Summary

Michael Obi is a young reform-minded educator living in Nigeria circa 1949. He is tasked
with reforming Ndume Central School, a place known for its unprogressive or backwards
ways.
Michael and his wife, Nancy, arrive at the village with the intention of forcing it into the
modern age. Their two goals are to enforce a high standard of education and to turn the school
campus into a place of beauty.
One evening Mike observes an old woman walking along a faint footpath that crosses the
compound. After consulting with some members of the faculty, Michael learns that the school
had attempted to close the path in the past and met with strong opposition from the nearby
village. Afraid of giving a poor impression to the Government Education Officer scheduled to
visit, Michael places a fence across the path and tops it with barbed wire. Three days after the
fence is put up, Michael meets with the village priest, who explains the importance of the path
and its relationship with the villagers' animist beliefs. Michael insists that the path remains
closed and explains that the purpose of the school is to abolish such ancestral beliefs.
Two days later a young woman in the village dies in childbirth. A diviner recommends heavy
sacrifices to appease the spirits who are insulted at having the footpath blocked. In the night
the flowers and hedges are torn up and trampled to death and one of the school buildings is
torn down. When the Government Education Officer arrives, he gives Obi a bad review and
writes "a nasty report" on the "tribal-war situation developing between the school and the
village."

Themes
Cultural conflict between modern ideas and traditional animist beliefs
The tribal culture's animistic beliefs come into conflict with the modern ideology as
personified by Headmaster Michael Obi.
Ignorance of others' beliefs
In the same way that Michael Obi does not tolerate the locals' animistic beliefs, the
locals do not respect the right of property for the school grounds. The conflict reaches
such a level that the white supervisors describes it as a "'tribal-war situation.'"
Twice makes a tradition
Despite Michael Obi's efforts, the villagers cannot imagine a path for the souls of the
dead which would not cross the school grounds.
The zeal of the reform-minded African culture
Michael Obi holds ideological hostility to traditional African animist beliefs, believing
that such ideas need to be "eradicated." His zeal actually contrasts with that of the
white supervisor, who comments on Obi's "misguided zeal" as being unuseful.

Symbols

The path
An imaginary line between the villagers' burial ground and their worship area, the path
is not often used, but is essential (in the villagers' animistic belief system) for
transmitting the souls of newborns, the dead, and ancestors of the village.

The flowers
Nancy Obi attempts to beautify and modernize the grounds of the school, but the new
flowers are "trampled to death" after the villagers open up the dead men's path when
they remove the fences placed by Headmaster Obi. The flowers represent the frailty of
the roadblock Michael Obi and his modern reform-minded educators put up, which is
of course trampled by the long-held animist beliefs of the local population.

.......

Characters

Michael Obi
The new 26-year-old headmaster at Ndume Central School who wants to put his
reform ideas into action. Obi is headstrong and is unwilling to consider others' ideas.
Nancy Obi
The wife of Michael follows her husband's lead, and considers herself second in
command, at one point thinking of herself as the "queen" of the school. She is the
lynchpin behind the Ndume school's new gardens.
Old lady
She hobbles across the dead men's path, walking through a marigold flower-bed and
hedges. This event causes Michael to fence off the dead men's path.
Priest of Ani
A humble religious leader who addresses Michael about the villagers' concerns about
needing the path. The priest explains the animist beliefs of the villagers, which
Michael rudely dismisses as "fantastic."
Young woman
She dies in childbirth after the path is blocked off. The villagers believe her death was
caused by the path being blocked which prevented spirits from traveling.
White supervisor
He inspects the Ndume school and writes a negative review of Headmaster Obi's
leadership, saying that there was a "'tribal-war situation'" between the school and the
village.

Setting
The story is set in 1949 in Ndume, a rural village in Southeast Nigeria. The school is run by
those called the "Mission authorities," who have sent the reform-minded headmaster Michael
Obi because Ndume Central School "had always been an unprogressive school." The action of
the story occurs around the school grounds, which Michael and his wife Nancy attempt to
beautify, but they run into interference because a local spirits' path runs crosses the school
grounds.

"A Dead Man's Path" is a short story about a bright and ambitious headmaster named Obi
who soon finds that his ignorance over the ancestry of his people can bring about the worst of
fates. Tradition is the main theme of this story, as the purpose of the ancient path is
discovered and the reactions from Obi and the villagers define the importance of tradition to
everyone involved. As events progress, Obi ignores the culture that his own ancestors once
followed, soon finding that the passion of a person's beliefs can overcome all obstacleswhether the headmaster wants that or not. It is because of these factors that "A Dead Man's
Path" best illustrates the importance of respecting and remembering traditions that may seem
odd and old-fashioned, but have lived long in the hearts of the people who follow them.
The story takes place in Africa, and Obi, the main character, had just received news that he
would be running a school that had been in dire need of help within the region. Obi is a bright
young individual, and both he and his wife act as representatives to a more modern way of
viewing the world. Chinua Achebe further shows this fact very early in the story, on the third
paragraph: "'We shall do our best,' she (Obi's wife) replied. 'We shall have such beautiful
gardens and everything will be just modern and delightful.'" (Achebe 476). They are energetic
and spirited, especially Obi, who is ambitious enough to want to see that his new school will
be the best that he can make it. It is not long before the new headmaster wants to make sure
that the outside of the school is painstakingly beautiful for the inspector who was to come and
look over the grounds. It is at that time that Obi comes across a scraggly individual who
violates the grounds of the school by walking along a worn path that the school is a part of.
Obi discovered from a teacher of the school just what the path was used for.
"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.
"The path," the teacher said apologetically, "appears to be very important to them. Although it
is hardly used, it connects the village shrine with their place of burial." (Achebe 477)
Obi would hear none of this nonsense, demanding that the path be blocked for fear of letting
the inspector see random strangers who didn't belong on school property in the first place. In
spite of the teacher's warnings of a possible uprising, Obi blocked the trail with large logs and
whatever else he could find so that no one could go through that path again. The villagers
refused to let the headmaster keep them from the path, sending forth a priest to spark some
sense into Obi. The priest voiced the importance of that path to not only the villagers who
used it, but the dead as well who walked among 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...'"
(Achebe 477)
Obi only scoffed at the priest's words, explaining that "Dead men don't walk," disregarding
his own ancestry for modern beliefs. The path was left blocked. Two days later however, a
woman died within the village while trying to give birth to a child. The tribe took this as a
literal sign that misfortune was coming to them because the path was closed. They became
restless, for there was no way for the woman to rest in peace with the path blocked. Nor could
her child have entered the world and walked the path to their mother. Seemingly overnight,
the villagers tore down everything that covered the path, taking down the bushes, flowers, and
even a few school buildings with them, and the next day the inspector saw nothing but a
wreck, and a Headmaster who had thought only of himself and the modern methods he had
stood for.

In regards to story elements used throughout the piece, it's easy to see that the narrator, though
he does not actually take part in the story, sides with the villagers and their predicament from
the tone he used in describing the pompous headmaster and his stern refusal to comply with
the priest's request. Chinua Achebe writes, "Mr. Obi listened with a satisfied smile on his
face. '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.'"(478). There were two main characters throughout the
story that we read the most about: Obi, who can be considered as either a protagonist or
antagonist given the side you join when reading the story - And the village priest who can be
considered a parallel character to the headmaster's intentions. The key concept of the entire
story however, was the path itself: A road to and from the grave for the dearly departed. That
was the entire focus of the story and tied the characters together as they formed opinions and,
in the village's case, rebelled against Obi's authority.
The specific issue raised within this story regarded the customs of the villagers themselves
and just how important it meant to them. It brings up controversy over destroying and
ignoring anything that was and still is considered important to the traditions of the people, no
matter how old those traditions are. No one has the right or the ability to deny their heritage,
or to accept modern beliefs and systems to replace those that had existed for thousands of
years. No matter how unreasonable superstitions may seem- to those that believe it, they are
as real as the science and technology that our era relies on. Obi was wrong in his way of
thinking, that he could simply push the villagers away from a path that was the equivalent to
having a funeral in the here and now. There are several traditions when it comes to death, for
it is one of the most mysterious events to ever happen to a person. When a person dies, they
go on to a world that no living person has ever seen before. Because of that lack of knowing
just what happens to those who have passed, people use their imaginations for what occurs, so
that pure faith can support those still living. The Mexican people have a holiday dedicated to
having picnics in the churchyard and eating candied skulls as they celebrate and remember
their loved ones. Called Dia de los Muertos, Mexicans spend three days having fun and
enjoying themselves as they cherish those who have died with happiness and cheer. Here in
the United States, it's a ceremony to bring fresh flowers to the grave of those who passed
every birthday or sometimes every time you pass that graveyard. The core of a person's belief
system belongs to believing in things that cannot and can never be proven. Death traditions
are akin to this.
On that day of days, when all that Obi had striven for had ended up a wreck because of the
people he had refused to listen to, Obi, or at least the reader, might learn and understand that
modern technology can prove anything. It can prove that we cannot literally fly. It can prove
how the earth was made and how we evolved. Yet not everyone believes science or
technology. As in the story, the villagers were so superstitious about the blocking of the path,
that they attacked the school and everything that blocked the path: "The beautiful hedges were
torn up not just near the path but right round the school...flowers trampled...one of the school
buildings torn down..." (Achebe 478). Science has theories, not facts, and though we live in
the 20th century, no one can know about what will happen to them when they pass. We have
religion to base our customs on, for it makes the person able to rely on something when all
they see is a depthless hole. What happens when we die? Many cultures can answer that
differently. The Hindus believe that there is a hierarchy of sorts, and that people are
constantly reincarnated until they reach true Heaven. Certain Native American tribes believed
that their ancestors were the stars themselves, a new one to be added to that dark blanket of
sky whenever someone passed away. We have no knowledge of the unknown but the beliefs

that our ancestors held before us, which is why traditions, customs, all of those 'old' beliefs
can and will be important.
According to Achebe's "Dead Man's Path", modern society should never destroy the basis of
a person's beliefs. That is what Obi had done, with his smart response to the village priest,
"'...Our duty is to teach your children to laugh at such ideas'" Achebe 478). It would be like
saying to a Christian that there is no god, that praying is nonsense and the bible is just a story
someone decided to create on an exceptionally boring day. The importance of a person's
culture goes beyond just a person, connecting a society of believers to work towards a
common purpose and a common goal. A German philosopher named Friedrich Nietzsche
stated that he wanted his readers to open up and accept nature as it is in all its manifold
appearances. In order to be able to interpret nature it is mandatory to imagine. (Wikipedia
paragraph 14). In Achebe's story, it was to free the path so that those who died could rest and
peace and the tradition of those villagers continue on, longer than Obi will ever live.
Remembering and cherishing tradition is a key point of "Dead Man's Path", in which tradition
and the beliefs of a group of people would always conquer against those who wish to thwart
them.