評論
打印
Of course, Africa is a continent full of catastrophes:
當然了，非洲大陸充滿了災難：
There are immense ones, such as the horrific rapes in Congo and depressing ones,
有的災難，比如剛果猖獗的強奸，是無比巨大的；
such as the fact that 5,000 people apply for one job vacancy in Nigeria.
而有的現實，比如尼日利亞5千人申請一個工作職位，則更讓人無比的壓抑。
But there are other stories that are not about catastrophe,
但與此同時，非洲大陸也有許多和災難不相關的故事。
and it is very important, it is just as important, to talk about them.
談論這些故事也是相當重要的，也是同等重要的。
I've always felt that it is impossible to engage properly with a place or a person without engaging with all of the stories of that place and that person.
我一直都覺得，要想充分理解一個地區、一個民族，就必須充分理解和那個地區、那個民族相關的所有故事。
The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity.
而單一故事的結果就是：它奪走了人們的尊嚴。
It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult.
它使得我們難以意識到人與人之間的平等。
It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar.
它強調我們之間的不同，而不是我們之間的相同。
So what if before my Mexican trip, I had followed the immigration debate from both sides, the U.S. and the Mexican?
如果在我的墨西哥之行開始前，我去同時聆聽移民辯論美墨兩邊的論點，結果會是怎樣呢？
What if my mother had told us that Fide's family was poor and hardworking?
如果我的母親告訴我們Fide一家雖然窮，但是很努力，結果會是怎樣呢？
What if we had an African television network that broadcast diverse African stories all over the world?
如果我們有一個非洲電視臺在全世界播報關于非洲的不同故事，結果會是怎樣呢？
What the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe calls "a balance of stories."
播報尼日利亞作家奇努阿·阿契貝所謂的“平衡的故事”。
What if my roommate knew about my Nigerian publisher, Muhtar Bakare,
如果我的室友聽說過尼日利亞出版商Mukta Bakaray，
a remarkable man who left his job in a bank to follow his dream and start a publishing house?
一個杰出的男人，他離棄了原本在銀行的工作，去追逐自己的理想，成立了個出版社，結果又會是怎樣呢？
Now, the conventional wisdom was that Nigerians don't read literature. He disagreed.
世俗告訴Mukta Bakaray：尼日利亞人是不讀文學作品的。他不這樣認為。
He felt that people who could read, would read, if you made literature affordable and available to them.
他覺得尼日利亞人會讀書、想讀書，但前提是這些書價格不能太昂貴，并且要普及到人民大眾。
