Informative Essay: The Single Story

Some small minded and ignorant people believe that people from the continent of Africa are not intelligent. These people believe this because they lack exposure, have heard one sided stories, and have incomplete information. This is the “single story” of African people’s intelligence. What is a single story and why does it matter? A single story is one idea about a specific thing without knowing anything else about that idea. When you watch the news, most of what they show is the single story of that event. The news shows all these horrible events and solely focuses on the bad parts. Chimamanda Adichie, a young Nigerian author says, “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are

According to the CIA world factbook, Nigeria is ranked at having the 67th worst GDP out of 230 countries. This demonstrates how difficult it is for these people to find proper and up to date educations. With the limited financial support comes limited resources however, 59% of people in Nigeria are able to read and write. To put that into perspective, India a country of 1.3 billion people holds the 26th highest IQ at 82. However, if you were to have the same number of people in India as Nigeria, only 38% of people in India could read and write. Even though India has a higher GDP rating at 71 out 230, they still have a lower overall IQ and lower reading and writing percentage. So Nigeria has less GDP and only 186 million people but ranks higher in IQ compared to India which ranks higher in GDP but lower in IQ even though India has 1.3 billion people (That’s 7 times as much). These facts show that people from Africa are not intelligent because with less money, less resources, less exposure, and less help, they still are able to “outsmart” 43 other