With his young wife Nancy supporting his radical ideas and views of a modern school, not just in teaching method but also in appearance, Obi tries to bring the ‘backwards’ school up to date by teaching the children to ‘laugh’ at the beliefs of their forefathers.
When Obi discovers an ancient path that goes through the compound of the school, he is amazed that the other teachers have allowed the villagers to use it, as it goes right through the new hedges and Marigold beds. After learning from another teacher that the path connects the village shrine with their place of burial, Obi decides that this is yet another outdated idea that needs to be eradicated. To prevent the villagers using this path, Obi plants heavy sticks topped with barbed wire at either end.
Three days later the village priest visits him. He informs Obi that the whole life of the village depends on the path. He elaborates by saying that dead relatives depart by it, ancestors visit by it, but, most importantly, it is the path of children coming in to be born.
Obi, however, is not to be swayed. He does not even acknowledge the old priest’s ideas. He replies with ‘Dead men do not require footpaths. The whole idea is just fantastic.’
The priest, less academically educated but infinitely more wise, dignified and respectful, tells Obi that what he says may be true, but that he and his fellow villagers follow the beliefs of their forefathers. The priest is held high in the village’s hearts.
The point of the story is always to listen to other people’s points of view. Also to understand that education doesn’t put you above others and not everything can be explained.
Bessie Head was born in South Africa in 1937 to a black father and a white mother, but due to the apartheid Bessie was fostered and went to mission school. But before training to be a teacher she took up permanent exile in Botswana and became a citizen there in 1979. She has written a number of short stories and autobiographical pieces, but sadly died in 1986.
This story is about the marriage of a young couple who are both well educated. The bridegroom Kegoletile gets the bride Neo, who is well educated and well off, pregnant, and a women called Mathata, who is not educated, but very kind-natured and poor, is the most obvious choice because Neo is bad-mannered, self centred and false. Mainly because she is educated and their note e.g. ‘’she was the only one to complete her ‘O’ levels and never failed to rub in this fact’’.
Her family and relatives can’t wait to be rid of her. When Neo is six months pregnant her and kegoletile get married, but kegoletile marries Neo for her money, but is in love with Mathata. The wedding is a ‘’modern’’ one ‘’A lot of traditional courtesies have been left out, such as someone staying up all night preparing diphire or traditional wedding breakfast’’
The culture in this story is different to Dead mans path. This is less about a system of beliefs; the traditions they carry out in the story are purely just traditions nothing more.