“Chike’s School Days” is a very short story and from the first time reading it, I did not get what is going on and what is the point of the story, there was no conflict nor climax, it is just a story. However, when reading it for the second time the story slowly sunk in. it is about a person who refused to continue following the norms of the society he was brought up in. Amos decided to change the things that he thought was wrong with the class culture in Africa, he took on the ways of the white men, and even though Amos came from the upper class, he chose to marry an Osu women of lower class, knowing that he will be shunned and looked down for doing so, he still did it because he thought it was the right thing to do. I would say Amos didn’t like the idea of a lower class and an upper class, he wanted everyone to be regarded as equal.
Taking on the ways of the white man to Amos, meant becoming more westernized and more accepting to others, as we see Amos married a woman from the lowest class. One would think that Amos would teach his children to be accepting towards others too, however that didn’t turn out that way. When Amos’s child Chike at four years old was offered a piece of yam from a neighbor, Chike responded with “We don’t eat Heathen food” (828). How does this happen, one goes to great lengths to be more accepting and even marries a woman of lower class, yet his child still found a way to exclude rather than include others? It is because accepting the ways of the white man meant accepting the religion of the white man too, and the conflict happened where the westerners only accepted one god, and in Africa they worshipped many gods. Most of the time a cultural divide doesn’t happen straight forward, this division sneaks in even with people who really mean well, it is some sort of human nature to want to feel better than others by looking down on them, and it is something that we need to be vigilant about all the time. When you see a reason to exclude, take a moment, a step back and find a way to include.