A Private Experience By Chmamanda Ngozi Adichie Summary

In “A private Experience” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, two woman who have different ethnicities, different religions, and very different lifestyles are forced to spend a long time in a store during a riot. Both women, even though one is Hausa Muslim and the other is Igbo Christian, are in danger due to an incident that has nothing related to any of them except for the fact that they are from the opposite party. Through detailed description the author reveals that common experience and common perspective can overcome ethnical differences.

In various places in the story, the author describes ethnical differences between both Chika and the woman. When these women first see each other, Chika directly associates the other woman with an ethnic group. The author highlights ethnical differences when he says “even without the woman's strong Hausa accent, Chika can tell

In the story it is indirectly visible that Chika and the woman, both are against the riot. It seems that Chika has never had an experience of the riot because she comes from a higher social class, so she has the feeling of fear. Both Chika and the woman fear that their loved ones would be killed. Chika says, “She and her sister should not be affected by the riot. Riots like this were what she read about in newspapers. Riots like this were what happened to other people”. Coming from a lavish lifestyle, a riot was a rare event that was usually seen on a newspaper. Now as Chika has faced her first riot she fears that she might be separated from her loved ones. It is also seen that the woman is not encouraging to the riot because she has a daughter who has gone missing. The woman says, "I am looking for my daughter. We go market together this morning”. It seems that during the riot, the daughter and the woman got separated from each other because of the