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What this demonstrates, I think, is how impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story, particularly as children.
这一切所表明的，正是在一个个的故事面前我们是何等的脆弱，何等的易受影响，尤其当我们还是孩子的时候。
Because all I had read were books in which characters were foreign,
因为我当时读的所有书中只有外国人物，
I had become convinced that books by their very nature had to have foreigners in them
我因而坚信：书要想被称为书，就必须有外国人在里面，
and had to be about things with which I could not personally identify.
就必须是关于我无法亲身体验的事情。
Now, things changed when I discovered African books.
而这一切都在我接触了非洲书籍之后发生了改变。
There weren't many of them available, and they weren't quite as easy to find as the foreign books.
当时非洲书并不多，而且它们也不像国外书籍那样好找。
But because of writers like Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye, I went through a mental shift in my perception of literature.
不过因为Chinua Achebe和Camara Laye之类的作家，我思维中对于文学的概念产生了质的改变。
I realized that people like me, girls with skin the color of chocolate,
我意识到像我这样的人--有着巧克力般的肤色
whose kinky hair could not form ponytails, could also exist in literature.
和永远无法梳成马尾辫的蜷曲头发的女孩子们，也可以出现在文学作品中的。
I started to write about things I recognized.
我开始撰写我所熟知的事物。
Now, I loved those American and British books I read.
但这并不是说我不喜爱那些美国和英国书籍。
They stirred my imagination. They opened up new worlds for me.
恰恰相反，那些书籍激发了我的想象力，为我开启了新的世界。
But the unintended consequence was that I did not know that people like me could exist in literature.
但随之而来的后果就是，我不知道原来像我这样的人，也是可以存在于文学作品之中的。
So what the discovery of African writers did for me was this: It saved me from having a single story of what books are.
而与非洲作家的结缘，则是将我从对于书籍的单一故事(认识)中拯救了出来。
I come from a conventional, middle-class Nigerian family.
我来自一个传统的尼日利亚中产家庭。
My father was a professor. My mother was an administrator.
我的父亲是一名教授，我的母亲是一名大学管理员。
And so we had, as was the norm, live-in domestic help, who would often come from nearby rural villages.
因此我们和很多其他家庭一样，都会从附近的村庄中雇佣一些帮手来打理家事。
So, the year I turned eight, we got a new house boy. His name was Fide.
在我八岁那一年，我们家招来了一位新的男仆。他的名字叫做Fide。
The only thing my mother told us about him was that his family was very poor.
我父亲只告诉我们说，Fide是来自一个非常穷苦的家庭。
My mother sent yams and rice, and our old clothes, to his family.
我的母亲会时不时地将山芋、大米 还有我们穿旧的衣服送到他的家里。
And when I didn't finish my dinner, my mother would say, "Finish your food! Don't you know? People like Fide's family have nothing."
每当我剩下晚饭的时候，我的母亲就会说：“吃干净你的食物！难道你不知道嘛？像Fide家这样的人可是一无所有的。”
So I felt enormous pity for Fide's family.
因此我对Fide的家人充满了怜悯。
