In such a regime, I say, you died a good death if your life had inspired someone to come forward and shoot your murderer in the chest—without asking to be paid.

Achebe’s line evokes a society in which formal justice has collapsed and violence has become the primary currency of moral accounting. A “good death” is redefined not by peaceful closure or legal redress but by whether one’s life generated enough solidarity, loyalty, or moral outrage that another person will risk everything to exact immediate retribution—“without asking to be paid,” i.e., not as a hired killer but as an avenger moved by conviction. The quote underscores how authoritarian or lawless regimes distort ethical norms: dignity and meaning are sought in retaliatory courage because institutions cannot be trusted to punish wrongdoing. It is both a grim tribute to communal bonds and an indictment of the conditions that make vengeance seem like the only justice.