Page 18 - Reflections on the Danger of a Single Story

My single story was about Jamaicans. Bob Marley was the world’s first reggae superstar. He was part of the Jamaican group The Wailers, along with reggae greats Bunny Livingston and Peter Tosh. Bob Marley, a Rastafarian, gained early attention in the late 1960s and early ’70s. Due to Bob Marley in the 70s I assumed all Jamaicans were Rastafarians. The purpose of the single story is to encourage us to broaden the scope of stories we consume about other people and cultures. So, taking this advice back in 1971 I started increasing my knowledge about Jamaica and Jamaicans and this was made easier with social media and the different reggae and dancehall artists that you can view on YouTube. The underlying tone of a single story for me was ignorance and lack of knowledge. The single story is one version of a story that is repeatedly presented as truth but based on stereotypes.
My experience of the single story is people have of Trinidadian and Tobagonian heritage are party animals from other Caribbean islanders. We only have two seasons before carnival and after carnival. We have the biggest party or fete on Carnival Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. This year is a long carnival season with 47 parties from New Year’s Day to the Carnival parades on Carnival Monday and Tuesday. “We don’t have a care in the world, we party.” But we are more than that, we are creative, see the costumes and understand the themes of the mas. We have musical artists taking soca to the universe. We have invented the only new musical instrument of the 21st century. So, the partying is just one part of the story. Chimamanda’s purpose is not to scold her audience for a lack of knowledge, but rather to explain that these misunderstandings and limited perspective are universal. Our carnival is different to Brazil’s carnival. So, people need to be aware of the possibility of different narratives. At the end Chimamanda urges us to reject the single story, it encourages us to seek out alternative stories.
CHERYL DOYLE- BARRAN