Aké: The Years of Childhood Chapter Summary & Analysis - Chapters 12 and 13 Summary

Chapters 12 and 13 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 12:

Wole attends The Abeokuta Grammar School. In the first week he gets his math box (full of a compass and protractor, etc.) stolen by a bully, something that would never happen in elementary school, and he realizes he must harden himself and grow up. In some ways, the proverbial inmates run the asylum. The current headmaster, Daodu or Rev. A.O. Ransome-Kuti, Wole's uncle, is off on a trip in Britain advocating for education, and so the temporary headmaster is a man nicknamed Wee-Wee, because of his hen-like gait. He does not seem to be able to control the school, as evidenced by his punishment for a boy who gets a girl pregnant. Wee-Wee orders 36 lashings, and in the auditorium he publicly carries this punishment out on the boy. Wee-wee is weak and by the 36th lashing he is exhausted. Meanwhile, the boy doesn't flinch and he...
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