Dead Men's Path
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Dead Men's Path (1953) by Chinua Achebe The short-story has been noted as an example of cultural conflict.It shows the social conflict between modernity and tradition. Achebe wrote the story as a way to analyze the friction between Christianity and traditional African customs. The narrative shows how colonization can come from anywhere and from any perpetrator.
Quotes
[edit]- He was appointed headmaster of Ndume Central School in January 1949. It had always been an unprogressive school, so the Mission authorities decided to send a young and energetic man to run it
- 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 flower-bed and the hedges.
- 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.”
- For a few minutes she became skeptical about the new school; but it was only for a few minutes
- We shall do our best,” she replied. “We shall have such beautiful gardens and everything will be just modern and delightful.
- Mr. Obi listened with a satisfied smile on his face
- He had many wonderful ideas and this was an opportunity to put them into practice
- “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 I don’t suppose the ancestors will find the little detour too burdensome.
- It amazes me,” said Obi, to one of his teachers who had been three years in the school, “that you people allowed the villagers to make use of this footpath. It is simply incredible.” He shook his head.
- Beautiful hibiscus and allamanda hedges in brilliant red and yellow marked out the carefully tended school compound from the rank neighborhood bushes
- He was outspoken in his condemnation of the narrow views of these older and often less-educated ones
- Page 70
- Obi woke up next morning among the ruins of his work. The beautiful hedges were torn up not just near the path but right round the school, the flowers trampled to death and one of the school buildings pulled down That day, the white Supervisor came to inspect the school and wrote a nasty report on the state of the premises but more seriously about the “tribal-war situation developing between the school and the village, arising in part from the misguided zeal of the new headmaster
- 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.
- Page 71
- It had always been an unprogressive school, so the Mission authorities decided to send a young and energetic man to run it.
- Page 70
