Previous
Prologue
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Akata Witch, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity and Belonging
The Individual vs. the Collective
Friendship and Teamwork
Education, Power, and Corruption
Summary
Analysis
In an excerpt from Fast Facts for Free Agents, Isong Abong Effiong Isong explains what a Leopard Person is. The term comes from an Efik term, and all people “of mystical true ability” are Leopard People. Two thousand years ago, there was a great worldwide massacre of Leopard People, which began in the Middle East after Jesus’s murder. The massacre is known as the Great Attempt. These days, Leopard People are safe and have used strong juju to cover up that the Great Attempt happened.
These excerpts from Fast Facts for Free Agents give readers a heads-up as to how the novel’s magical world works. For her part, Sunny doesn’t seem to know yet what a Leopard Person is (since she made no mention of them in the prologue), which creates some dramatic irony: readers can infer that Sunny might be a Leopard Person, but Sunny isn’t aware of this yet.
Themes
People point and laugh as soon as Sunny walks into the schoolyard—Sunny’s long blond hair is gone, and it’s now a puffy Afro. Even Sunny’s friends (or now, former friends) laugh and say Sunny is ugly. Things get worse in literature and writing class, when Sunny is the only student to get a high score on an essay. Miss Tate, the teacher, shouts that the essay was supposed to be easy and fun. She calls Sunny to the front of the class, pulls out her switch, and then puts the switch in Sunny’s hand. Sunny, Miss Tate says, is going to give each student three lashes on the hand.
At school, Sunny is totally alone and a bullying target, seemingly because of her looks. Keep in mind that since Sunny was born in New York, she went through many years of school in a primarily English-speaking country (it’s implied that a lot of Sunny’s conversations throughout the novel are conducted in Igbo, rather than English). She essentially has a head start on her classmates—but suddenly, when Miss Tate gives her the switch, this doesn’t seem like such a good thing. Asking Sunny to whip her own classmates also distances Sunny from her classmates further, creating even wider divisions between Sunny and any potential friends.
Themes
Sunny’s classmates are clearly livid as they line up in front of her. Orlu is the first in line; he’s a year older and likes to build things. Unlike everyone else, he just seems nervous. Sunny starts to cry and throws the switch to the ground. At this, Miss Tate pushes Sunny aside and hits each student on the hand herself. As they return to their seats, one kid kicks Sunny’s chair and calls her a “stupid pale-faced akata witch.” Sunny hates the word; it’s extremely rude.
Orlu immediately differentiates himself from the others by not openly resenting Sunny. For her part, Sunny can’t bear to be made into her classmates’ enemy in such a brutal way—but even though she refuses to hit her classmates, she can’t win. Calling her an “akata witch” takes aim at Sunny’s birthplace (not Nigeria) and at her skin color (physical differences, including albinism, are often linked to witchcraft). Sunny can’t change either of these things about herself, so she seems destined to not fit in at school.
Themes
After school, Sunny tries to escape—but three girls and four boys beat her, and nobody but Orlu steps in to stop it. Orlu suggests Sunny explain herself. The meanest girl, Jibaku, asks why Sunny didn’t hit them herself—she could’ve been gentle. Jibaku suggests Sunny likes seeing a white woman beat kids, since Sunny is white. Sunny snarls that she’s albino, not white, but a boy named Periwinkle says she’s ugly either way. Sunny snatches her umbrella off the ground (she uses it to protect herself from the sun) and says she couldn’t hit her classmates. Jibaku insults Sunny and leads the kids away.
Jibaku, Periwinkle, and the other bullies see Sunny’s refusal to hit them herself as essentially a refusal to protect them. Jibaku is angry enough, though, that it seems unclear whether Sunny could’ve avoided this beating by doing as Miss Tate asked. Further, Jibaku continues to suggest that Sunny is an outsider who hates Black people, since Jibaku implies that she doesn’t see Sunny as Black. This highlights again how poorly Sunny fits in.
Themes
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Orlu helps Sunny pick up her books and asks if she’s okay. Sunny angrily says Orlu didn’t help her, but Orlu shows her his cheek—Periwinkle and a boy named Calculus punched him. They start heading home and as they chat, they realize they have a lot in common. As they reach the intersection near Orlu’s house, Sunny asks who lives in the mud hut next door (the woman is supposedly a witch). Orlu says the woman’s name is Nimm; she lives there with her daughter.
Once Sunny realizes that Orlu did indeed try to defend her, her entire demeanor changes. And Orlu, for his part, could be unusually noble—it’s unclear, at this point, why he chose to stand up for her this time, when they’ve been classmates for a while now. Noting that there’s another supposed witch in town suggests that Sunny might have something in common with Orlu’s neighbor, though it’s still not clear what that might be.
Themes
Just then, a girl—Orlu’s neighbor—calls Sunny another rude name as she swaggers up to Orlu and looks Sunny up and down. The girl, Chichi, explains she doesn’t need to go to school and refuses to share her age; she says cryptically she could be older or younger than Sunny’s 12 years. Chichi then insults Sunny’s American-accented Igbo. The girls exchange a few more insults as Chichi saunters away.
When even Chichi—someone who doesn’t know Sunny at all—insults Sunny and is rude, it highlights just how at odds Sunny is with so many people in her hometown. Even complete strangers are, in Sunny’s opinion, unfairly judging her and then being oddly cryptic.
Themes
