We're putting together the first issue of The Oriire Journal, a new annual publication from Oriire focused on mythology, folklore and cultural memory from Nigeria and across Africa.

The first issue will bring together new work, selected pieces from the Oriire archive and Folklore Prize selections, and we're opening a short call for a small number of new submissions.

What we're looking for

We want work that feels worth putting into print.

Journal submissions should be more substantial than a standard site piece. They should be original, specific, well researched and compelling to read. The subject itself might be unusual, or the form might be. You might have access to a particularly strong oral source, a community story that has not been documented properly, an overlooked historical thread, a living practice, an object, a place, a belief, or a question that opens into something much bigger.

Our voice is grounded in research and alive with wonder. We look for writing that is accurate, intellectual, sourced and thrilling to read. For the Journal in particular, we want work with enough depth and ambition to hold its own in print.

We are open to work across Oriire's usual areas of mythology, folklore, tradition and cultural memory, including long-form features, essays, interviews, oral traditions, narrative retellings, heritage reviews and Encounters.

We would particularly like to receive more Encounters. These are first-hand or reported accounts involving mythological figures, beliefs, traditions or culturally significant experiences, especially where testimony can be placed alongside research, oral history or existing scholarship.

There is no single theme for this first issue. Variety is welcome. What matters is specificity. Every piece should be rooted in a particular community, tradition, place, language, historical period or body of knowledge. The Journal is not looking for broad generalisations about "African culture."

Length

Journal pieces run 2,500 to 5,000 words.

The editorial standard

The Journal has a higher editorial bar than our regular web submissions.

Every factual or historical claim should be traceable to a source. Where possible, we prefer primary material such as oral testimony, tradition bearers, archival material, original texts, field reporting and published collections, supported by scholarship where appropriate.

We are interested in work that treats mythology, folklore and cultural memory seriously, without flattening them into nostalgia or generic cultural celebration. The Journal's voice is scholarly, authoritative, intellectual, semi-formal and inquisitive.

Specificity matters in language too. Writers should use the names, terms and concepts of the traditions they are writing about wherever possible, and avoid generic or inaccurate framing.

Selected pieces will go through Oriire's editorial process, so submissions should arrive complete, researched and ready for serious editing.

Before you submit

  • Sources. Every claim should be traceable to a source that can be named and consulted. We strongly prefer primary sources, such as oral texts, published collections of myths and the accounts of tradition bearers. Wikipedia is not an acceptable source.
  • Names and language. Use correct diacritics for African-language terms (Yorùbá, not Yoruba). Capitalise the names of ethnic groups, languages, deities and mythological figures. Use the tradition's own terms, and avoid words such as "tribe", "primitive", "pagan", "fetish" and "magic" unless you are examining them critically.
  • Person. Write in the third person unless the form calls for the first person, as a personal essay or a field account might. Don't use "we" to mean Africans or any community in general.
  • Tradition bearers. If you name or quote a living tradition bearer, confirm that they agree to be identified. Witnesses in Encounters can remain anonymous while you are credited as the author.
  • Restricted knowledge. We don't publish material that a tradition restricts to initiated members, specific lineages or designated knowledge holders. Flag anything that might fall into this category.
  • Retellings. A retelling needs a short note naming the source tradition, the community and region it comes from, and the collection or publication it draws on. A retelling may translate, adapt and condense. It may not invent plot elements or change the story's resolution or meaning.
  • Interviews. You can edit transcripts for length and clarity as long as the interviewee's meaning stays the same.
  • Images. Images are optional. Any image you include must be one you have the right to use, with a caption naming what it shows, the photographer or source, and the date. We don't accept AI-generated images.
  • AI. We don't accept writing generated by AI tools.

Payment

We pay ₦35,000 for every accepted piece, within a week of acceptance. We only pay for accepted pieces.

How to submit

Submissions go through the Journal submission form. You'll need an Oriire account to submit, and you can create one when you follow the link.

Submit to The Oriire Journal

Please submit a completed piece, along with a short summary and your references. Each writer can submit one piece to the Journal. We review pieces as they arrive and will email you our decision.

Submissions close on 1 November 2026 at 11:59pm WAT.

By submitting, you agree to our Consent to Publish terms. If we don't select your piece, all rights in it return to you.

This call is separate from our regular submissions, which remain open year-round at oriire.com/submissions.

If you have something strange, specific, deeply researched, beautifully reported or simply very difficult to stop reading, we'd like to see it.