Dead Men’s Path

“He was outspoken in his condemnation of the narrow views of these older and often less-educated ones.”

A brief yet telling insight is given into Obi’s personality here. Not only does he have a very negative view of older and less educated teachers, but he is not shy in sharing this view with others. He is self-assured to the point of arrogance and also goes against the respect usually given to elders in his society.

“’We shall do our best,’ she replied. ‘We shall have such beautiful gardens and everything will be just modern and delightful...’ In their two years of married life she had become completely infected by his passion for ‘modern methods’ and his denigration of ‘these old and superannuated people in the teaching field who would be better employed as traders in the Onitsha market.’”

The protagonist’s wife, Nancy, is introduced through her own words and thoughts as well as through the narrator’s commentary. Here, she is seen as somewhat shallow with her focus on “beautiful gardens” that will be “delightful,” as well as someone who supports the colonial project of “modernizing” the villagers. This idea is emphasized in the quote by the repetition of the word “modern.” She is also shown to be dismissive of the current teachers, whom she judges as obsolete and better suited to work in a market.

“She began to see herself already as the admired wife of the young headmaster, the queen of the school.”

Nancy’s confidence and arrogance, characteristics that she shares with her husband, are illustrated in this short quote. Not only does she think the wives of the other teachers will “admire” her, but she compares herself in a simile to a queen, perhaps a reference to Queen Victoria (r. 1819-1901) who ruled England when it invaded Nigeria in 1884.

“’A penny for your thought, Mike,’ said Nancy after a while, imitating the woman’s magazine she read.

‘I was thinking what a grand opportunity we’ve got at last to show these people how a school should be run.’”

This quote shows Nancy’s class standing as she has the education, leisure, and disposable income to enjoy women’s magazines. It also shows her desire to “imitate” the colonizer’s language and cultural attitudes. Obi’s response comes immediately after his wife’s statement, showing that he understands her modern idiom. His confidence and enthusiasm for his posting can be seen in the phrase “grand opportunity” and “should be run.” The distance from and superiority over his fellow Nigerians can be seen here when he calls them “these people.”

“Ndume School was backward in every sense of the word. Mr. Obi put his whole life into the work, and his wife hers too. He had two aims. A high standard of teaching was insisted upon, and the school compound was to be turned into a place of beauty.”

This commentary by the narrator sounds like it is repeating something that Obi or the supervisor might have said, as it is insulting and dismissive of the school. The two goals might not seem equally important at first, but the flower garden planted to turn the schoolyard into a place of beauty comes to play an important role later in the story. It also suggests a microcosm of colonized Nigeria, turning the school into an English rather than an Indigenous space.

“’The path,’ said the teacher apologetically, ‘appears to be very important to them. Although it is hardly used, it connects the village shrine with their place of burial.’ ‘And what has that got to do with the school?’ asked the headmaster.”

Like an earlier quote about “these people,” calling the villagers “them” serves to distance and “Otherize” them from the educated teachers, whose understanding of the local population remains on the surface (“it appears to be important to them”). The distance between the mission school and the local population is highlighted in Obi’s response. The quote also conveys important information to the reader and Obi about the path’s significance to the villagers.

“’What will the Government Education Officer think of this when he comes to inspect the school next week? The villagers might, for all I know, decide to use the schoolroom for a pagan ritual during the inspection.’”

Although the reader is told earlier that one of Obi’s aims is to instill a higher level of education, it is revealed here in his private conversation that his real concern is gaining the approval of his colonial supervisors during the impending inspection. He is further dismissive of the villagers’ religious beliefs in the second sentence of the quote. This attitude leads to his downfall later in the story.

“One evening as Obi was admiring his work he was scandalized to see an old woman from the village hobble right across the compound, through a marigold flowerbed and the hedges.”

Although his mission as a headmaster should be to improve education in the school, his real focus seems to be on gardens, a superficial and showy aspect of his work. The use of the word “scandalized” here is strong considering what he actually sees: An old woman walking slowly across the garden. He believes that she is not only transgressing the compound’s boundaries but the propriety of “civilized” behavior, the latter of which could be considered scandalous. Not only is he thinking of the work it took to plant the garden (which was likely done by the students, whom he volunteered to build a new path for the priest), but he is also imagining his supervisor’s reaction to seeing the woman traversing the flower bed.

“This path was here before you were born and before your father was born. The whole life of this village depends on it. Our dead relatives depart by it and our ancestors visit us by it. But most important, it is the path of children coming in to be born…”

This quote echoes and develops the information the teacher told Obi earlier in the story. Now it is the village priest who is speaking, and it is not about how something “appears” but concretely about the path’s central role in the local culture and religion, which venerates ancestors and the connection of birth and death to the living.

“‘The whole purpose of our school,’ he said finally, ‘is to eradicate just such beliefs as that. Dead men do not require footpaths. The whole idea is just fantastic. Our duty is to teach your children to laugh at such ideas.’”

Obi’s arrogance is again on display here when he tells the village priest that he has come to “eradicate” the local belief system. He dismisses the importance of the path and ancestors with the phrase “Dead men do not require footpaths”—a clear echo of the title of the story. His use of the word “fantastic” is also dismissive, suggesting that the priest’s religious beliefs are fanciful or irrational. The use of “our” in the last sentence puts him firmly in the colonizer’s camp, patronizing the villagers by viewing their education as his “duty.” This education includes teaching the children “to laugh” at their religious beliefs, thus destroying their connection to their ancestors and culture.

“’What you say may be true,’ replied the priest, ‘but we follow the practices of our fathers. If you reopen the path we shall have nothing to quarrel about. What I always say is: let the hawk perch and let the eagle perch.’”

In this quote, the priest is shown to be patient and respectful despite Obi’s insulting words, and he is contrasted against the modern, British-educated headmaster. The priest again reinforces respect for elders and ancestors and tries to offer Obi a solution in the form of a proverb. The use of African proverbs is one of the hallmarks of Achebe’s fiction, as he uses authentic forms of local storytelling in his writing.

“‘I am sorry,’ said the young headmaster. ‘But the school compound cannot be a thoroughfare. It is against our regulations. I would suggest your constructing another path, skirting our premises. We can even get our boys to help in building it. I don’t suppose the ancestors will find the little detour too burdensome.’”

While this might seem to open with an apology, it is more a nicety of British English than genuine regret. The use of the pronoun “our” (“our regulations,” “our premises,” “our boys”) suggests a sense of ownership as well as a binary of us (British colonizers) and the villagers. His quip at the end shows a serious misunderstanding of the path’s importance.

“Two days later a young woman in the village died in childbed. A diviner was immediately consulted and he prescribed heavy sacrifices to propitiate ancestors insulted by the fence.”

While the death of a woman in childbirth may not be that unusual, it is clearly understood by the villagers and the soothsayer they consult to be caused by a serious insult to the ancestors. This quote can be seen as an example of foreshadowing, a warning of something negative that will happen in the future.