A Plateau Author Who Lives in Obscurity

Changchit Wuyep, Plateau Author

Changchit Wuyep is an author with three published books to her credit. Her books include Offspring in Peril and Jiji volumes I and II. She said, she has finished Jiji volume III and is working on publishing it. The Jiji is a book set in Tarok folklore. The Tarok people are in Lantang North and South Local Government Areas of Plateau State.  

Because of funding challenges, Mama couldn’t finish formal education, dropping out midway in her secondary school. Thanks to eternal examination, she studied on her own and wrote the external General Certificate of Education (GCE) exams. With a brilliant result, she proceeded to nursing school and later worked as a midwife until her retirement.

Given her training as a midwife, one can’t help but ask how she became a writer. She says the secondary she partly attended ensured they understood the importance of reading, not just academic materials but anything else. That was how she built a strong romance with books. As a midwife, she often had ample time while off-duty and read works of Shakespeare with their typical Elizabethan English. She says her writing is inborn and explains why she was able to start writing by just critically looking at the works of other established authors. 

She feels she has an overcrowded mind and often wants to have a channel of release and relief. After reading so much, she wanted to be heard, too. Writing presented that channel to communicate the issues in her mind, issues triggered by people, places and events. One day, she sat down and simply started writing Jiji, her debut novel. But there was hesitancy at times. So the book may not have seen the light of day if not for her daughter who often returned from boarding school and went through the manuscript, discovering that the book has a strong potential as a result and insisting the book must see the light of day.

Offspring in Peril, which has a moral theme, was inspired by a place underneath a cashew tree, which was littered with waste suggesting the place was a rendezvous of drug users. Given her supplementary passion for bible class hosting, she felt deeply hurt in her mind. Thus, there was the need to reach a larger population of youths. Offspring in Peril was born.

Despite her talent, Mama Changchit lives in obscurity. She has come to believe that writing a book isn’t the difficult part of the job, but publicity is. She had liaised with the Association of Nigerian Authors and made attempts to be published by an international publishing firm. She also tried to be heard through television interviews. All efforts, however, failed short of giving her adequate publicity.

Mama Changchit, who holds an advanced diploma in Public Administration, is now aged yet her writing inferno continues to burn –she has completed Jiji volume III and is working on publishing it.