The Private Experience

"She cries quietly, her shoulders heaving up and down, not the kind of loud sobbing that the women Chika knows do, the kind that screams Hold me and comfort me because I cannot deal with this alone. The woman's crying is private, as though she is carrying out a necessary ritual that involves no one else."

"She will listen to BBC radio and hear the accounts of the deaths and the riots - "religious with undertones of ethnic tension" the voice will say. And she will fling the radio to the wall and a fierce red rage will run through her at how it has all been packaged and sanitized and made to fit into so few words, all those bodies."

"Like how the government of General Abacha was using its foreign policy to legitimize itself in the eyes of other African countries."

"The woman sighs and Chika imagines that she is thinking of her necklace, probably plastic beads threaded on a piece of string."

"But she has no reason to agree or disagree, she knows nothing about riots..."

"Even without the woman’s strong Hausa accent, Chika can tell she is a Northerner, from the narrowness of her face, the unfamiliar rise of her cheekbones; and that she is Muslim, because of the scarf.”"

"Later, Chika will learn that, as she and the woman are speaking, Hausa Muslims are hacking down Igbo Christians with machetes, clubbing them with stones.”"

"“[S]he knows nothing about riots: the closest she has come is the pro-democracy rally at the university a few weeks ago, where she had held a bright green branch and joined in chanting ‘The military must go! Abacha must go! Democracy now!’”"

"as she and the woman are speaking, Hausa Muslims are hacking down Igbo Christians with machetes, clubbing them with stones”"

"private, as though she is carrying out a necessary ritual that involves no one else” ** Page 51."

"though never for the repose of Nnedi’s soul”"

"religious with undertones of ethnic tension”"

"history of violence against non-Muslims” ** Page 55"

"a slight, distracted smile”"

"“[S]he 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”"