Sunny’s albinism represents her identity—and, more broadly, her growing understanding that a person’s supposed “bad qualities” can actually be the source of their greatest strengths. Sunny begins the novel ashamed of being albino, as the condition causes her to not fit in at school or at home. Her father never wanted a daughter in the first place, and her albinism makes her an even less desirable daughter in his eyes. And at school, kids taunt Sunny for being a ghost, for not actually being Black, and for being ugly. Sunny realizes at this point that albinism makes her different from her classmates, but she doesn’t yet understand its full significance.
When Sunny is inducted into Leopard (magical) society, she discovers that her albinism still makes her a target of jokes about being a ghost—but it also is what makes her naturally very powerful. Anatov explains to Sunny that because she’s albino, there’s some truth to the teasing that she’s half-ghost: Sunny can step into the wilderness (the spirit world) naturally and easily, which means she can become invisible in the physical world. He also notes that she is able to manipulate time and is more likely than other people to receive premonitions from beings in the wilderness. These are all things, he explains, that advanced Leopard People can do with a lot of training, practice, and aids like juju powders. But because Sunny is albino, she should be able to do these things without aids and with only a little practice. Indeed, though Sunny struggles to feel at home in Leopard society and is far behind her classmates in terms of her education, she begins to feel far more secure as she discovers how easy it is to use the abilities connected to her albinism. In this sense, her albinism represents the idea that people’s differences don’t have to be weaknesses.
Sunny’s Albinism Quotes in Akata Witch
“But I can tell there’s more to you. I just know it.”
“What do you mean, more?”
Chichi smiled mysteriously. “People say stuff about people like you. That you’re all ghost, or a half and half, one foot in this world and one foot in another.” She paused. “That you can…see things.”
Sunny rolled her eyes. Not this again, she thought. So cliché. Everyone thinks the old lady, the hunchback, the crazy man, and the albino have magical evil powers. “Whatever,” she grumbled. She didn’t want to think about the candle.
Chichi laughed. “You’re right, those are silly stereotypes about albinos. But in your case, I think there’s something to it.”
She closed her eyes and soaked in the warm light. She didn’t need to stand in there for an hour to know—she knew deep in her skin. The sunshine felt like a warm friend, not an angry enemy. She didn’t need her umbrella anymore.
“Oh my goodness,” she whispered. “I can play soccer!”
Realizing what she was was the beginning of something, all right…but it was also the end of something else.
“So because I’m a Leopard albino, I can—”
“Yes. Certain attributes tend to yield certain talents. […] Abilities are things people are able to do without the use of a juju knife, powders, or other ingredients like the head of an ebett. They just come naturally.”
One of the other boys in white laughed and said something in a language she didn’t understand. Two other boys in white laughed hard, too. There was a rise in the chatter from the audience. She was used to ridicule, but this hurt more than usual. This wasn’t just about her being albino, this was about her being a girl—an ugly girl. Stupid boys. Stupid, blockhead, idiot boys, she thought.
“Grandma,” she whispered. As the old blind woman at the council meeting had said, Sunny looked nothing like her. But what did that matter? She smiled to herself and carefully put the picture back in the box.
Sunny’s Albinism Symbol Timeline in Akata Witch
