Saboteur, Dead Men’s Path Comparison

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“Dead Men’s Path” by Chinua Achebe, is about a young man named Michael Obi, who has just been given the job headmaster in the school in his village. Obi is extremely excited and cannot wait to implement all of the new ideas that he has. Obi plans to use this opportunity to show people how a school should be ran. Obi’s wife Nancy, doing her gardening, and Obi as headmaster they plan to change the Ndume School ways, to a place of European-inspired beauty, where the regulations will replace the Ndume village community’s beliefs. One-day Obi stumbles upon a pathway on the school grounds. To the townspeople the pathway is very important and has great value and meaning. Although it is hardly used, it connects the village shrine with their place of burial. Obi declares that he will not let others make a highway of his school, therefore the pathway will no longer be used. Obi closes the pathway off with sticks and barbwire, however after Obi has done so, it is brought to his attention that a woman has died in childbirth as a result of disrupting the ancestors. Obi wakes up next morning among the ruins of his work, as well as a nasty note regarding him being the new headmaster.

Obi was dedicated to building this school up as the new head master. The problem with this was his arrogance. He was so dedicated to fixing, and changing the school he forgets the importance of culture. This school has an older culture to it, and Obi wants to change things. Obi closes off a ceremonial path. The villagers believe that this results in the death of a woman who was giving birth to a child, which is their cultural belief. Culture varies throughout the world, and is something special to the ones who follow or believe in it.