Dead Men’s Path
by Chinua Achebe
Michael Obi’s wife. Like her husband, Nancy Obi is excited by his promotion and by the opportunity to make the Ndume Central School a place of modernity with beautiful gardens that speak to its sophistication. She is incredibly infatuated with rank and takes her husband’s promotion as an opportunity to elevate herself in the eyes of her peers. She gives herself the title of “queen of the school” and sees it as a sign of her and her husband’s refinement. Like Michael, Nancy dreams of making the school into a place of new ideas modeled after the colonial institutions she seeks to emulate.

Nancy Obi Quotes in Dead Men’s Path

The Dead Men’s Path quotes below are all either spoken by Nancy Obi or refer to Nancy Obi. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Modernity and Progress Theme Icon
).

Dead Men’s Path Quotes

“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.”

Related Characters: Nancy Obi (speaker), Michael Obi
Related Symbols: Gardens
Page Number and Citation: 71
Explanation and Analysis:

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

Related Characters: Michael Obi (speaker), Nancy Obi
Page Number and Citation: 71-71
Explanation and Analysis:

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.”

Related Characters: Michael Obi, Nancy Obi, Government Education Officer / White Supervisor
Related Symbols: Path, Gardens
Page Number and Citation: 74
Explanation and Analysis:
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Nancy Obi Character Timeline in Dead Men’s Path

The timeline below shows where the character Nancy Obi appears in Dead Men’s Path. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Dead Men’s Path
Modernity and Progress Theme Icon
Education as a Colonial Weapon Theme Icon
Cultural History and Identity Theme Icon
Michael Obi and his wife, Nancy, immediately get to work making the school into a place where “modern” ideas will be... (full context)
Modernity and Progress Theme Icon
Nancy studies her husband. Although Obi is “stoop-shouldered” and looks weak, he is known for his... (full context)
Modernity and Progress Theme Icon
Education as a Colonial Weapon Theme Icon
Cultural History and Identity Theme Icon
At the school, Obi and Nancy emphasize a “high standard of teaching” and work together to make the school grounds beautiful... (full context)