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January 11, 2007
a mixture of ignorence and arrogance
The trick was to understand America, to know that America was give and take. You gave up a lot but you gained a lot too.
You smiled tightly when they asked those questions. Your uncle told you to expect it- a mixture of ignorance and arrogance, he called it. Then he told you how the neighbors said, a few months after he moved into his house, that the squirrels had started to disappear. They had heard Africans ate all kinds of wild animals.
You wanted to write about the way people left so much food on their plates and crumpled a few dollar bills down, as though it were an offering, expiation for the wasted food.
He said he had taken time off, a couple of years after high school, to discover himself and travel, mostly to Africa and Asia. You asked him where he ended up finding himself and he laughed. You did not laugh. You did not know that people could simply choose not to go to school, that people could dictate to life. You were used to accepting what life gave, writing down what life dictated.
Chimamanda Adichie - The Thing Around Your Neck
Posted by amin at January 11, 2007 11:45 PM