I'ma post that annual sometime soon, perhaps in my own journal since I'll be spending most of the 1/3 limit on the Nu'bia post... Akila was a Bana who went to Oxford to get a Man's World education. It's not clear whether this was a freak experiment by her incredibly radical mother, or something the Bana just do occasionally with their failed-as-a-warrior children in order to keep an eye on the outside world (seems doubtful, but would explain things like Grace), or what.
Anyway, after the Bana hooked up with the Themyscirans, Polly thought it would be helpful to them to have a leader of their own other than her, someone who could be their advocate and have some authority in amazon culture and help the Bana to feel like they had a voice and some structure. She chose Akila, appointing her Shim'tar.
Akila is not a very good warrior by Bana standards, which is why she was sent off the reservation in the first place; her people don't really respect her very much, and as a Bana, neither do the Themyscirans, and she has to have a pretty weird perspective on the world having been educated both by the xenophobic misandrist Bana and the patriarchal but extensive world of the Western university. So there was a lot of interesting stuff seething around her character from her first introduction (the JLApe Wondy annual, where she journeys to the underworld with Nu'bia [the Vegas amazon] and Diana and Artemis).
And then Jimenez killed her off off-panel without ever touching her.
I'm incredibly glad she's back, and I hope she stays in charge and stays interesting and frees up Artemis to be all adventure-y again (interesting, isn't it, that Artemis isn't here, leading her people?). I also hope that somebody remembers next time that she's NOT WHITE HOLY GEEZ.