Dead Mans Path

Most people yearn for the opportunity to be promoted. It makes you feel important and needed. In African societies, culture and tradition hold a special part in people’s lives. Success should be accompanied by acknowledgement of the traditions and culture in order to be accepted. In Chinua Achebe’s short story, dead man’s path, we are introduced to Michael Obi who is in middle of the two.
Michael Obi was put to be the headmaster of Ndume Secondary school in 1948 before Nigeria gained her independence. By this time, the only operational schools in the area were run by British missionaries. The missionary authorities sent him an energetic man to help him run the school. This was warmly welcome by Obi. As we can see his wife is very supportive of him, just like women ought to behave in traditional settings. She has high hopes of prosperity now that the promotion has come along.
There are thing that are viewed to be a bother to Obi’s lovely wife. The idea that other colleagues are young and unmarried bothers her terribly but she shrugs off the idea in support for her husband. Mr. Obi himself is faced with a dilemma in which the villagers want to use part of the school land as their road. He is opposed to that idea and even goes on to say that soon they may also demand to use the classes to hold their rituals. This shows how traditional ways contradict modern life.
Success may be sweet but I view it as a tool to corrupt ones judgment. Obi does not want to let the villagers use the school land which is interpreted as biting the hand that fed him. Compromise should be reached between what the society demands from you and what you want. All are important in