Dead Mens Path

1010 Words5 Pages
Dead Men's Path is set in Nigeria in 1949, Chinua Achebe’s story Dead Men’s Path is about Michael Obi, a modern and ambitious young man who is appointed headmaster of the un-progressive Ndume Central School. Obi decides to beautify the school. One evening, Obi sees a woman walk on the flower bed and notices a path that leads to the village across. Obi asks a teacher why the villagers are allowed to use the foot-path. Consequently he found out that the path is very important to them because it leads to their burial grounds of their ancestors. However since Obi’s concern is the beauty of the path instead of the traditions of the villagers, he decides to close it despite the village priest reasonably requesting Obi to reopen the path; to which he says no. Two days later a young woman in the village dies in childbirth. A diviner recommends heavy sacrifices to appease the spirits who are insulted at having the footpath blocked. In the night the flowers and hedges are torn up and trampled to death and one of the school buildings is torn down. When the Government Education Officer arrives, he gives Obi a bad review and writes "a nasty report" on the "tribal-war situation developing between the school and the village." The key themes explored in this story are the conflicts between traditional Nigerian culture, beliefs and the modern, westernised ideology established by European colonialism. For example when Obi talks to his colleague regarding the path he says “… it amazes me… that you people allowed the villagers to make use of this footpath. It is simply incredible.” The use of language by Obi emphasizes the division of beliefs and traditions, calling his fellow colleagues and the villagers ‘you people’ is demeaning and highlights the distain Obi feels towards the villagers and their rituals. Another message that Achebe projects throughout the story is the
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