Dead Men’s Path

by

Chinua Achebe

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Cultural History and Identity Theme Analysis

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Modernity and Progress Theme Icon
Education as a Colonial Weapon Theme Icon
Cultural History and Identity Theme Icon
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For much of Chinua Achebe’s “Dead Men’s Path,” the cultural practices of the villagers are under attack by Michael Obi, the new headmaster of Ndume Central School, and his wife, Nancy. While Nancy does not directly involve herself with the running of the school, she models herself and her actions after the British while scorning the customs of the villagers. Likewise, Obi, zealous in his endeavor to make the school into a place where students can forge a new identity outside of their communal and ancestral history, decides to close a sacred footpath he views as a hindrance. Despite reports of “the big row some time ago” when other educators had previously attempted to close the footpath, Obi continues with his plans to do so, alarmed by the idea of the school denigrating itself by being used as a “thoroughfare” for a pagan ritual. When a woman dies in childbirth shortly after, Obi must come to terms with the repercussions of attempting to forcefully erase a community’s way of life. The death of the woman reveals the stakes of Obi and his wife’s project. For the villagers, their way of life—their very essence—is tied irrevocably to the upholding of their ancestral practices. To be stripped from their past is to be stripped from a vital connection to who they are as people. 

Both Nancy and Obi are buoyed by the opportunity to make their vision for the school a reality, though their unwillingness to accommodate the villagers’ input and traditions almost immediately begins to alienate the village community from its way of life. Obi and Nancy design the school as a place of newness, where anyone can break from the old and the “rank” and boldly imagine themselves as someone different. This subtle message of embracing the “new” is meant to hasten the process of alienating the younger generation of villagers from their community and their connection to their past. To do this, Nancy and Obi go as far as to separate the school from the rest of the village by planting a garden that “came to life […] and blossomed” until it “marked out the carefully tended school compound from the rank neighborhood bushes.” This further creates a physical rift between the cultural practices of the past and the possibility for new traditions and new identities that the future promises.

Nancy herself is not immune to this concept of re-creating oneself at the expense of one’s past, community, and cultural identity. In fact, she boldly embraces it and begins “to see herself as the admired wife of the young headmaster, the queen of the school,” an image that draws parallels with the British monarch (whose rule readers can assume the village community is under, given Achebe’s background and the Igbo names of the characters and the setting). Nancy’s investment in idolizing a colonial figure reveals that she seeks to participate in a cultural tradition different from that of the village, underscoring her own flimsy understanding of the importance the community places on their indigenous ancestral culture. Together, these details underscore how the embrace of this new way of life represented by the school requires a forceful break with one’s history.

The village priest’s intervention into the closing of the footpath, however, suggests that the community fears that Obi and Nancy’s choices will create discord within their community and alienate them from traditional practices they have relied on for generations. The priest explains the historical significance of the footpath by arguing that it is what has connected the community to their forefathers, and that without it, they would not be the same people. He punctuates his pleas to Obi by reminding him that the “the whole life of the village depends on it. Our dead relatives depart by it and our ancestors visit us by it. But most important, it is the footpath of children coming in to be born…” This suggests that the footpath is the bridge between generations, a tether to bind the past with the present and the future, even in the face of change, so that the community can remain true to their identity. Obi, however, haughtily refuses to reopen the footpath and instead suggests that they construct another, “skirting” the school’s premises this time because he is sure the ancestors won’t “find the little detour too burdensome.” Obi ignores the significance of the priest’s pleas, choosing instead to undermine the spiritual and cultural role the path plays in the community in favor of embracing the “newness” that his school promises. Unfortunately, what Obi does not realize is that this newness is premised on undoing the strong cultural bonds that connect the village to their past and their ancestors—the things that make them who they are. Obi fails to realize that embracing the new promises of the school comes with the risk of socializing a new generation to view their parents’ past traditions contemptuously. This possible rift between the past and the future would carry the risk of creating holes in their community. 

After a woman dies in childbirth, however, the villagers reject Obi’s plan and forcefully reopen the footpath as a way to recover their ancestral tradition and sense of identity. The woman’s death spurs the village diviner to call for “heavy sacrifices to propriate ancestors insulted by the fence” and mitigate the risk of further irreconcilable damage to the community and its way of life. In retaliation, the villagers get to work destroying the prohibitions on the footpath so that Obi wakes up to find most of his work ruined, with the “beautiful hedges torn up not just near the footpath but right round the school [and] the flowers trampled to death and one of the school buildings pulled down.” The appeasement of the ancestors seems to rest not only on the footpath being reopened, but also on the physical destruction of Obi and Nancy’s project—the school—as a symbol of the dangers of attempting to cut a community from their sense of history, culture, and identity. Furthermore, the reopened path symbolizes the endurance and continuity of the community’s traditions and sense of self, while the destroyed school grounds and garden reveal the vulnerabilities and fault lines of new practices that seek to sever ties to traditional customs that keep a community linked to their culture and their past. 

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Cultural History and Identity Quotes in Dead Men’s Path

Below you will find the important quotes in Dead Men’s Path related to the theme of Cultural History and Identity.
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: 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: 71-71
Explanation and Analysis:

“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.

Related Characters: Michael Obi (speaker)
Related Symbols: Path
Page Number: 72
Explanation and Analysis:

“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 . . .”

Related Characters: Village Priest (speaker), Michael Obi
Related Symbols: Path
Page Number: 73
Explanation and Analysis:

“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.”

Related Characters: Michael Obi (speaker), Village Priest
Related Symbols: Path
Page Number: 73
Explanation and Analysis:

“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.”

Related Characters: Village Priest (speaker), Michael Obi
Related Symbols: Path
Page Number: 73-74
Explanation and Analysis:

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.”

Related Characters: Michael Obi (speaker), Village Priest
Related Symbols: Path
Page Number: 74
Explanation and Analysis:

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.

Related Symbols: Path
Page Number: 74
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: 74
Explanation and Analysis: