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“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.

Despite its obvious usefulness to the village, Obi is unable to understand why the school would allow the villagers to cut through the schoolyard. Moreover, he is incurious about its importance to the village that he now shares community with. He cannot step back and rationally consider that the village may have needs and wants different from his own. He works on behalf of a colonizing force, and his self-assuredness blinds him to the idea that beliefs and interests other than his own are worth considering and protecting.

“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.”

The path is not against the regulations, as previous administrations have allowed the villagers to use it, but it offends Obi’s sensibilities about what he brings to the village. He not only comes into this community to teach the young people that their beliefs are wrong, but he attempts to do the same to the village priest. The disrespect with which he treats the priest’s beliefs is illustrative of the way that Obi cannot brook any suggestion that he might be wrong in his own beliefs. To back down, it seems, would be to surrender to an inferior belief system, and Obi is unwilling and unable to do that, even as it proves to be his undoing.

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