Akata Witch

This week’s reading, Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor, was a bit different than the ones previous. This story seemed to take the more casual/ classic witch archetypes and blend them with the more hard struggles of a young Nigerian girl. Akata Witch is about a girl named Sunny who is an albino african that just wants to play outside. She struggles to find a place where she belongs, until she discovers the magic world within herself and feels more at home there. But everyone else does not give her that luxury. It is more of a political book in the sense that it faces issue with culture, race, and gender. I think the novel is taking a target on woman in power, and how its hard enough to be different in an unaccepting world, but it is even harder when you have power in an unaccepting world. Sunny went through torment at her school, even when she does well she is dismissed and made fun of because of her race and “physical shortcomings” by literally being born albino. She’s harassed by her teacher and those whom she thought were her friends until she meets a boy whom she seems to share something more with. It falls pretty much in the same realm as other novels in this genre, it has hardships with the main character’s family and life, there is a magical villain and the use of good magic versus bad magic. It seems to relate heavily to the Harry Potter novels, but gender and race bent. And with more of a focus on how gender and race can have impact on a struggling life.