Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a writer who grew up in a middle-class family in the West African country of Nigeria. Both her parents worked at the University of Nigeria. Her father was a professor and her mother was a university administrator. Adichie was a university student in Nigeria before leaving to continue her education in the United States.

The following information is adapted from an online lecture given by Adichie and titled "The Danger of a Single Story." ⁣In part of the lecture, Adichie discusses her experiences with her roommate at the American university she attended.

I was 19. My American roommate was shocked by me. She asked where I had learned to speak English so well, and was confused when I said that Nigeria happened to have English as its official language. She asked if she could listen to what she called my "tribal music", and was consequently very disappointed when I played my music by an American pop star.

She assumed that I did not know how to use a stove.

What struck me was this: She felt sorry for me even before she saw me. . . . My roommate had a single story of Africa: a single story of catastrophe. In this single story, there was no possibility of Africans being similar to her in any way. No possibility of feelings more complex than pity. No possibility of a connection as human equals.