Chamamanda Ngozi Adichie is a world renown Nigerian writer and feminist. She published her short story “A Private Experience” in 2008 with the purpose of bringing attention to ethnic and religious conflict. The characters are inspired by her life experiences and it is set in Nigeria, where she was raised. The story is assumed to be set in the 1990s as cell phones were not yet mainstream in Nigeria and this is when historically there were riots between the Igbo Christians and the Hausa Muslims. In general, the Hausa Muslims are poor and in general, the Igbo Christians are wealthy. Therefore, we see the characters with their respective social statuses. At first the two women are only hurdled together in a flash of panic. Despite their differences, the two women end up developing a bond while hiding together in an abandoned store, waiting for the danger to pass. They were both worried about their family and lost their respective items in the panic. Chika lost an expensive handbag, while the women lost a necklace. We see the story from the perspective of Chika who has a prejudice against the Hausa women. Chika assumes that the necklace lost was made of beads and string. Chika seeing the women’s poor cloths and harsh accent believes that the women is somewhat stupid and lacking complex thinking. As Chika learns more about the women, she later regrets thinking those things. Chamamanda uses the scarf in the short story as a prominent symbol for Islamism, “she is Muslim, because of the scarf.” At the end of the lockdown Chika wishes to keep the scarf to hopefully reignite her belief in god and to remember her new friend, “She (Chika) wishes that she could pray, could believe in a god, see an omniscient presence in the stale air of the store.” The author also implements ‘flashforwards’ to give more detail on Chika and resolve questions that may arise. In Chamamanda’s early life she studied medicine in university and switched over to political science. In the story Chika is studying medicine while her sister, Nnedi is studying political science. Another inspiration that came from Chamamanda’s life is the dialogue about having six children, as Chamamanda is the fifth of six children born from her mother. The important conclusion to the short story is that “She (Chika) will look at one of the corpses, naked, stiff, facedown, and it will strike her that she cannot tell if the partially burned man is Igbo or Hausa, Christian or Muslim, from looking at the charred flesh.” This message that despite our differences we are all human is refreshing. It shows the reader of how unnecessary and meaningless the conflict is between different religions and ethnicities. the mind map breaks down the story into its key components that all interconnects. The photos were added to encapsulate the feeling and concepts present in the story. It is broken down into two pages so nothing would have to be cut, shortened or cluttered together.
