"Akata Witch" Assignment

Akata Witch tells the story that involves several different witch type characters with their own powers and personality.

 In Akata, the main character, Sunny, who is from a Nigerian family. When she goes back to Nigeria is when her powers start to become apparent and start to manifest within her. She is also described as being albino, which gives her a distinct appearance amongst the rest of the characters. The witches aren’t really described by using usual stereotypes of green skin tone and warts., Instead, by describing her as a different kind of witch.  For example, the author describes Sunny being from Nigeria, as well as being an alibino, and being good a soccer. The story doesn’t really describe her as a usual witch, but as this person who has witch abilities. This is used for the other characters in the story. This, to me, feels like the author is placing in homages to what a witch would usually look like, with their green skin. I may be exaggerating here, but, to me, it feels like a bit of an homage. Characters in the story are Orlu, Chichi, Sasha, as well as the scholars and the antagonists. Each character has their own personality that they resemble. Whether it be the authority figure, a friendly protagonist, or the an antagonist, the story helps in making a story that suits the usual story of witches and witchcraft.

I feel that they aren’t exactly archetypes of what witches are, but rather as individuals with certain abilities. This plays more like a coming of age tale than being solely about a witch. It has more of a feeling of someone wandering how to come to terms with one self, especially when one has special, latent abilities. This is also being sought out as another version of Harry Potter. Having both of them be about people with special abilities, attending a place that will help them in figuring out more about their abilities. 

When it comes to looking at how they show positive, and powerful female characters, they pretty much help the story itself. For example, Sunny and Orlu are two characters who interact ad help each other out.

I feel that having multiple different female characters with their different aspects, whether it be where they are from or their physical appearances that differ from each other can help reach different audiences and personality. This also helps in making the story refreshing and translatable to audiences.

For Sunny, it’s her sun related abilities that helps her be this ray of positivity to those who read. Also, her albino, related to her disappearing abilities shows that even if someone is this positive person, they can still have moments of negativity, as long as it doesn’t overpower their positivity. That is an incredible power that can help a story reach the right kind of audience. In this case, it can be female readers who look at the characters and see something special in it.