Step into the enchanting realm of the Writers Space Africa (WSA) Literary Magazine, where I had the privilege of engaging in an inspiring conversation with Autricia Timti, an exceptional wordsmith from Cameroon. With her remarkable talent and accolades, be prepared to be completely captivated by her story. – PPBlessing
PPBlessing: What are your favorite activities?
AT: I love reading, writing, travelling and being useful for my community.
PPBlessing: How have you been useful to your community?
AT: I do a lot of volunteering in actions related towards development, environment preservation, education and youth mentoring. I mentor students in career orientation, job search, and run programs which aim in empowering young girls.
PPBlessing: Such commendable efforts. How has this been so far and why mentoring young girls in particular?
AT: Awesome. Through service I discovered my essence, my Ikigai or purpose as others will say. I believe in the power of strong communities and the responsibility we all have in participating towards building sustainable societies for future generations.
Young girls particularly because I know how hard it is in our African context to be a young woman with dreams. Women are the pillars of our communities, forebears and educators of the next generation. If we want to have sustainable societies, then investing in the dreams and future of our young girls is primordial. As a young woman today, I more than understand the need of grooming and helping our girls in forging their way through life despite the challenges.
PPBlessing: What are some of the challenges and how are you guiding your mentees through them?
AT: Growing up in a developing country requires a lot of effort and determination to succeed. We aren’t exposed to opportunities, social and educational facilities like other young people in other parts of the world. Before any external work is done, a mental break-through is required. Most young people have lost hope in what the future holds for them. There’s much counseling done at this level. Equally, poverty, lack of job opportunities, corruption, crisis, wars, etc.… make the whole show even more complicated. With my mentees, I challenge them to use what they perceive as obstacle to fuel their engagement towards succeeding. Through trainings, skill acquisition, and counseling, I believe they will be armed enough to face these challenges.
PPBlessing: Why do you write?
AT: Writing is an escape route for me. It’s liberty! Freedom. I write because I know words heal. To see the world through the lenses of words is communicating in a language accessible to everyone and giving the opportunity to people to appropriate these words, without imposing a way of understanding.
PPBlessing: An escape route from what?
AT: For me, it’s an escape route from the cruelty that sometimes characterises our world. It’s a place where love and hope abound. It’s an escape route from the restriction society imposes on the liberty of being.
PPBlessing: How long have you been writing?
AT: I identified the writer in me since my primary school. That will make it almost ten years today I actively write.
PPBlessing: Seeing how long you’ve been writing, how come you haven’t published a book nor have a website?
AT: I’ll say I am gathering the momentum to go on solo-publishing. It is such an important subject to me that I am putting together all my resources to release a blockbuster. I co-authored a poetry anthology in 2021: “Inside the Beyonds,” which was a great experience. I am currently working on the publication of another poetry anthology with some young African writers which we plan to publish latest October 2023.
PPBlessing: When should we expect this blockbuster and how do you intend publishing it?
AT: Well, I started working on this already and I think next year will be good for a release. I’ll work with a publishing company. I am in contact with some publishers already.
PPBlessing: What inspires your writing?
AT: I will say people and experiences, be they mine or others.
PPBlessing: Which writers have influenced your writing the most?
AT: Mme Ndjokeng Rose. She was a tutor in my secondary school and an award winning author. She inspired the young girl I was to believing that no matter the little part of the world I came from, I had a voice which ought to be heard.
PPBlessing: That’s awesome, and you have become an award winning writer too.
Tell us about Blackout, your winning poem for the Young English Cameroonian Writers Award (YECWA) in 2021
AT: Well, when I wrote I had no idea I was going to win. I didn’t even expect it. Like I always say, muse spoke to me. I remember sitting at the veranda of our house, the evening breeze blowing the words to me as I wrote about missing home, which was that year’s theme for the contest. I simply poured my heart onto the paper. I was pleasantly surprised as I made it to the long list and finally the shortlist as the winner.
As I wrote wrote Blackout, I thought of all the people who were forced out of their homes, away from their loved ones and their landmarks, because of one reason or the other. I just let the emotions flow on.
Since childhood, I have always dreamt of winning the Pulitzer prize. Winning YECWA comforts me I am on the right track as a writer, surrounded by people who believe in this amazing skill.
PPBlessing: Have you won other awards after YECWA?
AT: Not yet! I got published into magazines, notably WSA Magazine. Hopefully, I wish to win this year’s African Writer’s Awards.
PPBlessing: Is it only poems you write?
AT: No! I write short stories as well.
PPBlessing: How many stories and poems have you written so far?
AT: I can’t count. They’re numerous.
PPBlessing: Are you still in contact with Mme Ndjokeng Rose? Does she still write?
AT: Unfortunately, I lost track of her when she was transferred to another school. My efforts there on to reconnect with her remain fruitless. As to whether she still writes, I can’t tell, but I hope she does.
PPBlessing: Could you share titles of some of her works?
AT: The one I remember and which rings with me always is, I wrote my name. In this poem, she talks about the waves sweeping away her name when she wrote it on the shore, of the wind blowing it away when she wrote it in dust, but how it was preserved when she wrote it in a book.
PPBlessing: Part of your LinkedIn in about stated that you go by the saying, “let’s create the world we want to live in” why this?
AT: I believe we have the power of making the world better. We have full power over our actions and our words. We have the possibility to choose love instead of hate, peace in place of wars and to fully devoting our skills and resources in uplifting others around us and our communities. We can make that ultimate decision!
PPBlessing: What’s the most memorable book you’ve ever read?
AT: I am divided between Jane Eyre of Charlotte Bronte, J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter and Olivier Twist by Charles Dickens. More to this, my list is long.
PPBlessing: What makes these books memorable?
AT: What’s peculiar about the books are the main characters. We see them grow from childhood to adulthood, facing challenges and still finding ways to thrive through.
PPBlessing: I saw a Tony Elumelu Foundation certificate on your Instagram, could you shed some light on it?
AT: Oh yea! Entrepreneurship happens to be of great interest to me. I am a financial consultant and most times work with start-ups and business owners. With some friends, we applied for the TEF Entrepreneurship program aiming to win the grant for our agricultural project. Though we weren’t awarded the grant, we completed the training and got certified. It was a thrilling experience!
PPBlessing: Quite a lot on your plate. How do you manage to handle being a mentor, financial consultant, entrepreneur, and writer?
AT: I’ll say I make use of my organisational skills. It necessitates a lot of focus and organisation. It is not a smooth journey, but for the objectives I set for myself, I try to outperform at every level.
PPBlessing: What other language do you speak aside English and French?
AT: My vernacular, Bikom.
PPBlessing: What do you look forward to achieving as a writer?
AT: My ultimate life goal is to impact the lives of people I come in touch with. As a writer, I wish to speak to people through my works, to inspire, revive hopes and broken dreams. I will love my works to travel across geographical, social, and cultural borders, to speak to people’s souls.
PPBlessing: What has been your most challenging experience so far as an individual, in writing and your current career.
AT: One of my most challenging experience was to find myself in a toxic environment where I was brought to doubt myself and my capabilities. It was a challenging moment as I lost track of my purpose and my Why! Luckily, I had family and friends who were present and more than willing to help me through.
PPBlessing: How has being a part of the Writers Space Africa-Cameroon helped you as a writer?
AT: Being part of WSA-C has helped me enormously as a writer. I have a writing community I belong to and identify with. I have had the opportunity to meet inspiring authors in and out of Cameroon, who are open to sharing their experiences and guiding the next generation of writers. Equally, meeting such writers constantly challenge me to be better. I can’t thank WSA enough for this.
PPBlessing: If you were to have an opportunity to meet your favorite authors in person, what 2 questions would you ask?
AT: Wow! If I had the opportunity to meet J.K Rowling, I’ll ask her how she did it? How did travelling in a train inspire her to think about ever writing Harry Potter, weaving the story out to what it became. Equally I’ll ask her where she found the strength to keep on sending out her manuscripts to publishing houses despite the different rejections she received. A last question will be how she feels today knowing her works have impacted the world.
PPBlessing: Do you have a writing routine?
AT: I have a routine, even though I often fall out of it.
PPBlessing: How has it aided your writing?
AT: Having a routine helps me improve my skill. Like every other art, practice makes perfect, and so is writing.
Thank you for reading through this edition’s interview, until next month, keep reading the Writers Space Africa magazine.
Read – Britney Muoghalu – The Rising Star
