The Death of Ikemefuma: Two Views

Damian Opata sees Okonkwo as a victim:

Okonkwo’s killing of Ikemefuna is instinctive. No time was left for him to consider his actions. In other words, his killing of Ikemefuna was not premeditated. The immediate circumstances under which he had to kill Ikernefuna seem to have been forced on him by capricious fate, he was not in control of the situation. Rather, the situation was controlling him and we should not apply the principles of morality to a situation in which he was inexorably led by uncanny fate.

David Carroll argues that Okonkwo is just heartless:

This incident is not only a comment on Okonkwo’s heartlessness. It criticizes implicitly the laws he is too literally implementing. . . . As we watch him [ Ikemefuna] being taken unsuspectingly on his apparently innocent journey, the whole tribe and its values is [sic] being judged and found wanting. For the first time in the novel, we occupy the point of view of an outsider, a victim, and from this position the community appears cruel.

Yikes, trikes. A difficult question.