At its heart, Akata Witch is a story about the power of friendship and teamwork—it suggests that learning to work with others as a team, and learning to make friends, are some of the most important lessons for kids to learn as they grow. Anatov—who is Sunny, Orlu, Chichi, and Sasha’s primary Leopard (magical) teacher—highlights how important friendship is when he sends his students out on a dangerous task during their first lesson together. He asks them to travel through the dangerous Night Runner Forest to visit another scholar—a trip that could easily turn deadly, if the four can’t figure out how to work together and use one another’s strengths to repel the various beings that try to kill them. Sunny and her friends work together to do all sorts of things, from calling and sending away a dangerous masquerade to ultimately defeating the ritual killer Black Hat Otokoto and one of the most dangerous masquerades, Ekwensu. And as they do, they earn much more chittim (Leopard currency that falls from the sky when a Leopard Person learns something) than they do when they perform tasks on their own. This suggests that the focus on friendship and teamwork is a feature of Leopard society: even the mysterious forces that control the Leopard world (like whatever causes chittim to fall and decides how much a person receives) seem to value teamwork more than individual pursuits.
Part of being a good teammate, the novel suggests, is being able to identify team members’ strengths and support them in their weaknesses. The novel even goes so far as to imply that being a good teammate and being able to provide these checks and balances is more important than accomplishing whatever the team’s goal might be, something that it highlights when Sunny and Sasha play in a soccer match for Leopard students at a festival. Sunny and Sasha are on a team that includes kids from age 11 to 18, all with a wide range of soccer skills. Their opponents, on the other hand, are all older, burlier boys who are extremely good players. Though the other team wins the match, Sunny’s team’s ability to work together and support every player earns them an entire storm of chittim—showing again that being a good friend and teammate is, in the world of the novel, far more important than winning.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Friendship and Teamwork ThemeTracker
Friendship and Teamwork Quotes in Akata Witch
“Troublemaking black American,” Orlu spat. “Akata criminal.”
“Hey!” Sunny said.
“As if I don’t know what that means,” Sasha said, looking mildly annoyed.
[…]
“So you know,” [Sunny] continued, “I was born in the States, too. I came back with my parents when I was nine. That’s only three years ago.” She paused and looked meaningfully at Orlu. “I may not talk about it much, but most days I feel very much like an…akata.”
“Money and material things make you king or queen of the Lamb world. You can do no wrong, you can do anything.
“Leopard People are different. The only way you can earn chittim is by learning. The more you learn, the more chittim you earn. Knowledge is the center of all things. The Head Librarian of the Obi Library of Leopard Knocks is the keeper of the greatest stock of knowledge in West Africa.”
“If you’d have all perished, we’d have found you and your bodies would have been returned to your parents with…explanation,” Kehinde said.
Sunny’s mouth fell open. What kind of barbaric coldhearted man was this?
“Come now,” Kehinde said, pulling out a newspaper. He shook it at them. “Have you seen the news lately? If you haven’t noticed, a person’s life, especially a young person’s, isn’t worth much these days. The world is bigger than all of you. Chances have to be taken. But thankfully, here you are.”
“Teamwork is the only reason you four lived to see Kehinde,” Anatov said. “There are seriously unsafe places in Leopard Knocks. Places where people try to steal chittim instead of earning it. Where they have forgotten why they receive chittim in the first place. Knowledge is more valuable than the chittim it earns.”
“You expect us to capture this Black Hat, who is like you, one of these people who has passed the highest of the highest level of juju ability? That’s—I mean no disrespect—” She paused, the irritation that had been brewing in her for weeks suddenly flaring bright. She felt used. “That’s insane! And—and I’m beginning to know how you people think! You’ll just find some other kids to do it if we’re all murdered! And why am I included in this?! I don’t know anything!”
“This is bigger than you,” Taiwo said, turning very serious. “But you’re part of it, too. It would be unfair for me to expect you to understand this just yet, but you will.”
“Why didn’t they stop it?”
“Because life doesn’t work that way,” Anatov said. “When things get bad, they don’t stop until you stop the badness—or die.” He paused. “That’s an important lesson for all of you. This is why I brought you here. This is why you’re staying in that hotel. Look around, listen, and learn. This is not a holiday. In a month, you will all be facing something as ugly as what these two men faced this afternoon.”
“That was amazing, o!” Godwin exclaimed.
“Did you see her?” Kouty exclaimed.
“Like Pele!” Sasha shouted.
The French speakers were shouting in French.
And chittim rained on us all.
The white team looked half as happy, and less than half as much chittim fell around them. They gathered and calmly slapped hands, turning to look at the green team celebrating its loss.
“How many chittim fell when it was over?”
“Seven coppers,” Orlu mumbled. “We could have gotten people killed and we got paid for it.”
“As a group you made a mistake and you learned you could also right it,” Anatov said.
“No one is willing to push the envelope. So what if she called up a damn Mmuo Aku and it went wild! She still did it! She still performed the most sophisticated juju any of them had ever seen.”
“True, but you’re wrong,” Orlu said. “We can’t live in chaos. The ages are set for each level for a reason. You can be able to do something and not be mature enough to deal with the consequences.”
Sunny frowned. “You mean you’ve sent other groups like ours? And—”
“We have and will continue to until Black Hat is taken down,” Yaboko said. “More is at stake than your lives.”
“Black Hat is a shrewd sorcerer,” Abok said. “He has protection, but we have watched for loopholes. The children that returned maimed but alive were all rescued by Oha covens.”
“Did the rescuers escape, too?” she asked.
None of the scholars replied. That was answer enough.
“You come any closer and you’ll ruin what’s already in motion. Then I’ll have to slaughter you two instead of just these children. Get outside,” Black Hat said. Then he seemed to be speaking to someone else. “You all may leave, too. These kids are harmless. Go watch for real threats,” he said. All the commotion and squawking behind Sunny instantly stopped as the bush souls obeyed.
