REVIEW-ISH: AKATA WITCH by Nnedi Okorafor

   Recently it came to my notice how I don’t read fantasy books. Now, it is not a conscious act, I could watch fantasy based movies--the divergent series and the likes-- but I don’t recall ever reading one. I’m often found reading mysteries, thrillers, general fiction and a little bit of folk lore. Upon this realization, I made a mental note to get a couple fantasy book and see if I’d actually find them interesting. Truth be told, I’m not sure I had made the mental note before I decided to read AKATA WITCH, the mere fact that it was written by a Nigerian and one of the writers for the Black Panther comics (did you know?), I just had to get it. I got to realize as I read that it had some fantastical touches to it and at that point, I couldn’t just drop the book. Enough about me here, let me let you in on the general idea of the book.

OVERVIEW
   AKATA WITCH by Nnedi Okoafor © 2011 is set in eastern Nigeria (Imo precisely) and centres--mainly--around the life of Sunny Nwazue, the lead character--and minorly--around the life of her friends. The story shifts between the real world and a fantastical world known as LEOPARD KNOCKS that is inhabited and accessed only by Leopard people.

(A Leopard Person goes by many names around the world. The term “Leopard Person”

is a West African coinage, derived from the Efik term “ekpe,” “leopard.” All people of

mystical true ability are Leopard People.~ Akata Witch).

   The book begins with Sunny getting her hair on fire because of what she thought she saw in the flame of the candle and was trying to get a better look of it. Sunny was born in the USA but relocated with her family when she was 9, now, Sunny is 12. Happenings in school cause her to lose her friends and get into a fight (actually, get beaten) and on the other hand start a friendship with Orlu who stood up for her when she was being beaten by some of her class mates. Through Orlu, she gets to meet Chichi (Chijioke, Orlu’s neighbour and childhood friend) who comes across as feisty and loud mouthed. Chichi almost slips about some of the things Orlu can do and a trust bond is made amongst the three of them to hinder Sunny from telling anyone what Orlu revealed about his mystical abilities. Soon enough, Sunny gets to discover that she is a leopard person but a free agent in this case as there was a skip from her grandmother to her in her “spirit line”. She gets initiated by Anatov, Chichi and Orlu’s leopard instructor. She then meets Sasha a black american sent down to Nigeria by his parents after getting into trouble for “misusing” his mystical powers also called juju in this book on regular humans (lambs).
   The four get along real well in course of the book as Anatov’s students and as friends in the normal world. They learned to work as a team on several occasions that Anatov sent them to certain people. They also got to be mentored by some of the scholars in LEOPARD KNOCKS though Sunny got hers towards the end of the book. They learned lessons together with some being as a result of some of their actions. In the lamb world (normal world), a serial kidnapper/killer terrorizes the peace of the state, instilling fear in parents and everyone on a whole. He is called BLACK HAT, he majorly kidnaps children with a couple of them being found but without some parts either an eye or something. It is discovered that Black hat Okotoko is a fellow leopard person and had even passed the last level, he was a master. Apparently, he was kidnapping the children in order to use them certain juju in order to feed his power-hunger as well as serve another purpose. It ended up being up to Orlu, Chichi, Sunny and Sasha to defeat him even though they were seemingly young and still level one leopards known as Ekpiri. Enough said.

MY THOUGHTS
   It was a pleasurable and moderately intense read. The scenes where explicit enough to imagine. I also appreciate the fact that it was set in Nigeria and the author really made it feel like it was really Nigeria, from the tales on PHCN’s doings to how the markets looked and how Sunny initially felt about Nigerian markets when she came back to Nigeria. Paragraphs where she brushed over some characteristic nature of certain Nigeria cities (Lagos and Generator sets, Niger Delta and oil spillage, Abuja and the national mosque) also carried the same effect when she wrote about the Great Hairy spider, Udide.
   I liked how she filled us in on who leopard people (free agents inclusive) were, how they ought to operate, their currency and how it’s earned with excerpts from a book that Sunny had to read as a free agent. This made me understand the leopard people as I read on. Her description of sounds is also laudable.
   Most especially, I loved her choice of characters. Sunny is not your regular heroine or lead character. First off, she is an albino, then, her father doesn’t ever seem pleased with whatever she does. She has dominating elder brothers and is bullied at school due to a flogging incident and jeered at often cos of her albinism. Finally, though she liked soccer, she wasn’t really allowed to play cos she was a girl and even when she could it had to be when the sun was down. Bottomline: she’s often was the centre of ridicule and most certainly didn’t have it all perfect.
As Sunny was flawed, so were some of the other characters. Orlu was dyslexic as a younger child and was often alone in school up until he became acquainted with Sunny. Chichi lived with her mom (a Nimm priestess) and hardly had contact with her father a famous musician who left them to pursue “greater things”. They lived in a mud hut even though there were more sophisticated houses around cos as Leopard people, the wealth that lambs so chase after didn’t mean much to her and her mother. Sasha had a female name that often caused surprise when it was come across and he had to move to another continent away from his family even though he brought it upon himself. Sugar Cream (one of the scholars) suffered from scoliosis and wasn’t raised by her real parents. All in all, the characters were beautifully interesting especially with their added flaws.
   I like that Sunny was able to balance her two lives and the imagination put into Leopard Knocks. My only issue with this book is jollof rice, being spelt as jallof rice (smiley face) aside that, all was fine. Now, I normally don’t do this but I’d be making an exception this time. My favorite character was Orlu, though the second youngest of the four, he had good judgement, a good base and was perhaps the mature of the four. Even in all of this, it was still obvious how much of a child he was. And then, he’s natural ability was undoing bad juju, what’s there not to like. The end of the book was good too, not much left hanging for me to conclude with my own imagination and that was my best part of the book. I think I have said enough, it was an excellent read. Would strongly recommend it.

 Side note: There’s a sequel (Akata Warrior) and I’m so here for it *dancing emoji*. The audio book for Akata Witch is out as well.

'Mina.