinary masses of Nigerians,

Ovde je bila žena, deo obične nigerijske mase,

who were not supposed to be readers.

koja nije trebala da bude čitalačka.

She had not only read the book,

Ona ne samo da je pročitala knjigu, već ju je prisvojila

but she had taken ownership of it

i osećala je pravo da mi kaže

and felt justified in telling me what to write in the sequel.

šta da napišem u nastavku.

Now, what if my roommate knew about my friend Funmi Iyanda,

E sad, šta da je moja cimerka znala za moju prijateljicu Fumi Onda,

a fearless woman who hosts a TV show in Lagos,

neustrašivu ženu koja je domaćin TV emisije u Lagosu,

and is determined to tell the stories that we prefer to forget?

i odlučna je da ispriča priče koje mi volimo da zaboravljamo?

What if my roommate knew about the heart procedure

Šta da je moja cimerka znala za operaciju srca

that was performed in the Lagos hospital last week?

koja je izvedena u bonici u Lagosu prošle nedelje?

What if my roommate knew about contemporary Nigerian music,

Šta da je moja cimerka znala za savremenu nigerijsku muziku?

talented people singing in English and Pidgin,

Talentovani ljudi koji pevaju na engleskom i pidžinu

and Igbo and Yoruba and Ijo,

i na lgbou i jorubanskom i Ijou,

mixing influences from Jay-Z to Fela

mešajući uticaje od Džej Zija do Fela

to Bob Marley to their grandfathers.

do Bob Marlija do njihovih deda.

What if my roommate knew about the female lawyer

Šta da je moja cimerka znala za ženu advokata

who recently went to court in Nigeria to challenge a ridiculous law

koja se nedavno pojavila na sudu u Nigeriji

kako bi raspravljala o smešnom zakonu

that required women to get their husband's consent

prema kojem žene moraju da dobiju saglasnot muža

before renewing their passports?

pre obnove pasoša?

What if my roommate knew about Nollywood,

Šta da je moja cimerka znala za Nolivud,

full of innovative people making films despite great technical odds,

prepun inovativnih ljudi koji prave filmove uprkos velikim tehničkim teškoćama?

films so popular

Filmove koji su toliko popularni

that they really are the best example of Nigerians consuming what they produce?

da su zaista najbolji primer

da nigerijci konzumiraju ono što proizvedu.

What if my roommate knew about my wonderfully ambitious hair braider,

Šta da je moja cimerka znala za moju divno ambicioznu frizerku

who has just started her own business selling hair extensions?

koja je upravo počela sopstveni biznis prodavanja umetaka za kosu?

Or about the millions of other Nigerians who start businesses and sometimes fail,

Ili za milione drugih Nigerijaca

koji započnu biznis i ponekad ne uspeju,

but continue to nurse ambition?

ali nastave da neguju svoju ambiciju?

Every time I am home I am confronted

Svaki put kad sam kod kuće suočavam se sa

with the usual sources of irritation for most Nigerians:

uobičajenim izvorom iritacije za većinu Nigerijaca:

our failed infrastructure, our failed government,

našom propalom infrastrukturom, našom propalom vladom.

but also by the incredible resilience

Ali i neverovatnom otpornošću ljudi koji

of people who thrive despite the government,

su napredovali uprkos vladi,

rather than because of it.

a ne zbog nje.

I teach writing workshops in Lagos every summer,

Svakog leta u Lagosu, dajem časove pisanja.

and it is amazing to me how many people apply,

I zapanjujuće je koliko ljudi se prijavljuje,

how many people are eager to write,

koliko ljudi je zainteresovano da piše,

to tell stories.

da ispriča priče.

My Nigerian publisher and I have just started a non-profit

Moj nigerijski izdavač i ja pokrenuli smo neprofitnu organizaciju

called Farafina Trust,

zvanu "Farafina Trust".

and we have big dreams of building libraries

I imamo velike snove o gradnji biblioteka

and refurbishing libraries that already exist

o renoviranju postojećih,

and providing books for state schools

i obezbeđivanju knjiga za državne škole

that don't have anything in their libraries,

koje nemaju ništa u svojim bibliotekama,

and also of organizing lots and lots of workshops,

i takođe o oragnizovanju mnogo radionica

in reading and writing,

pisanja i čitanja,

for all the people who are eager to tell our many stories.

za sve one ljude koji su zainteresovani da ispričaju naše mnogobrojne priče.

Stories matter.

Priče su važne.

Many stories matter.

Mnoge priče su važne.

Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign,

Priče su bile korišćene da oteraju ljude i da ih otruju.

but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize.

Ali priče mogu da se iskoriste da ojačaju i da humanizuju.

Stories can break the dignity of a people,

Priče mogu slomiti dostojanstvo ljudi.

but stories can also repair that broken dignity.

Ali priče takođe mogu da poprave to slomljeno dostojanstvo.

The American writer Alice Walker wrote this

Američka spisateljica Elis Voker napisala je ovo

about her Southern relatives who had moved to the North.

o svojim rođacima južnjacima

koji su se preselili na sever.

She introduced them to a book about

Predstavila im je knjigu o

the Southern life that they had left behind.

južnjačkom životu koji su ostavili iza sebe.

"They sat around, reading the book themselves,

"Sedeli su i sami čitali knjigu,

listening to me read the book, and a kind of paradise was regained."

slušali su mene kako čitam knjigu i nekakav raj je ponovo dostignut."

I would like to end with this thought:

Volela bih da završim sa sledećom misli:

That when we reject the single story,

Kada odbacimo jednu priču,

when we realize that there is never a single story

kada shvatimo da nikada ne postoji samo jedna priča

about any place,

o bilo kojem mestu,

we regain a kind of paradise.

mi ponovo stižemo do raja.

Thank you.

(Hvala vam)

(Applause)

(aplauz)