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.