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Dead Men's Path

by Chinua Achebe

Albert Chinualumogu Achebe

Biography

Born November 16th 1930

Died March 21st 2013

Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic.

First novel : Things Fall Apart (1958)

Known as the "Father of African Literature"

Raised in the Igbo town of Ogidi (Southeastern Nigeria).

Father was an early convert to Christianity and both parents respected their traditional culture while being practicing Protestant Christians.

Excelled at academics- attended St. Phillips' Central School.

Early Life

Scholarship to Nigeria's first university - 1948.

Studied medicine, but changed to English Literature.

Worked as a teacher in Oba.

Took a job with the Nigerian Broadcasting Service.

Became internationally recognized after writing his first novel in the 1950s.

Later Life and Career

Made the controversial decision to write in English.

Became politically involved in the Nigerian Civil War.

Helped to found a publishing company.

Took a professorship at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the 1970s.

Gave a controversial lecture in which he calls Joseph Conrad a "bloody racist".

Post War Career

1990, automobile accident left him partially disabled.

Until his death in 2013, he taught at Bard College and Brown University.

  • Postcolonial Literary Period
  • Third person pov
  • Igbo oral tradition combined with straightforward narration
  • Represents folk stories, proverbs, folk song, and dance
  • Uses Oratory (speech artistry)

Style

  • Reflects the:
  • traditions of Igbo society
  • Effects of Christianity
  • Clash of Western and traditional African values

Michael Obi

Village Priest

  • Requests that the footpath be re-opened to allow the villagers to continue to practice their ancient ceremonies.
  • May act as a foil to Michael
  • New headmaster of Ndume Central School
  • Has many "wonderful ideas" about education reform
  • Outspoken about "his condemnation of the narrow views of these older and often less-educated"

Characters & Summary

Summary

  • Michael's wife
  • Is excited about her husband's new position
  • Has big ideas for the gardens at the Ndume school
  • Finds rank and the opinion of others to be very important

Michael Obi is appointed the new headmaster of Ndume school and is excited to achieve his goals of implementing a high standard of teaching and making the campus a place of beauty. The new gardens have a footpath running through them, used by the villagers to reach their sacred burial grounds. When he refuses to let the villagers use the path, they sacrifice the gardens and the school building to correct the wrong he has caused.

Nancy Obi

Historical and Social commentary

Set in 1949, during Great Britain's rule of Nigeria

Social Commentary

Conflicting culture of the "newer" British ways and "old" African customs

Michael reflects British modernization,

the priest reflects the African customs

Modernity and Progress

Michael is meant to progress the school into the modern ages with his innovative ways. Ndume is said to be an "unprogressive" institution, reflecting the opinion of the British colonizers when considering the African tribal ways.

Themes

Education Institutions as a Tool for Colonization

The Ndume school is an example of how educational institutions were used as a tool to establish control by the colonizers. They would begin teaching the young villagers there ways to allow for a more "stealthy" invasion and transition.

Cultural Identity

Themes

Michael Obi thinks that the villagers are backwards and says that "the whole purpose of [this] school... is to eradicate just such beliefs as that... Our duty is to teach your children to laugh at such ideas" (12). He implies that his goal is to eliminate the cultural identity of the villagers. This was one of the strategies imposed by the British when colonizing, to eliminate as much cultural identity as they could to assimilate the natives to their own culture.

Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions

1) Why is Nancy's presence significant to the story?

2) Considering the actions of each man, is Obi or the priest more tolerant of other's beliefs?

3) Analyze Obi's motivations in valuing the flower beds and hedges more than the villager's beliefs. How is this social commentary?

4) What does the path mean to the villagers?

5) What is the Ani community destroying the flowerbeds, hedges, and school building symbolic of? Are the members of the community justified in their destruction?

6) Dramatic Irony is used by Achebe, building up the new schoolmaster in the beginning only to lead him down a darker path. What could this dramatic irony be reflective of?

7) Reading this story, how do you think that Achebe feels about the clash of cultures in the part of Africa in which he grew up? About the colonization of Nigeria by the British?

8) Analyze the report by the white Supervisor. What do the claims symbolize?

9) Analyze the priests statement that "What I always say is: let the hawk perch and let the eagle perch" (12).

Work Cited

Citations

Achebe, Chinua. “Dead Men's Path.” Art of the Short Story, by Dana Gioia and R. S. Gwynn, Pearson Longman, 2006, pp. 9–13.

Brittanica, Editors. “Chinua Achebe.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 12 Nov. 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/Chinua-Achebe.

“Chinua Achebe.” Edited by Biography.com Editors, Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 17 June 2020, www.biography.com/writer/chinua-achebe.

Kandell, Jonathan. “Chinua Achebe, African Literary Titan, Dies at 82.” The New York Times, 22 Mar. 2013.

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