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Chapter 6
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
Fast Facts for Free Agents explains that Nigeria is known for its 419 scams, where people get roped in to helping Nigerian princes get their money out of banks. Leopard scammers, though, are supposedly working on supercomputers that will bring down Lamb economies in seconds. Isong won’t write any more on the subject; free agents should refuse if they’re ever asked to help one of these criminals.
Thus far, the parts of Leopard society that Sunny has encountered have seemed positive or neutral. This passage from Fast Facts makes it clear that just as there are people doing nefarious things in the Lamb world, the same thing is happening in the Leopard world. In this way, the two societies aren’t so different.
Themes
Orlu, Sasha, and Chichi lead Sunny down the path and then stop. Sunny asks what’s going on. Chichi says wryly that Kehinde is an elder of sorts, though he isn’t old—and he lives in Night Runner Forest, which makes things difficult. Orlu notes that one can only enter Night Runner Forest at night, and Sasha immediately kneels and starts to draw with chalk powder. He explains he’s drawing a vévé as he draws a circle with a tree in it and stabs a knife into the middle. Chichi asks Sunny to say “Night Runner Forest come” in Igbo. Sunny nervously complies—and the vévé spins and stops to point at a new, very dark path leading into the forest.
As the kids consider their task, they immediately begin working together to support each other. Sasha, Chichi, and Orlu must explain to Sunny exactly what the big deal is, but they also give her the opportunity to help and practice working juju (by asking her to summon Night Runner Forest). The way that Night Runner Forest exists—hidden alongside the physical world until someone summons it—highlights again how intertwined the spirit and physical worlds are, a new idea for Sunny.
Themes
Orlu goes first and asks a firefly to light their way. The firefly complies, so Sunny, Chichi, and Sasha follow Orlu into the forest. None of them knows what Kehinde looks like, and as they discuss, everything suddenly starts to creak and hum. Orlu shouts for everyone to get down as bats swarm above them. Chichi screams, and Orlu shouts for everyone to cover their ears and for Sasha to make “it” as high as possible. A shrill noise pierces the air, causing most of the bats that don’t drop dead to flee. Chittim falls and Orlu calls for another firefly to light their way (the first got eaten).
This passage is told more from Sunny’s perspective, so it allows readers to feel just as lost as she does as she ventures into the forest and encounters new, frightening things. Again, except for Sunny (who’s mostly just learning), the kids all work together to best handle whatever is attacking them. Orlu is able to talk the fireflies into helping, while Sasha creates the shriek that disperses the bats. The chittim highlights that the four did exactly what they were supposed to do—and learned how to defend themselves.
Themes
Chichi is bleeding. She explains to Sunny that the bats were a diversion: a bush soul attacked her. This is why her arm is bleeding; hurting something with one’s juju knife means the injury is mirrored on the knife’s owner. But if she hadn’t cut it, they’d all be zombies. Sasha and Orlu gather the chittim, which the four earned for teamwork, and they vote Sunny treasurer. When Chichi is feeling better, the group moves on. Orlu goes first and protects them from creatures and juju meant to hurt them.
As Chichi explains to Sunny what happened, she presents the idea that defending themselves successfully has consequences—she still has to heal from the mirrored juju knife injury. This highlights how interconnected the magical world in the novel is. When the kids identify that they earned the chittim for teamwork, it shows that they’re coming to understand how much the Leopard world values teamwork and friendship—indeed, it values them more than the fact that they survived.
Themes
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Finally, they reach Kehinde’s hut. Chichi calls for Kehinde, and he appears and greets “the princess, the American, the dyslexic, and the albino.” He tells Chichi, Sasha, Sunny, and Orlu to sit, and they all sit right where they are. Dirt builds up behind Kehinde until it’s formed a chair for him, and Kehinde then demands light from lightning bugs—he doesn’t have to plead with them like Orlu. He offers the kids drinks and a monkey tosses glass bottles of soda to them. Then, Kehinde observes that the four made it—they wouldn’t be worth his time if they hadn’t.
Kehinde seems fully in control of the natural world. The earth itself moves to serve him, and the insects seem to not dare to disobey a command. The way that Kehinde speaks to the four suggests that getting to his hut was a test. Now they’ve proven that they’re worthy of something, though it’s not clear yet what they’re worthy of.
Themes
Sunny frowns and Kehinde asks her to explain. Sasha, Orlu, and Chichi are also upset, so Sunny bursts out that they could’ve died. What kind of teacher, she asks, sends students to die? Kehinde says simply that had the kids died, their bodies would’ve been returned to their parents with “explanation.” But he then pulls out a newspaper and says that young people’s lives aren’t worth much these days and the world is a big place. Sunny starts to speak up again, but Kehinde tells her to be quiet and Chichi smacks Sunny. Smirking, Kehinde says Anatov thinks the four might be useful to Leopard People. He then says he’s busy—the kids can go. Sunny is enraged.
Sunny isn’t used to a world or an education system where adults care so little about children’s lives. This seems, to her, to be on a totally different level than even Miss Tate whipping kids for poor English. So it seems disturbing that Kehinde speaks so nonchalantly about her and her friends’ prospective deaths. Kehinde tries to put this in perspective by bringing up Black Hat Otokoto’s murders—it’s better, he seems to suggest, to die during one’s lesson than to be brutally murdered.
Themes
Kehinde pulls Sasha aside and says something; Sasha nods. Then, Kehinde throws something into the path, scattering creatures and opening up a short path leading right to Anatov’s hut. As Sasha, Orlu, Chichi, and Sunny reach Anatov’s hut, Anatov emerges looking relieved—and Sunny realizes how much danger she was in. They take a funky train back home, and Chichi coaches Sunny through sneaking back through the keyhole. Sunny earns more bronze chittim when she materializes inside her bedroom. It’s five in the morning—Sunny has to get up for school in two hours.
Sunny isn’t a fan of Kehinde, but she has to rethink how she feels about him when he essentially ensures that the kids are going to make it back to Anatov’s alive. She also realizes, upon seeing Anatov’s expression, that she’s not taking what’s happening to her quite seriously enough. Sunny and her friends are rewarded with praise and chittim when they succeed—but the consequences if they don’t succeed, Sunny now realizes, are deadly.
Themes
