The story Akata Witch has a lot of female characters in it. The main character is Sunny and while she does everything that a protagonist does she also faces a lot of sexism in the work as well. I believe the other used this on purpose to help show how tough the world can be for woman instead how it has been used in other novels where it feels like an author is trying to talk down to women. Nnedi Okorafor has many examples of strong women in this work; between that and her accurate references to Nigeria this novel is overall a unique take on fantasy.
One of the biggest moments in the novel that stuck with me after reading it was when Sunny was trying to play soccer. This is something she loves to do and is very good at it. When she gets on a team to play for the day they first tell her that she cannot join them because she is a girl. Her friend Sasha stands up for her and convinces the other boys to at least give her a tryout. What made this scene so powerful was her tryout was so much harder than any of the boys' tryouts. She had to not only shoot the ball into the goal, but there was a goalie and defense playing against her. This was a powerful image showing the extra work women have to do in order to get the same privilege as men. The novel gives other examples of both genders working together to destroy the evil, which is good. I don't like when works try to praise women by bashing men, but instead lift both men and women togther.
-Amanda
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