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Every time I am home I am confronted with the usual sources of irritation for most Nigerians: our failed infrastructure, our failed government,
我每次回家的时候，都会面临那些令众多尼日利亚人头疼的事情：失败的基础设施，失败的政府。
but also by the incredible resilience of people who thrive despite the government, rather than because of it.
但与此同时，我也看到了人们面对这个政府所展现出的坚韧不拔，而不是被它给击垮。
I teach writing workshops in Lagos every summer,
每年夏天我都在拉各斯开办写作班，
and it is amazing to me how many people apply, how many people are eager to write, to tell stories.
都会被申请的人数震惊到，有这么多的人想要学习写作，想要讲述他们的故事。
My Nigerian publisher and I have just started a non-profit called Farafina Trust,
我的尼日利亚出版商和我刚刚成立了个非营利性的组织，叫做Farafina信托。
and we have big dreams of building libraries and refurbishing libraries that already exist
我们充满了伟大的梦想：我们想建造图书馆，并且重新装修已有的图书馆，
and providing books for state schools that don't have anything in their libraries,
对于那些图书馆内空空如也的政府学校，我们会捐赠图书，
and also of organizing lots and lots of workshops, in reading and writing, for all the people who are eager to tell our many stories.
我们也会组织大量的阅读班、写作班，来帮助那些渴望讲述我们身上故事的人们。
Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize.
故事很重要。多重性的故事很重要。故事一直被用来剥夺、用来中伤。但故事也可以赋予力量与人性化。
Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.
故事可以击毁一个民族的尊严，但也可以修补那被击毁的尊严。
The American writer Alice Walker wrote this about her Southern relatives who had moved to the North.
美国作家Alice Walker曾写过她那些搬迁至北方的南方亲戚们。
She introduced them to a book about the Southern life that they had left behind.
她为他们推荐了一本书，一本关于他们已挥别的南方生活的书。
"They sat around, reading the book themselves, listening to me read the book, and a kind of paradise was regained."
“他们团团坐在一起，读着这本书，或是听我给他们读这本书，一种天堂因此而被重拾。”
I would like to end with this thought: That when we reject the single story,
我想以此来结束我的演讲：当我们拒绝单一的故事，
when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise. Thank you.
当我们认识到任何地方都没有单一的故事时，我们将重拾一份天堂。谢谢。
