WEBVTT

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So earlier this year,

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I was informed that I would be
doing a TED Talk.

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So I was excited, then I panicked,

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then I was excited, then I panicked,

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and in between the excitement
and the panicking,

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I started to do my research,

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and my research primarily consisted
of Googling how to give a great TED Talk.

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(Laughter)

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And interspersed with that,

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I was Googling Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

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How many of you know who that is?

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(Cheers)

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So I was Googling her
because I always Google her

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because I'm just a fan,

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but also because she always has
important and interesting things to say.

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And the combination of those searches

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kept leading me to her talk

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on the dangers of a single story,

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on what happens
when we have a solitary lens

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through which to understand
certain groups of people,

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and it is the perfect talk.

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It's the talk that I would have given
if I had been famous first.

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(Laughter)

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You know, and you know,
like, she's African and I'm African,

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and she's a feminist and I'm a feminist,

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and she's a storyteller
and I'm a storyteller,

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so I really felt like it's my talk.

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(Laughter)

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So I decided that I was going
to learn how to code,

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and then I was going to hack the internet

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and I would take down all the copies
of that talk that existed,

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and then I would memorize it,

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and then I would come here
and deliver it as if it was my own speech.

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So that plan was going really well,
except the coding part,

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and then one morning a few months ago,

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I woke up

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to the news that the wife
of a certain presidential candidate

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had given a speech that --

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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that sounded eerily like a speech
given by one of my other faves,

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Michelle Obama.

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(Cheers)

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And so I decided that I should
probably write my own TED Talk,

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and so that is what I am here to do.

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I'm here to talk about
my own observations about storytelling.

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I want to talk to you
about the power of stories, of course,

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but I also want to talk
about their limitations,

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particularly for those of us
who are interested in social justice.

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So since Adichie gave that talk
seven years ago,

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there has been a boom in storytelling.

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Stories are everywhere,

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and if there was a danger
in the telling of one tired old tale,

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then I think there has got to be
lots to celebrate about the flourishing

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of so many stories and so many voices.

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Stories are the antidote to bias.

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In fact, today, if you are middle class
and connected via the internet,

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you can download stories
at the touch of a button

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or the swipe of a screen.

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You can listen to a podcast

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about what it's like
to grow up Dalit in Kolkata.

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You can hear an indigenous
man in Australia

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talk about the trials and triumphs
of raising his children in dignity

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and in pride.

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Stories make us fall in love.

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They heal rifts and they bridge divides.

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Stories can even make it easier for us

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to talk about the deaths
of people in our societies

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who don't matter,
because they make us care.

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Right?

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I'm not so sure,

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and I actually work for a place
called the Centre for Stories.

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And my job is to help to tell stories

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that challenge mainstream narratives
about what it means to be black

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or a Muslim or a refugee
or any of those other categories

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that we talk about all the time.

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But I come to this work

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after a long history
as a social justice activist,

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and so I'm really interested in the ways

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that people talk
about nonfiction storytelling

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as though it's about
more than entertainment,

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as though it's about being
a catalyst for social action.

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It's not uncommon to hear people say

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that stories make
the world a better place.

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Increasingly, though, I worry
that even the most poignant stories,

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particularly the stories about people
who no one seems to care about,

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can often get in the way
of action towards social justice.

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Now, this is not because
storytellers mean any harm.

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Quite the contrary.

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Storytellers are often do-gooders
like me and, I suspect, yourselves.

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And the audiences of storytellers

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are often deeply compassionate
and empathetic people.

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Still, good intentions
can have unintended consequences,

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and so I want to propose that stories
are not as magical as they seem.

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So three -- because
it's always got to be three --

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three reasons why I think

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that stories don't necessarily
make the world a better place.

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Firstly, stories can create
an illusion of solidarity.

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There is nothing
like that feel-good factor you get

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from listening to a fantastic story

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where you feel like you
climbed that mountain, right,

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or that you befriended
that death row inmate.

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But you didn't.

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You haven't done anything.

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Listening is an important

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but insufficient step
towards social action.

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Secondly, I think often we are drawn

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towards characters and protagonists

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who are likable and human.

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And this makes sense, of course, right?

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Because if you like someone,
then you care about them.

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But the inverse is also true.

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If you don't like someone,

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then you don't care about them.

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And if you don't care about them,

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you don't have to see yourself
as having a moral obligation

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to think about the circumstances
that shaped their lives.

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I learned this lesson
when I was 14 years old.

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I learned that actually,
you don't have to like someone

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to recognize their wisdom,

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and you certainly
don't have to like someone

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to take a stand by their side.

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So my bike was stolen

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while I was riding it --

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(Laughter)

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which is possible if you're
riding slowly enough, which I was.

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(Laughter)

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So one minute
I'm cutting across this field

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in the Nairobi neighborhood
where I grew up,

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and it's like a very bumpy path,

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and so when you're riding a bike,

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you don't want to be like, you know --

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(Laughter)

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And so I'm going like this,
slowly pedaling,

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and all of a sudden, I'm on the floor.

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I'm on the ground, and I look up,

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and there's this kid peddling away
in the getaway vehicle,

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which is my bike,

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and he's about 11 or 12 years old,
and I'm on the floor,

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and I'm crying because I saved
a lot of money for that bike,

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and I'm crying and I stand up
and I start screaming.

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Instinct steps in,
and I start screaming, "Mwizi, mwizi!"

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which means "thief" in Swahili.

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And out of the woodworks,
all of these people come out

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and they start to give chase.

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This is Africa, so mob justice in action.

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Right?

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And I round the corner,
and they've captured him,

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they've caught him.

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The suspect has been apprehended,

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and they make him give me my bike back,

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and they also make him apologize.

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Again, you know,
typical African justice, right?

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And so they make him say sorry.

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And so we stand there facing each other,

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and he looks at me, and he says sorry,

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but he looks at me
with this unbridled fury.

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He is very, very angry.

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And it is the first time that I have been
confronted with someone

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who doesn't like me
simply because of what I represent.

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He looks at me
with this look as if to say,

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"You, with your shiny skin
and your bike, you're angry at me?"

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So it was a hard lesson
that he didn't like me,

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but you know what, he was right.

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I was a middle-class kid
living in a poor country.

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I had a bike, and he barely had food.

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Sometimes, it's the messages
that we don't want to hear,

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the ones that make us
want to crawl out of ourselves,

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that we need to hear the most.

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For every lovable storyteller
who steals your heart,

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there are hundreds more
whose voices are slurred and ragged,

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who don't get to stand up on a stage
dressed in fine clothes like this.

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There are a million
angry-boy-on-a-bike stories

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and we can't afford to ignore them

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simply because we don't like
their protagonists

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or because that's not the kid
that we would bring home with us

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from the orphanage.

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The third reason that I think

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that stories don't necessarily
make the world a better place

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is that too often we are so invested
in the personal narrative

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that we forget
to look at the bigger picture.

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And so we applaud someone

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when they tell us
about their feelings of shame,

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but we don't necessarily
link that to oppression.

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We nod understandingly
when someone says they felt small,

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but we don't link that to discrimination.

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The most important stories,
especially for social justice,

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are those that do both,

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that are both personal and allow us
to explore and understand the political.

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But it's not just
about the stories we like

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versus the stories we choose to ignore.

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Increasingly, we are living in a society
where there are larger forces at play,

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where stories are actually for many people
beginning to replace the news.

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Yeah?

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We live in a time where we are witnessing
the decline of facts,

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when emotions rule

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and analysis, it's kind of boring, right?

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Where we value what we feel
more than what we actually know.

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A recent report by the Pew Center
on trends in America

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indicates that only 10 percent
of young adults under the age of 30

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"place a lot of trust in the media."

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Now, this is significant.

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It means that storytellers
are gaining trust

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at precisely the same moment

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that many in the media
are losing the confidence in the public.

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This is not a good thing,

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because while stories are important

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and they help us
to have insights in many ways,

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we need the media.

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From my years
as a social justice activist,

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I know very well that we need
credible facts from media institutions

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combined with the powerful voices
of storytellers.

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That's what pushes the needle forward
in terms of social justice.

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In the final analysis, of course,

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it is justice

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that makes the world a better place,

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not stories. Right?

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And so if it is justice that we are after,

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then I think we mustn't focus
on the media or on storytellers.

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We must focus on audiences,

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on anyone who has ever turned on a radio

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or listened to a podcast,

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and that means all of us.

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So a few concluding thoughts

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on what audiences can do
to make the world a better place.

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So firstly, the world
would be a better place, I think,

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if audiences were more curious
and more skeptical

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and asked more questions
about the social context

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that created those stories
that they love so much.

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Secondly, the world
would be a better place

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if audiences recognized
that storytelling is intellectual work.

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And I think it would
be important for audiences

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to demand more buttons
on their favorite websites,

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buttons for example that say,

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"If you liked this story,

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click here to support a cause
your storyteller believes in."

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Or "click here to contribute
to your storyteller's next big idea."

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Often, we are committed to the platforms,

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but not necessarily
to the storytellers themselves.

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And then lastly, I think that audiences
can make the world a better place

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by switching off their phones,

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by stepping away from their screens

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and stepping out into the real world
beyond what feels safe.

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Alice Walker has said,

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"Look closely at the present
you are constructing.

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It should look like the future
you are dreaming."

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Storytellers can help us to dream,

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but it's up to all of us
to have a plan for justice.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)