Where was this book when I was growing up? A classmate said to me after reading this that "Harry Potter walked so Akata Witch could run" and as a fan of the whole "normal kid finds out they have powers and goes to magic school" subgenre, wow, has it evolved in 20 years.
Akata Witch deals with a lot. While still clearly written for a younger, middle school or early young adult audience, it has enough depth that even at 22 I felt that I was able to take a lot from it. For one thing, culturally there was a lot I learned about Nigerian culture and the Igbo people specifically. It seems like Nigerian fantasy writers are currently having a moment, as I have read several books by authors from there in the past year while searching for more diverse works, and while I have not always enjoyed them, it is still interesting seeing the genre handled by authors who draw from outside the typical European influences.
For example, when reading the little insert from the book for free agents about masquerades, it took me reading over it a few times to understand what a masquerade is in Nigerian culture compared to European, let alone how it truly manifested for Leopard people, simply because of that culture being unfamiliar to me. Okorafor did do a really good job of making the reader understand the concept without outright explaining the Lamb version, as all of the characters would already be familiar with it, and this was frequently the case for Nigerian traditions and beliefs that came from real life. As a whiter-than-white American, it was informative and enlightening, but I also hope that African culture of all kinds makes it into more fantasy and is more common place, to the point where it is as normal as European culture is in the genre.
Beyond the more belief centered parts of the culture, I was also ignorant of more mundane cultural features of Nigeria and Africa, such as the tension between Africans and African Americans, so much so that there is a derogatory term specifically for Africans who have lived in and adapted American culture, akata. Which really brings an aspect to the book title Akata Witch that I was unaware of when I first heard of it compared to now. As Okorafor herself was born in the US to Igbo parents, it seems that the theme of having one foot in two different cultures, which doubly applies to Sunny, draws upon her own experiences. That Sunny is free agent, one foot in Leopard culture and the other in Lamb, as well as both Nigerian and American, draws parallels between these two experiences that can help someone without that sort of background understand the struggle of someone who is of two worlds or places. Were Sunny still Nigerian and American but of full Leopard background while Orlu was a free agent, or were she only Nigerian but still a free agent while only Sasha was an akata, the parallels would not be as present and the theme of how to live as two things at once would not be as strong and evident.
Sunny is also a very well developed and well rounded, strong female character. She is powerful, but still learning, still has to work hard and with others. She can do great things, such as her ability at soccer, and is generally a good person, but she still has flaws and makes mistakes, such as showing her spirit face impulsively to Jibaku while fighting, despite knowing full well how forbidden it is and that she would be punished for it. Additionally, while she does fight with Jibaku, it isn't because they're girls and there is none of the "not like other girls" trope that is so common in fiction, especially in fiction aimed at teenage girls, and she does have a good friendship with Chichi. She faces challenges both due to being albino and being a girl, and while there is thankfully no lecture about how girls are just as good as boys, there is enough that she says and that her mother does in response to her abusive father to let the reader know that treating girls as less then boys is wrong. Overall, Sunny is a very strong role model for young girls, especially young Black girls. She can do great things, has great power as a witch, but is still a good person and well written, flawed character. More please.
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