WEEK 5: A New Perspective on Witches

For this week’s reading, I read the book Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor. I was actually quite excited for this reading, as I am a longtime fan of witches and fairytales. This book definitely fulfilled my craving for witchery, but in a way that I hadn’t expected.

The witches in Akata Witch brought a whole different look on the classic witches that we typically find in stories. First off, the environment itself is something unique that ties the characters together. In Western culture, witches are remembered as eccentric magical women with pointy hats and cauldrons for spell making. They are also usually Caucasian, so it was refreshing to see different races and classifications that diversified the witches in Akata Witch. Classifying the witches as Leopard people also brought in more specificity to the culture and setting of the world, which allows the reader to become more absorbed in this made-up world.

The role of women in this book was a positive aspect throughout. I personally liked how the main character was a 12 year old girl who was a bit of a “diamond in the rough.” Seeing these internal and external faults (like her skin) made me connect to her more as a person. And having her be different as a free agent Leopard made her more relatable, so seeing her discovering strengths she had no idea of is very empowering. I understand that some people would prefer her to start out as a strong individual, but I find that by doing so it would make her much less appealing as a character. And I appreciated Okorafor giving an equal distribution of men and women in this book. Having a female lead, it definitely comments more on the social standings of women. But I like how Okorafor didn’t just delete men from this world or make them all evil. Instead, she literally made them equal; 2 protagonist girls, 2 protagonist boys. Though there is a main male antagonist, he wasn’t even the most diabolical character in the story. That title goes to Ekwensu, who is portrayed as female. So having these two women with opposing positions of power made for a more compelling and dynamic piece of fiction.  

Her personality and physical appearance did not come across as a witchy archetype to me at all. Far from it actually. When I think of witches, I don’t see a young albino witch-in-training living in Nigeria. I believe that Okorafor did a great job with providing a fresh perspective on such an old trope in media. The types of powers and spirit faces followed the archetype a little more closely, but Okorafor made sure that these witchy devices were specific to the character and the world. The magic wasn’t just colorful beams of power and lightning; it had way more substance and personality.

- ☽Stacy Moon☾