Dead Man's Path

Dead Man's Path, written by Chinua Achebe is a wonderful example of how ignorant some people can be towards other people's cultures and beliefs.

First of all I would like to point out that Chinua Achebe was born in the 1930's in Ogidi, Nigeria. He experienced the effects of the imposing western culture on the African societies. Both of his parents were converts to the evangelical Protestant faith. They were mindful of the traditions of their culture but never practiced them. So many of the things he writes about he has knowledge on since he saw it happen. It allows us, the readers, to try and grasp what actually went on during apartheid.

In this story we are introduced to Michael Obi, who is a young man who just recently was awarded the job of headmaster at Ndume Central School. The year is 1949 and he feels as though the school needs to be modernized and brought up to standard. So he and his wife set out to  do this by planting a garden within the school compound as well as trying to heighten the standard of teaching. While the second goal wasn't much of an issue, the first one turned out to cause a problem. The problem was that one day Michael watched an old woman from the village hobble across the school compound, through a marigold bed, and go off into the bushes on the other side. Michael had no clue that this path is connecting the village shrine with the villagers' place of burial. So Michael sets out to block the path by setting up a blockade of sorts. Soon he is visited by the village elder asking for the path to be re-opened because it's where the dead relatives depart, their ancestors visit by it, and it's also the path of children coming in to be born. The village elder goes on to explain that is has been there for generations and if the issue is not rectified something bad is going to happen.  Michael ignores this and wakes up two days later with all of his work in shambles, the hedges were torn up, the flower beds trampled, and part of the school was ripped down. The mayhem was caused by the villagers trying to appease the ancestors insulted by the fence, since a young woman died during childbirth.  On top of that the supervisor came and inspected the school and wrote a bad report but also added that  a "tribal-war situation" was " developing between the school and the village, arising in part from the misguided zeal of the new headmaster."

I believe that in writing this story, Chinua, was trying to tell people that ancient traditions can't be changed. That just because you want people to change their tradtions and beliefs doesn't mean that they are actually going to. Michael Obi was so blinded with his intense reasoning of having to convert the people of the village, that it ultimately back fired on him. Michael Obi is symbolic of the western civilization during apartheid, and the village people are representative of the whole of Africa. Western idea and beliefs were pushed on the African people and some rebelled.

So the main reason I like this story so much is because we see the village prevail. The western civilization wasn't the one to comeout as the victor in the case. I strongly believe that every culture should be able to practice their traditions without other people judging them or trying to change them. I feel that this is also the message Chinua is trying to put across to the western people.