Just like Chimamanda’s roommate, I too believed that counties in North Africa, West Africa and East Africa were poor and war-stricken, that it were a place of danger, darkness, violence, poverty and hopelessness and that is because I had a single story of African countries that were not part of South Africa. But as I grew up and started having teachers who gave us new views and stories. Teachers who took time to explain what it was that was going on in other African countries I started to see that that single story was changing how I went on about meeting and getting to know people from other countries in Africa.

From Chimamanda’s presentation I now know that not all we read in books about African countries is true. It’s true that the books open up new worlds and stir the imagination but also, those author’s who write these books we are “obsessed” with reading, put us in boxes. They have altered our minds into thinking that a person or country could only have certain characteristics.

Growing up I also believed that only man could be leader or that only they could make a change. But Bart-Williams proved it wrong, when she stood up and took the kids from the streets and gave them hope and a home. She took them in irregardless of what they did in the past and built them up. She helped each and every one of them to find their footing and work on achieving their dreams.

These readings have taught me that putting people into “boxes” creates default assumptions and incomplete decisions that may lead to misunderstandings.