Introduction
This essay examines how Chinua Achebe’s “Dead Men’s Path” and Thomas King’s “Totem” employ symbolism to explore the destructive consequences of colonial intervention. Both stories portray attempts by outsiders to impose external values on indigenous spaces, provoking responses that ultimately harm all parties involved. Through close textual analysis, the discussion highlights the ways in which symbolic elements communicate the cyclical nature of colonial harm and resistance. While the texts differ in geographical and cultural settings, they share a concern with the unintended outcomes that arise when colonising forces disregard established traditions.
Symbolism of the Path in Achebe’s Narrative
In “Dead Men’s Path,” the footpath functions as the central symbol of communal continuity and ancestral connection. The path links the village shrine to the burial ground and is traversed by spirits of the deceased, thereby representing an unbroken lineage between past and present (Achebe, 1972). When the ambitious headmaster Michael Obi orders the path to be closed and planted with flowers, this act embodies a colonial-style modernisation project that dismisses local beliefs as backward. The subsequent death of a woman in childbirth and the reported anger of the ancestors demonstrate how the desecration triggers retaliation. Obi’s well-intentioned yet culturally insensitive reforms therefore produce reciprocal damage: the school loses its anticipated prestige, and the community experiences spiritual distress. The imagery of the overgrown, ruined garden at the story’s close underscores the futility of imposing change without regard for existing cultural frameworks.
The Totem Pole as a Resistant Presence in King’s Story
King’s “Totem” similarly uses a physical object—the totem pole in the gallery—as a symbol of indigenous persistence that resists containment. Although the pole is placed behind a panel to satisfy museum aesthetics and visitor comfort, it continues to produce disruptive sounds that unsettle staff and patrons alike (King, 1993). These auditory disturbances can be read as manifestations of unresolved colonial violence, returning in a form that cannot be silenced by architectural concealment. The gallery workers’ successive attempts to remove or disguise the pole mirror broader historical patterns of assimilation and erasure. Each intervention escalates the disturbance, implying that repression of indigenous cultural expression breeds further instability. Consequently, the totem becomes the site where colonising structures encounter their own limitations, generating reciprocal friction that affects both the institution and those who uphold it.
Reciprocal Calamities and the Cycle of Retaliation
Both authors illustrate how colonial or neo-colonial acts set in motion consequences that rebound upon the instigators. In Achebe’s text, the headmaster’s rationalist outlook, typical of early postcolonial educational policies, disregards the spiritual economy of the village and precipitates crisis. In King’s narrative, bureaucratic efforts to manage indigenous artefacts within a settler-controlled space generate ongoing operational disorder. The symbolic objects—the path and the totem—thus operate as agents of return, reminding readers that attempts to sever communities from their heritage rarely conclude without cost to all sides. This dynamic aligns with broader postcolonial concerns about the instability produced when dominant cultures ignore the agency of those they seek to reform.
Conclusion
Through the symbolic treatment of the footpath and the totem pole, Achebe and King demonstrate that colonial interference provokes resistance whose consequences affect coloniser and colonised alike. The stories suggest that meaningful engagement with indigenous knowledge systems might avert such reciprocal harm. While the narratives remain fictional, they offer pertinent reminders of the enduring tensions surrounding cultural imposition and the necessity of reciprocal respect in cross-cultural encounters.
References
- Achebe, C. (1972) Girls at War and Other Stories. London: Heinemann.
- King, T. (1993) One Good Story, That One. Toronto: HarperCollins.
