Akata Witch

Now that the world of the novel is well established, these chapters feature two crucial plot revelations. First, the reader learns that Black Hat Otokoto is a Leopard Person, and that the scholars have decided the four students, as an Oha coven, can stop him. Until Chapter 9, the threat of Otokoto has been primarily a subplot, something that has come up in the discussion of headlines in newspapers, in Sunny’s mother’s worries, and occasionally in Sunny’s own reflections. In Chapter 9, when Taiwo reveals him to be part of the Leopard world—and a scholar who passed the last level—Okorafor links the Black Hat storyline to Sunny’s own personal journey as a Leopard Person. Stopping Otokoto now becomes the primary goal for Sunny and her friends, and the main conflict of the story. Okorafor transforms Otokoto into a personal antagonist for Sunny as well when Sugar Cream reveals that he killed her grandmother, Ozoemena, in order to steal her abilities. Ozoemena had been Otokoto’s mentor, suggesting that Sunny’s grandmother was a powerful Leopard Person herself. This revelation connects the motivation of stopping Otokoto to the history of Sunny’s family and her grandmother’s mysterious past in the Leopard world.

The reader also learns in this section that each of the four main characters will have a mentor, a kind of personal juju trainer. Being selected to be a scholar’s mentee provides the students with a sense of being recognized and seen as individuals. In Chapter 9, when the students learn that Sasha will become Kehinde’s mentee, Anatov tells Sasha that he really impressed Kehinde, and Sasha looks “ready to burst with pride and excitement” (148). Later, when Taiwo observes that Orlu was born with the uncommon quality of humility, Sunny thinks it seems obvious that she is choosing him to be her mentee. Because being picked to be a mentee feels like such a validation, Sunny is disappointed when Sugar Cream tells her she isn’t sure she wants to take her on after Sunny breaks a rule. Sunny feels rejected, and she questions whether she even belongs in Leopard society. Sunny’s reaction demonstrates one of the novel’s themes: the need for belonging to communities.

Okorafor continues to use the brief excerpts from Fast Facts for Free Agents to serve multiple purposes, but these excerpts no longer appear after Chapter 10. The last excerpt describes a trickster spider, Udide, a character Okorafor borrows from Igbo folklore. Udide’s wisdom is recorded in a notorious book, but the author warns against seriously using any juju in Udide’s Book of Shadows, saying anyone who does so are “idiots” (144). This turns out to be foreshadowing, as Sasha buys this exact book in Chapter 9, and he and Chichi will attempt juju from it in future chapters. Because the author of Fast Facts for Free Agents has a known bias, it’s unclear whether she is right to warn others off this book, or whether they would be wise to listen to the warning. The last excerpt from Fast Facts for Free Agents also instructs the free agent to avoid doing anything ambitious and to be only a spectator. This is the very opposite of what Taiwo tells Sunny she must do as part of the Oha coven. This passage also repeatedly reminds the free agent not to let Lambs know about Leopard life, which foreshadows Sunny’s mistake in the following chapter: allowing Jibaku to see her spirit face and breaking the rules. The absence of any further excerpts and the tension between Taiwo’s advice and the author’s signify how Sunny has become more integrated into Leopard society and must now use her own judgment to navigate the challenges ahead.