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
An excerpt from Fast Facts for Free Agents explains what chittim are: Leopard People currency. They’re curved metal rods; big copper ones are the most valuable and tiny gold ones are the least valuable. Chittim fall from the sky like rain, but they never hurt people. One earns chittim by gaining knowledge and wisdom. Isong warns the free agent reader that they’ll never get rich.
Currency has a different purpose in the Leopard world than in the Lamb world. It rewards knowledge and education, rather than a person’s ability to perform a task. The fact that gold chittim are the least valuable reinforces this idea—in the real world, gold is a more valuable metal than copper.
Themes
Everything seems normal when Sunny gets home, but she’s exhausted and goes to bed early. In the morning, Sunny gets dressed and puts on her favorite gold necklace, a gift from her father. Sunny’s mother tells Sunny to be home by four. Once Sunny meets up with Chichi and Orlu, Orlu says his mother was really angry about the trust knot. His parents also said that Sunny can’t enter Leopard Knocks until she’s fully initiated. Chichi grins—she knew this, and she’s certain Sunny is “one of [them].” Sunny is angry and confused, but Chichi says the worst that’ll happen is that Sunny can’t talk about this, or speak to her or Orlu again. They’re going to see a man named Anatov, Defender of Frogs and All Things Natural.
That Sunny chooses to wear a necklace from her father complicates their relationship a bit. On some level, she loves him and what he’s given her, even if she also resents how he treats her at other times. As Sunny meets up with her friends, Chichi’s trickster nature shines through: she acts like she tricked Orlu into performing the trust knot with Sunny yesterday. But Sunny isn’t entirely sure if she’s “one of [them],” or what that means, so Chichi’s unwillingness to speak plainly just raises the stakes in Sunny’s mind.
Themes
Orlu hires a cab to take them to the market. Once it reaches the market, he and Chichi lead Sunny away from it until they reach a path leading into the bush. There, several older men come out of the bush and ask if Sunny knows where she’s going. Chichi tells the man that Sunny is with her, which satisfies the man. Once the man is out of sight, Sunny begs for Orlu or Chichi to explain things—but they say Anatov will explain. Sunny grouses to herself that her friends could easily be Black Hat Otokoto’s accomplices—she saw the worst possible thing in the candle, after all, so anything’s possible.
Chichi, at least, seems well-known to the men who emerge from the bush, suggesting that she’s part of a community that gathers out here. This all remains unsettling for Sunny, though. She doesn’t know what community Chichi (and perhaps Orlu) are part of, and with a ritual killer on the loose, she knows she must be careful and protect herself. The candle’s vision also continues to haunt Sunny, reminding readers that there are potentially terrible things happening on a global scale.
Themes
When Orlu, Sunny, and Chichi reach a rushing river with a thin, slippery bridge with no handrails stretching across it, Sunny stops. Orlu explains that the entrance to Leopard Knocks is on the other side, and Chichi says the place is named after juju an Efik woman created to make an attacking leopard stub its foot. She and Orlu argue about which ethnic group has the strongest juju, but Sunny can’t listen: the river is too scary. Chichi says they’ll cross it later, but for now, they’re taking a path on this side of the river.
Orlu and Chichi make it seem like it’s no big deal to cross this scary bridge. They seem to know something about it that Sunny doesn’t—it’s Sunny’s lack of knowledge that makes the bridge so frightening. Chichi and Orlu’s argument, meanwhile, recalls the excerpt from Fast Facts about all the divisions that exist between people. There’s clearly juju in many Nigerian ethnic groups, but the argument suggests this doesn’t always lead to unity.
Themes
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Finally, Anatov’s hut comes into view. It’s big with two doors, one labeled IN and one labeled OUT. Chichi and Orlu lead Sunny through the OUT door. Anatov rises from a throne-like chair as Sunny sneezes snot into her hands. Anatov scolds Chichi that this is improper, and then asks Sunny what’s wrong with her. He hands her a tissue when she explains she needs to blow her nose—and then he watches her intently and declares that she’s “yellow.” Sunny snaps that she’s albino, but Anatov tells her to sit down or things will get even worse for her. He walks a slow circle around her and then pulls out white powder, which he sprinkles in a circle around Sunny. He then pulls out a jeweled knife—Sunny is terrified he’s Black Hat Otokoto.
Immediately, Anatov reads as a very powerful person. His throne-like chair connotes power and prestige, and he seems to be able to say whatever he wants to whomever he wants without consequences. As Sunny sees it, Anatov is just being a jerk and teasing her for her albinism. But it seems likely that Anatov means something else, or more, by calling Sunny “yellow.” Whatever Anatov is doing gets no explanation—and without context, Sunny assumes it could easily be a ritual that a serial killer follows before murdering a victim.
Themes
Chuckling, Anatov says Sunny will remember this for a while. He draws in the air with his knife and a red symbol floats down from it toward Sunny’s head. Chichi tells Sunny to hold her breath—but as the symbol touches Sunny, Sunny is yanked through the floor, deep into the earth. Earth fills Sunny’s mouth and it pulls her clothes off. Sunny starts to move back up. Her body is in pain already as she bursts into water and then back out of it again. With a splat, she’s back in Anatov’s hut with mud in her mouth and things falling around her. When Sunny opens her eyes and asks what happened, she sounds like a glamorous smoker and feels like a graceful ballet dancer. Orlu says he’s never seen “that kind” before, but Chichi hisses at him to turn away.
Being pulled into the earth is a total surprise to Sunny—and she seems to return from the earth a totally different person. Orlu reinforces this when he notes never having seen “that kind” before. It’s not clear what “kind” he’s referring to, but Sunny has definitely changed. Anatov also highlights that this is a unique and transformative experience when he warns Sunny that she’ll remember this for a while. Notably, Orlu and Chichi also don’t seem all that concerned, suggesting that whatever happened to Sunny is considered normal to them.
Themes
Sunny asks if this can stop now, and something seems to shrink back inside of her. She realizes she’s wearing a raffia dress, and Chichi says that Sunny passed. Anatov instructs Orlu to put the chittim in Sunny’s purse and explains that Sunny is a rare free agent, since neither of her parents are Leopard People. He asks if Sunny has any mysterious extended family members, and Sunny says her maternal grandmother was strange and possibly mentally ill. But she doesn’t know her grandmother’s maiden name, so Anatov can’t identify her. He explains that Leopard abilities travel through spirit lines, rather than bloodlines, but most Leopard People are born to Leopard parents.
Finally, Sunny gets some information she can work with: she is indeed a Leopard Person, and someone else in her family was as well. That Sunny has always heard her grandmother was mentally ill seems akin to Sunny hearing that Chichi’s mother is a witch: questionable, given all that Sunny is learning, and also a matter of perspective. Sunny also begins to feel even more like an anomaly. She’s not only a rare albino; she’s also a rare free agent. In this regard, she’s very different from Chichi and Orlu.
Themes
Anatov then explains that Sunny has been initiated: it’s like she’s a computer that came installed with certain programs, but now those programs have been activated. He then asks if odd things have happened to Sunny recently. Sunny tells him about what she saw in the candle, and Anatov deems it “interesting.” But he tells Orlu and Chichi it’s their job, not his, to explain more things—and he expects them all back here at midnight in four days.
Already, Anatov is encouraging Sunny to rely on her peers, rather than her teachers, for information. He implies that it’s not his job to simply explain everything to her—she’ll have to figure stuff out with her friends’ help. His unwillingness to say anything about the candle may also suggest that he’s aware already of what she saw, or that it’s not anything to worry about.
Themes
Then, Anatov says that “he” arrived last night. Orlu groans, but Chichi laughs happily that they visited at just the right time—and Anatov says that the world is “bigger and more important than you.” Anatov calls for a boy named Sasha, who enters the hut a moment later. Sasha, Anatov explains, is here from Chicago to “cool down.” Chichi seems intrigued by Sasha immediately. Anatov shoos the kids out of his hut and says to take care of Sunny.
Anatov cares about the kids—he doesn’t want Chichi and Orlu to abandon Sunny, and he’s seemingly been caring for Sasha—but he also continues to show the kids that it’s really their job to support each other. He also starts to introduce the idea that in the grand scheme of things, the kids themselves don’t matter very much: they’re insignificant when compared to the universe, and they also have little control.
Themes
Sunny is nauseous and tired. She asks why Anatov has the IN and OUT signs if nobody uses them, but Orlu explains that Anatov’s hut is outside of the disgusting world. Sasha offers Sunny a minty chewing stick, which helps her feel better. Chichi asks if they’re ready to go, but Orlu grumbles that he doesn’t want to hang out with “dangerous people.” He knows what Sasha did, and he doesn’t want to live with a “Troublemaking black American” and an “akata criminal.” Sunny quietly asks Sasha to tell his story and shares that she was also born in the U.S. She feels like an akata often here. Orlu looks ashamed.
Even within Sunny’s group of friends, prejudice exists: Orlu sees Sasha as lesser and as more dangerous than Chichi and Sunny, whom he sees as Nigerian. Since Sunny is both Nigerian and American, she’s able to bridge the gap between Orlu and Sasha and encourage them to get along. Her dual identity, then, may be more useful than she initially thought. For his part, Sasha seems far kinder than Orlu is giving him credit for—he, not Orlu or Chichi, is helping Sunny feel better after her initiation.
Themes
Sasha shares that his parents moved to an all-Lamb neighborhood, so he got into fights—and Orlu snaps that Sasha set a masquerade on a few kids. Chichi is impressed, since that’s upper-level juju, but Orlu insists that they’re Ekpiri—low-level—and there are rules. Sasha remains unconcerned, even when Orlu adds that Sasha changed the minds of two police officers. Sunny tells the boys to stop fighting; they’ll have to figure it out since Sasha is supposed to live with Orlu. Chichi says they should all go to Leopard Knocks, get lunch, and explain things to Sunny. When Orlu comments on how heavy with chittim Sunny’s purse is, Chichi points out that Sunny knew nothing before she was initiated, so she learned a lot.
This argument develops each kid’s personality. While Orlu values rules and honesty, both Chichi and Sasha are more interested in justice and in trying new things—even if that means breaking the rules. Sunny is the peacemaker. So within the group, even though the kids are all new to each other, there are already checks and balances. That Sunny earned so much chittim during her initiation highlights again how important learning and knowledge is in Leopard society—and how important knowledge of oneself is in this world.
Themes
