Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor
Although Sunny Nwazue now calls Nigeria home, she was actually born there. Despite being albino, she has West African features. She is a fantastic athlete but is unable to play soccer outside in the heat. There doesn’t appear to be somewhere she can fit in. Then she learns the most astounding thing: she has the latent magical ability and is a “free agent.” A lot of catching up is required of her as well.
She will soon be a member of a group of four magic students learning to alter reality while studying the visible and invisible. Sunny and her companions are approached by the magical authorities to assist in identifying a career criminal who knows magic just as she is getting her bearings.
Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor
83 used from $1.66
Free shipping
Amazon.com
The mythological elements of this book were what I adored most. The supernatural is still very much a part of daily life in Nigeria and much of Africa, and I think the idea of a magical realm parallel to ours is entirely appropriate for an African context. The protagonist of the novel is 12-year-old Sunny, an albino Nigerian-American who struggles to fit in after moving from America to Nigeria. She soon learns she has magical skills and is initiated into the Leopard society, a magical parallel world, after a boy in her class saves her from a bully and becomes her buddy. In little time at all, Sunny and her new pals are on a perilous adventure to stop a horrible and evil enemy.
Anyone who has read any of Nnedi Okorafor’s prior books is already aware of how extremely inventive she is, and in Akata Witch, she skillfully weaved Igbo mythology into a fascinating new world. The mythology is full of fascinating anomalies, such as the Ekwensu, a fiery masquerade draped in palm fronds and the Tung was, floating balls of flesh that have the ability to spontaneously transform into tufts of hair and teeth. I appreciate that she included the Nsibidi scripts, an intriguing pre-400 AD writing system found in southern Nigeria.
