"Dublin Core:Title","Dublin Core:Subject","Dublin Core:Description","Dublin Core:Creator","Dublin Core:Source","Dublin Core:Publisher","Dublin Core:Date","Dublin Core:Contributor","Dublin Core:Rights","Dublin Core:Relation","Dublin Core:Format","Dublin Core:Language","Dublin Core:Type","Dublin Core:Identifier","Dublin Core:Coverage","Item Type Metadata:Text","Item Type Metadata:Interviewer","Item Type Metadata:Interviewee","Item Type Metadata:Location","Item Type Metadata:Transcription","Item Type Metadata:Local URL","Item Type Metadata:Original Format","Item Type Metadata:Physical Dimensions","Item Type Metadata:Duration","Item Type Metadata:Compression","Item Type Metadata:Producer","Item Type Metadata:Director","Item Type Metadata:Bit Rate/Frequency","Item Type Metadata:Time Summary","Item Type Metadata:Email Body","Item Type Metadata:Subject Line","Item Type Metadata:From","Item Type Metadata:To","Item Type Metadata:CC","Item Type Metadata:BCC","Item Type Metadata:Number of Attachments","Item Type Metadata:Standards","Item Type Metadata:Objectives","Item Type Metadata:Materials","Item Type Metadata:Lesson Plan Text","Item Type Metadata:URL","Item Type Metadata:Event Type","Item Type Metadata:Participants","Item Type Metadata:Birth Date","Item Type Metadata:Birthplace","Item Type Metadata:Death Date","Item Type Metadata:Occupation","Item Type Metadata:Biographical Text","Item Type Metadata:Bibliography","Item Type Metadata:Player","Item Type Metadata:Imported Thumbnail","Item Type Metadata:Referrer",tags,file,itemType,collection,public,featured "To See Myself ",,"
My humanities moment is a novel that changed my life and informed my path as an educator and researcher. But before I expound upon it, I need to tell you my story. I was born in Brazil as the only child of my Nigerian mother, who migrated to complete her undergraduate studies. Because of that, I constantly felt like I was living in-between, bridging the gap between Brazil and Nigeria. As I grew up, I struggled to find a sense of belonging, trying to conflate the Brazilian culture I learned at school with my Nigerian upbringing at home and fully identifying with neither. I was the other, a native foreigner.
To appease my ever-growing alienation, I plunged into literature, film, and music, anything that I could hold onto to calm my disquietude. Yet, I did not know at the time that I yearned to better understand who I was by seeing myself through the worlds of others. This unconscious search led me to study English and Portuguese language and literature at the Federal University of Bahia. However, as an undergrad, I did not search for myself as much. I still maintained this unbreakable connection between my subjectivity and literature, but, at the same time, I read more as an observer than a participant. Throughout most of my formal education, white authors, both from Brazil and Europe, represented the standard in literary studies, while Black authors, albeit abundant, were rarely mentioned.
Things changed when in 2016 I decided to read the novel Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I had already watched her famous Ted Talks “The Danger of a Single Story” and “We Should All Be Feminists”, and I got curious to read her work. This was the moment. Ifemelu’s journey as a Black Nigerian immigrant in the United States enthralled, moved, and inspired me. Adichie’s intricate and poignant representation of Black people in the U.S., the U.K., and Nigeria veered from the stereotypically negative and dehumanizing portrayals of Black people I was used to seeing in the media. In the novel, Adichie explores several facets of Black experiences, and I still remember that reading it felt like finally arriving home after spending your entire life squinting at the horizon, wondering if you would ever reach your destination. After years searching, I saw myself through the writing of someone who looked like me.
Nonetheless, I was not satisfied. I started reading Chinua Achebe, Sefi Atta, Wole Soyinka, and decided to translate this hunger for self-representation into a research project for graduate school. In 2018, I started following Ifemelu’s path as an immigrant in the U.S. to continue this intellectual and subjective query about the diversity of Black experiences across the world. I had found my home in African literatures and decided to never leave. I wanted to get closer to a mirror that had always been turned the other way, a lack of seeing that confined me to the role of the other. I wanted to stay, to sink “roots in without the constant urge to tug them out and shake off the soil” (Adichie 7).
Eventually, my research and teaching started to overlap. Curiosity prompted me to seek literature and film in which students who were also considered the other could see themselves represented as well. For students who were used to seeing themselves represented in all spheres of life, I also introduced them to works from diverse authors in order for them to move the mirror, look around, and get in contact with different realities and worldviews. These carefully devised choices of the texts I teach have turned my classrooms into safe spaces where diversity is the norm, and all students are heard and included.
Therefore, teaching African narratives about Black immigrants irreversibly converged my teaching philosophy and research. People still ask me nowadays which culture I identify with the most or even suggest that one day I will finally decide which country I consider to be my home. I never know how to answer this question because it is hard to convey what growing up in the diaspora is like. At least for now, I can say that every time I read Americanah again it takes me back to when this journey started, and I am excited to see where it will lead me.
",,"Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie",,2016,"Cristovao Nwachukwu, 27, Graduate Teaching Assistant ",,,,,,to-see-myself,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"From the National Humanities Center Virtual Winter Residency ","African Literature,Books & Reading,Diaspora,Ngozi Adichie, Chimamanda,Race Identity,Self-Realization,Teachers & Teaching",http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/17/422/7ee490b3d5fc8ea51a5b956d4befdac6.jpg,Text,"Graduate Student Residents 2020",1,0 "Don’t Buy Into A Single Story ",,"I encourage everyone to watch novelist Chimamanda Adichie’s 2009 TED talk “The Danger of A Single Story.” Adichie uses her personal experiences to illustrate the importance of sharing different stories about people. She warns of the consequences of a single story and how it can rob people of their dignity, create stereotypes, and make difficult the recognition of our equal humanity. Adichie’s talk made me ponder current events and how many American politicians and leaders are attempting to create a single story about immigrants and others. One, in particular, is the group of Central American migrants fleeing danger and desperate situations for a new life in America. The president and others are painting them as criminals who are trying to invade the country. This is dangerous. It’s a seemingly hateful attempt to fan the flames of division and stoke the fears of his supporters. Adichie says, “show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become.” She continues “power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person.” Imagine if the first story told about this group of migrants was that many are mothers and fathers who desire safety and security for their families. Doing so would change the narrative entirely. To insist on only negative stories, those in power are attempting to dehumanize migrants and encourage Americans to believe that migrants are in no way similar to them. These views are extremely dangerous and can result in violence against an entire group of people. I hope Adichie’s talk will encourage more people to not buy into a single story told about others. And in doing so, recognize that all people are informed and shaped by many stories. This is needed always, but especially in current times. ","Chimamanda Adichie, author of Half of a Yellow Sun, Americanah, and other works","“The Danger of the Single Story,” a TED talk by Chimamanda Adichie",,2018,"Olympia Friday, Digital Engagement and Marketing Coordinator, National Humanities Center",,,,,,dont-buy-into-a-single-story,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,,"Borderlands,Diversity,Human Rights,Immigration,Migration,Ngozi Adichie, Chimamanda,Public Speaking,Stereotypes,Storytelling,TED Talks",http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/242/Chimamanda_Adichie.png,"Moving Image",,1,0