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Of course, Africa is a continent full of catastrophes:
当然了，非洲大陆充满了灾难：
There are immense ones, such as the horrific rapes in Congo and depressing ones,
有的灾难，比如刚果猖獗的强奸，是无比巨大的；
such as the fact that 5,000 people apply for one job vacancy in Nigeria.
而有的现实，比如尼日利亚5千人申请一个工作职位，则更让人无比的压抑。
But there are other stories that are not about catastrophe,
但与此同时，非洲大陆也有许多和灾难不相关的故事。
and it is very important, it is just as important, to talk about them.
谈论这些故事也是相当重要的，也是同等重要的。
I've always felt that it is impossible to engage properly with a place or a person without engaging with all of the stories of that place and that person.
我一直都觉得，要想充分理解一个地区、一个民族，就必须充分理解和那个地区、那个民族相关的所有故事。
The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity.
而单一故事的结果就是：它夺走了人们的尊严。
It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult.
它使得我们难以意识到人与人之间的平等。
It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar.
它强调我们之间的不同，而不是我们之间的相同。
So what if before my Mexican trip, I had followed the immigration debate from both sides, the U.S. and the Mexican?
如果在我的墨西哥之行开始前，我去同时聆听移民辩论美墨两边的论点，结果会是怎样呢？
What if my mother had told us that Fide's family was poor and hardworking?
如果我的母亲告诉我们Fide一家虽然穷，但是很努力，结果会是怎样呢？
What if we had an African television network that broadcast diverse African stories all over the world?
如果我们有一个非洲电视台在全世界播报关于非洲的不同故事，结果会是怎样呢？
What the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe calls "a balance of stories."
播报尼日利亚作家奇努阿·阿契贝所谓的“平衡的故事”。
What if my roommate knew about my Nigerian publisher, Muhtar Bakare,
如果我的室友听说过尼日利亚出版商Mukta Bakaray，
a remarkable man who left his job in a bank to follow his dream and start a publishing house?
一个杰出的男人，他离弃了原本在银行的工作，去追逐自己的理想，成立了个出版社，结果又会是怎样呢？
Now, the conventional wisdom was that Nigerians don't read literature. He disagreed.
世俗告诉Mukta Bakaray：尼日利亚人是不读文学作品的。他不这样认为。
He felt that people who could read, would read, if you made literature affordable and available to them.
他觉得尼日利亚人会读书、想读书，但前提是这些书价格不能太昂贵，并且要普及到人民大众。
