Dead Man's Path

Dead Man's Path written by Chinua Achebe shows how people are ignorant towards other's cultures and their individual beliefs. Chinua Achebe was born in Nigeria in the 1930's and having grown up in Africa witnessed the effects of western culture being imposed on Africa. Through his work the readers are allowed some insight on what went on during the Apartheid.

   This story takes place in 1949 where we are introduced to a young School teacher names Obi who has just gotten a job as the headmaster of Ndume Central School. Obi is not satisfied with the school and feels that he needs to change it to make it more modern and fit his vision of how he thinks the school should look. He attempted to change the standard of teaching within the school and planted a garden on the school's compounds to better the appearance of the school. Michel was not aware that there was a path connecting the villagers to their place of burial that went through the school compound. One day Michel witnessed an old lady hobbling off into the bushes that lay on the other side . Michel decided that he would step up some sort of block to block of the rarely used path. This did not sit well with the village elder because Michel was soon paid a visit by the village elder asking the he re-open the path. The village elder argued that that path had been there long before Michel was even born and this path lead to where their dead relatives departed, and was also the path for the children coming in to be born. The village elder tried to emphasise the importance of this path to the villagers. Michel chooses not to listen to the village elder and two days later pays a price. He finds the school vandalized by the villagers. Part of his school was ripped down and his flower beds that he and his wife had spent time planting were trampled. As a result the supervisor wrote a Obi a nasty report and also stated that there was a war developing between the school and the village
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   This story brings about the point that traditions and cultures should not be changed. In other words just because you view you beliefs as superior to that of other's it's wrong to try and change the way they live. As much as one may try it does not mean that people are going to be willing to be subjected to these changes and change their lives. Obi was so blinded by the fact that he thought his ways were best and everyone needed to change along with him that he did not realise the importance of the path that he blocked off to the villagers. He chose not to listen to what the villagers wanted and did not respect their wishes so the villagers rebelled against Obi. If he has of just listened to the village elders and respected what he had asked then Obi would not have had his school vandalized . I like this story because it teaches people that they should respect all different cultures try to learn from them as opposed to trying to change them because they feel that their beliefs are superior