In Akata Warrior, Okorafor drew attention to vicious Nigerian Confraternities, as Sunny’s brother is nearly killed by one such group.

Further, as an albino girl, she faces cultural challenges in Nigeria where traditional beliefs hold her as neither Black nor white, but as a liminal, nonhuman, reduced to the slur “akata.”īuilding on such critiques in the second volume, Akata Woman again probes the contemporary Nigerian society and patriarchal systems more generally. Sunny also depends far more on her wits and abilities than does Harry. Unlike Potter, for much of the series Sunny’s life and position as a Leopard are under real threat and success is far less assured. At the same time, as in Akata Warrior, Sunny feels the strong pull of family through her brothers and their safety among the Lambs.Īs demonstrated in all three volumes of the Nsibidi Scripts series thus far, however, Sunny is anything but normal: headstrong, independent, and powerful, but also fearful of what she faces, especially in the journey toward her second-level rite of juju in this novel. For example, where Akata Witch and Akata Warrior were especially concerned with protagonist Sunny Nwazue’s balancing act between the two worlds, in Akata Woman she uses advanced juju to float away from her family’s home, but not without considerable resistance from her Lamb father, who only wants a “normal” daughter. Okorafor’s Lambs are also complicated and challenging characters in their own right, not buffoonish, moronic caricatures like Rowling’s Dursleys. Unlike Rowling’s Wizarding World of Muggles and Wizards, Okorafor’s Lambs and Leopards both exist in the broader society of Nigeria and the world without any ridiculous notions that Leopards do not understand the Lamb world.

If anything, reading the Nsibidi Scripts series makes Rowling’s works appear the lesser creation, as Okorafor’s depth of characterization, compelling settings, and use of African folklore, mythology, and cultural beliefs and practices offer readers greater readerly experiences.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE should one call Nnedi Okorafor’s Nsibidi Scripts series and its new volume, Akata Woman, anything like the “Nigerian Harry Potter.” Such a reductive label does nothing to suggest what a great pleasure it is to venture deeper and deeper into Okorafor’s riveting world of Africanjujuism.

Akata woman by nnedi okorafor