A Private Experience

Although the riot that takes place in “A Private Experience” is fictional, such riots have occurred and have their roots in Nigeria’s colonial past. Colonization by the British forced together some 300 ethnic groups with different languages, religions, and forms of governing into an artificial unity created for administrative convenience. Of these many ethnic groups, the three largest are the Hausa-Fulani people of the north, who are predominantly Muslim; the Yoruba of the southwest, who are predominantly Christian; and the Igbo of the southeast, who are also predominantly Christian.

During colonial rule, the British purposefully stoked tensions between ethnic groups to help maintain control. While the government favored white settlers in the region, they also privileged the Hausa-Fulani people, selecting them for military recruitment (earning them administrative positions in the government afterward). The resentments this engendered persisted after Nigeria gained independence from the British in 1960, eventually erupting into violence following an Igbo military coup in 1966. A countercoup triggered organized massacres of thousands of Igbos in the north, and more than a million Igbo people living there fled east. Igbo mistrust of the Hausa-dominated federal government prompted a drive for secession (formal withdrawal of membership) of Igbos from Nigeria and the creation of an independent Igbo nation named Biafra. However, secession threatened federal control of Nigerian oil deposits in the south and was a contributing factor in the civil war that followed.

This war, known as the Nigerian Civil War, lasted from 1967 to 1970. As the war progressed, Biafrans were driven further back into their home region, and military blockades cut them off from food and medicine. Biafran civilians began dying of starvation, and in the end, Biafra renounced its secession and rejoined Nigeria.

These events and their painful legacy are within living memory for Nigerians. Resentments festered after the war, especially since post-war policies impoverished Igbo people. Property that was seized by the government during the war was not returned, and the Biafran currency was devalued, leaving many Igbo in poverty. War crimes also went unprosecuted. As divisions and tension remained between Igbos and Hausas, religion became another site of difference. In such an atmosphere, perceived slights can rapidly escalate into violence, as reflected in “A Private Experience” when the riot is sparked by an Igbo Christian man driving over a copy of the Koran—implied to be an accident. The first recorded religious riots in Nigeria occurred before independence, in 1948, and several large riots and conflicts have erupted in the past 70 years.

References to the Abacha military regime imply that the story takes place while he is in power. For example, Chika attends a protest at school where they chant, “The military must go! Abacha must go! Democracy now!” (44). General Sani Abacha was born in Kano, the city where “A Private Experience” takes place. He was Nigeria’s head of state from 1993 to 1998, seizing power from a civilian government in a bloodless military coup. His regime was accused of corruption and human rights abuses.

“A Private Experience” centers on a brief experience of understanding between two women from differing backgrounds. They manage to communicate and find common ground despite speaking different languages and coming from different ethnic groups, religions, and classes. At first, this indicates that the story expresses hope for the future and provides a possible roadmap for achieving it. However, the two women are only able to forge their connection in private, literally hiding from society while a massacre rages outside their refuge. This makes the story a cautionary tale, warning against a complacent assumption that there is a simple solution to decades of hatred and violence and implying that little is likely to change until a fundamental cultural shift occurs.