Dead Men's Path

"Mr. Obi listened with a satisfied smile on his face"

"He was appointed headmaster of Ndume Central School in January 1949. It had always been an unprogressive school, so the Mission authorities decided to send a young and energetic man to run it"

"Beautiful hibiscus and allamanda hedges in brilliant red and yellow marked out the carefully tended school compound from the rank neighborhood bushes"

"We shall do our best,” she replied. “We shall have such beautiful gardens and everything will be just modern and delightful."

"“I am sorry,” said the young headmaster. “But the school compound cannot be a thoroughfare.It is against our regulations. I would suggest your constructing another path I don’t suppose the ancestors will find the little detour too burdensome."

"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."

"He was outspoken in his condemnation of the narrow views of these older and often less-educated ones"

"Obi woke up next morning among the ruins of his work. The beautiful hedges were torn up not just near the path but right round the school, the flowers trampled to death and one of the school buildings pulled down That day, the white Supervisor came to inspect the school and wrote a nasty report on the state of the premises but more seriously about the “tribal-war situation developing between the school and the village, arising in part from the misguided zeal of the new headmaster"

"It had always been an unprogressive school, so the Mission authorities decided to send a young and energetic man to run it."

"For a few minutes she became skeptical about the new school; but it was only for a few minutes"

"One evening as Obi was admiring his work he was scandalized to see an old woman from the village hobble right across the compound, through a marigold flower-bed and the hedges."

"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.”"