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Chapter 10
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
During his next lesson, Anatov tells Sunny she’s lucky she wasn’t caned. He notes that he can’t send Sunny, Orlu, Sasha, and Chichi to meet Sugar Cream after Sunny got in trouble, so they’ll learn about healing juju instead. He asks the kids to pretend he’s a man with a boil on his butt. He needs the boil to disappear before his wife sees it; what should one do? Brushing off Chichi and Sasha’s suggestions, he instructs the kids to open their books to a page that details how to undo and reknit the body’s cells. Then, he instructs everyone to find a bruise or scratch on their bodies and take a pinch of Healing Hands powder. Anatov leads the kids through visualizing their ailment and tells them to blow the powder at it.
Bringing up how Sunny met Sugar Cream is a subtle way for Anatov to express his disapproval of Sunny’s actions: he doesn’t have to scold her, he just has to acknowledge that he knows what she did. He also makes it clear that Sunny’s bad behavior is what’s keeping all four kids from meeting Sugar Cream. This shows Sunny that her actions affect others, and the ripples may extend well beyond what she expected. Still, Anatov’s goal remains to educate his students regardless of how much trouble they get into, hence the practical lesson on healing juju.
Themes
Sunny’s arm burns and she screeches—but her bruise is gone. Sasha and Chichi weren’t able to get their ailments to heal, and Orlu’s scrape healed painlessly. Anatov nods that Orlu has more control than Sunny, who just has more natural power; Chichi and Sasha just need practice. For the next two hours, Sunny shadows the others as they practice juju knife movements; without a knife, she can’t do much. But then, Anatov announces that they’ll all go to Abuja next weekend. Sunny will pick out her juju knife, and they’ll attend the Zuma Festival and the Zuma National Wrestling Match finals. Orlu and Sasha look equally thrilled, even when Anatov notes that the fight usually ends in death.
Anatov’s assessment of each student’s performance is telling: that Sunny has more natural power than the others suggests again that there’s more to her than meets the eye. And Orlu continues to read as calm and levelheaded when he’s able to so perfectly heal his scrape. That Orlu and Sasha express no worry or emotion at hearing that the wrestling match often ends in death speaks to their innocence. Death might not yet seem real to them, and/or they may expect Leopard society to go out of its way to prevent a wrestler’s death.
Themes
Sunny has no idea how she’s going to convince her mother to let her go away for a full 24 hours. Chichi helps Sunny come up with a plan. Two days after the meeting with Anatov, Chichi comes for dinner. Chukwu greets Chichi at the door and turns on the charm as he shows her in. Rolling her eyes, Sunny drags Chichi into the kitchen to meet her mother. To her surprise, Chichi is extremely respectful—and Sunny’s mother shares that she went to school with Chichi’s mother. After some more small talk, Chichi asks if Sunny can spend the night at her house this weekend; she promises Sunny won’t be late. Giving the girls an odd look, Sunny’s mother asks Sunny to promise to be good and responsible. The girls celebrate once Sunny’s mother leaves the kitchen.
Sunny might feel more at home now that she’s a part of Leopard society, but this doesn’t mean her problems at home vanish—she can’t, after all, tell her mother where she’s going. But by working together, Sunny and Chichi are able to convince Sunny’s mother to give her permission. Sunny doesn’t seem to pick up on it, but her mother seems oddly in the know about what might be happening—her odd look and the promise she asks Sunny to make seem very meaningful, as if she knows that her daughter is involved in something inherently dangerous.
Themes
