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Chapter 1
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
Another excerpt from Fast Facts for Free Agents explains that home won’t be the same once a free agent learns what they are. A person’s world fractures into even more groups once they learn they’re a Leopard Person—and it doesn’t help that the world is full of “idiot Lambs.” As a free agent, the reader is part of the Leopard society and kind of part of the Lamb world. The free agent’s “ignorance” will make it easier to exist in the Lamb world.
This excerpt foreshadows that Sunny may soon learn what she is. The possibility that a free agent’s home won’t be the same once they figure out who they are might not be such a bad thing for Sunny. She already feels so out of place at home and in her wider community that discovering her true identity may help her feel more secure.
Themes
Sunny and Orlu walk home together after school for the next two weeks. It distracts Sunny from thinking about what she saw in the candle—and it protects them from a ritual killer called Black Hat Otokoto, who’s on the loose and has been abducting and brutally murdering children. Chichi usually joins Sunny and Orlu near Orlu’s house and gradually, Sunny gets used to her. Chichi insists she spends her days helping her mother and walking—and she loves tricking people. Sunny is shocked when Chichi shares that her absent father is Nyanga Tolotolo, Sunny’s father’s favorite musician. Soon, Sunny and Chichi are friends, too.
Sunny might have seen the end of the world in the candle, but she has bigger things to worry about now—such as Black Hat Otokoto, a serial killer who may choose to target a young girl like Sunny. Befriending Orlu helps Sunny feel safer, but it also helps her expand her circle of trusted friends. Chichi is a bit of an enigma, though; even as Sunny starts to piece together Chichi’s parentage and what she spends her days doing, Chichi is still mysterious.
Themes
One day, Orlu has to take a bus somewhere mysterious after school, so Sunny walks home alone and keeps an eye out for Black Hat Otokoto. She shivers as she thinks of the candle—just as Chichi appears behind her. Chichi asks if Sunny and Orlu are friends now and declares that if Sunny is going to be Orlu’s friend, she has to be Chichi’s friend, too. Sunny is confused; she thought she and Chichi were already friends. But Chichi says she doesn’t know enough about Sunny yet to consider her a friend.
Sunny is confused because she thought Chichi was already her friend—they hang out most days after school, after all. But Chichi subtly implies that in her opinion, this isn’t enough to make them real friends. They’ll have to connect over something more substantial, though it's not clear yet what that thing might be. This is unsettling for Sunny, since it seems like the rules are suddenly changing.
Themes
Chichi says she’s sure there’s more to Sunny than meets the eye. People say that albinos are part ghost, or that they can see things. Sunny rolls her eyes; people always think those with physical differences are magic, and she hates it. Chichi laughs at Sunny’s anger and says that Orlu can “undo bad things.” Sunny says she already knows Orlu is good at fixing things, but Chichi says that’s not the whole story. Nervously, she invites Sunny to come to her house. Sunny calls her mother and then follows Chichi into the red mud hut. The hut is filled with dusty books and makes Sunny sneeze, but Sunny says it’s fine—she’s a book lover too. These old thick books don’t look like Sunny’s novels, though.
In Sunny’s experience, people scapegoat those with physical differences (like albinism) and connect them to magic—which, at this point, Sunny believes is ridiculous and not even real. Chichi continues to speak cryptically; it’s not clear what “undo[ing] bad things” even means. But Chichi’s behavior suggests that there’s more for Sunny to learn, if Sunny is willing to trust her. Then, entering Chichi’s hut shows Sunny a new way of living. Sunny might love books, but she realizes suddenly that not all books are created equal—or serve the same purposes.
Themes
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Sunny finally notices Chichi’s mother and greets her. Chichi’s mother offers Sunny tea, and Sunny feels like she can’t refuse—she wants tea, but she sees no way to warm water and pointing that out would be rude. But Chichi’s mother leaves the hut and returns minutes later with sweetened Lipton. Chichi explains that she and her mother read a lot and trade back the books they don’t want anymore. Chichi’s mother shows Sunny the book she’s reading currently, which is an old favorite: In the Shadow of the Bush by P. Amaury Talbot. It’s as stereotypical as one might expect of a book written by a white man in 1912—but Chichi’s mother says Talbot unwittingly preserved important information in the book.
Sunny’s intense desire to not offend Chichi or her mother means that she doesn’t question where the tea comes from—but nevertheless, the tea seems to appear magically out of thin air. As Chichi’s mother tells Sunny about her book, she implies that there are many different ways to look at a work like this. P. Amaury Talbot’s books, written about the people and cultures he studied while living in Southern Nigeria, are now considered anthropological classics—but Chichi’s mother makes it seem like there’s more to the book than that. And whatever allows her to see more in the book isn’t, at this point, visible or accessible to Sunny yet.
Themes
Sunny loses herself in her thoughts. Both her parents are highly educated and very successful in their jobs, so it’s a bit shocking to encounter an educated woman like Chichi’s mother living in a hut like this. After chatting for a while, Chichi’s mother gets up to leave. Once she’s gone, Sunny asks how long Chichi has known Orlu—and the girls hear Orlu get home next door. Chichi calls for him, and he enters the hut looking very concerned. While Chichi runs outside to get him some tea, Sunny asks if Orlu can really “undo things.” Orlu shouts for Chichi and scolds her for having a big mouth. They argue, but Sunny doesn’t understand exactly what they’re arguing about. She demands to know what’s going on.
This is a bit of a culture shock moment for Sunny. She’s been raised to believe that education exists for one purpose: to get someone a high paying job that will then fund a comfortable life. Chichi’s mother is clearly educated, so Sunny begins to suspect that there’s something else going on here, since Chichi’s mother lives in this crude hut. Things get even more complicated, then, when Orlu—who seems calm and levelheaded usually—starts to shout and argue with Chichi. Whatever Chichi is saying seems important and secret, since Orlu is so upset about it.
Themes
Sighing, Orlu pulls a piece of chalk out of his pocket and draws a circle with three lines radiating from the center on a book. He scribbles symbols and then offers Chichi the book to "mark it." Chichi presses her thumb to the chalk, and then Orlu offers it to Sunny. Sunny says her mother thinks this is evil, but Orlu says that Sunny’s mother doesn’t know anything about juju. Sunny presses her thumb to the chalk—and then Orlu pulls out a knife. This irritates Chichi, but Orlu says he wants this to be strong. He touches the knife to his tongue and passes the knife to Chichi, who does the same. Chichi passes the knife to Sunny. Sunny is afraid of diseases, but Chichi says that once Sunny does this, she “can’t turn back.” Curious, Sunny touches the knife to her tongue.
Immediately, Sunny realizes that what’s going on here is juju (magic). Orlu essentially assures Sunny that not all juju is bad, thereby broadening how Sunny looks at the world. By trusting him, Sunny starts to move away from her parents and how she’s been raised to see the world; now, she’s relying on and trusting her friends rather than her family. And though this is scary for Sunny, she’s ultimately too curious about what’s even going on to refuse the chalk drawing or the knife. This will, Chichi suggests, change Sunny’s life forever—and Sunny is ready for a change.
Themes
The knife cut stings—and suddenly, everything looks weird. Sunny feels like “reality is blossoming.” She asks her friends to make it stop, but Chichi just asks Sunny to swear to never tell anyone about this. Desperately, Sunny shrieks that she swears—and everything goes back to normal. Orlu explains that they just performed a trust knot; Sunny physically can’t tell anyone what she hears her friends say. Orlu explains that he can undo bad juju by instinct. Chichi says that juju can be good, bad, or neutral, and Orlu adds that in Nigeria, people with powers like this are called Leopard People. Sunny remembers the candle but says nothing as Orlu explains that Chichi can remember anything she sees. Feeling ill, Sunny gets up to leave, but Chichi asks Sunny to meet her and Orlu tomorrow morning. Sunny nods.
Sunny literally develops a new way of seeing as she participates in the trust knot—reality “blossom[s],” or in other words, she’s seeing more than what she initially thought was there. This introduces the idea that there’s more to Sunny’s world than she thought possible, as it seems like magic is woven through her world in ways that are invisible to the average person. The implication here is that Sunny, like Orlu and Chichi, is a Leopard Person. At this point, this is a lot for Sunny to take in. She needs some time to think about it before she can trust her friends and accept this potential new facet of her identity.
Themes
