Dead Men’s Path

Achebe’s “Dead Men’s Path” is an important early work by the author that introduces themes that Achebe explored throughout his fictional and critical writings. primarily the culture clash between Tradition Versus Modernity and the effects of colonization on the local population. In it, he challenges the weakness of many colonial stories, even the best-intentioned ones, which carry traces of the “civilizing mission” and can only ever view African life from an outsider’s perspective. This results in what Achebe described as a superficial rendition, such as the one produced by Joyce Cary in Mister Johnson (1939). In place of these superficial narratives, Achebe writes as an insider with a deep understanding and appreciation of Indigenous African cultures and traditions. He also tells a story with a more universal framing of a tragic hero who is undone by his hubris, excessive pride, and zeal. The tragedy of the story is simultaneously dismantled by its irony, which undoes Obi’s duty as headmaster to improve the local mission school as well as undermining the superiority and infallibility of the European “colonizing mission.” With this, Obi’s