Dead Men’s Path is a fitting short fiction for any would be disciple of Jesus Christ. It articulates the damaging effects when Christianity marries colonialism. It makes us aware of the failings of the Church in the past and the constant need for Incarnational missions work in every context.
The author, Chinua Achebe, was born in 1930 in Nigeria to Christian parents who were a part of the Igbo tribe. He was a participant in the decolonization of Nigeria in the 1950’s. His best known work is Things Fall Apart. On becoming a writer, Achebe said, “At the uni-versity I read some appalling European novels about Africa . . . and realized that our story could not be told for us by anyone else.”
This particular short fiction piece takes place in Nigeria in 1949 prior to decolonization. The main character in the piece is Michael Obi a flat character which is the embodiment of the culture crushing effect of colonization. He is a young and ambitious national who has excelled in the colonial education system and is appointed as headmaster to a “backward” school. Obi has bought into the “modern” ways of the Western education and has come to have a strong “condemnation” of the “older and often less educated ones.”
Obi’s encounter with a path and a village priest leads him to exhibit the expected disdain that he has for a backward people and their traditions. The resolution of this clash between an indoctrinated youth and an older village priest is a tribal-war between the school and the village.
Questions for the would be disciple of Jesus Christ are…
1. Do you serve your community from a place of arrogance and power?
2. Do you recognize the uniqueness of the community you are called to witness to?
3. Do you seek to learn from people before you seek to proclaim the Good News to them?
