Submission Guidelines
Oriire is dedicated to documenting and interpreting African mythology, folklore and cultural memory as intellectual and cultural heritage. Our editorial focus centres on accurate, thrilling, well-researched and contextual analysis of cultural narratives, belief systems, practices and worldviews across Africa's diverse communities and its diaspora.
Submissions are open year-round on a rolling basis. Please review these guidelines carefully before submitting your work.
Content Pillars
We accept long-form content on African mythology, folklore and cultural memory within these pillars.
Mythic beings, divine systems, spiritual hierarchies, and the order of the cosmos.
Oral narratives, tricksters and creatures, and verbal lore such as proverbs, praise poetry and riddles.
Beliefs about fate, the soul, lineage, and the relationship between the human and the divine.
Myth enacted through festivals, rites and masquerades, sacred objects, and material culture such as crafts, textiles and writing systems.
Traditional medicine, ecological knowledge, craft and foodways that carry ritual, symbolic or heritage meaning. A recipe on its own is not enough.
Material histories and lived experience tied to identity and to how a community remembers itself. Avoid general political, economic or film history with no heritage or belief thread.
How culture and heritage travel, adapt, and endure across time and geography.
Core Requirements
Specificity is Mandatory
Avoid generalizations. Your work must be tied to a specific ethnic group, culture, region, or historical period.
Factual & Evidence Based
Your work must be well-researched and factually accurate. Any verifiable or historical claim must be sourced. Oral material such as a folktale or a personal testimony can be attributed by provenance instead, for example 'as told by' or 'as heard in'. We will not reject a folktale or testimony for lacking citations, unless it skips obvious available scholarship or presents a researchable claim as fact.
Originality is Paramount
Your submission must be 100% your own work and not published elsewhere. The use of AI tools to generate written content or images is strictly prohibited.
Fresh Perspectives
We aim to avoid thematic repetition. If a subject has already been covered on Oriire, your piece must present a clearly new angle.
Visual Evidence
Submissions must include at least one relevant image. You must have the right to use it. The image must have a clear caption.
Titles and Subtitles
Titles use title case with no full stop at the end. Your subtitle is a hook, not a description. Write two or three sentences that pull the reader into the subject itself, leading with something concrete, and do not open with 'This article explores' or 'This piece looks at'.
Submission Limits
You can submit up to 2 articles and 3 codex entries every 14 days, on a rolling basis. Drafts do not count toward this, only pieces you send for review.
Voice and Tone
Our voice is grounded in research and alive with wonder. We look for writing that is accurate, intellectual, sourced and genuinely thrilling to read.
Write to Inform, Not to Evoke Describe, explain and analyse. Vivid, specific writing is welcome. What does not belong is empty ornament, or atmosphere standing in for substance.
Take the Material on Its Own Terms Present myth, lore and testimony from within the tradition. You need not disclaim every belief as mere belief.
Avoid Cliché and Mystification Cut stock phrases like 'rich tapestry' and vagueness like 'shrouded in mystery'. Reach for the specific instead.
Clarity and Accessibility Your arguments and the links between them should be comprehensible to a reader outside your field. Define what an outsider would not know.
Respectful Language Always refer to cultural groups with respect and precision. Capitalise the names of ethnic groups.
Categories
Historical analysis, ethnographic or comparative studies and deep-dives.
Traditional folktales, legends, and narrative traditions, including retellings, translations, or oral accounts, grounded in specific cultural or geographic contexts.
Critical or analytical reflections with academic grounding.
Conversations with cultural historians, tradition bearers, artists, researchers, or practitioners engaged with myth, cultural practice, or heritage.
Book, film, or exhibition critiques from a cultural preservation perspective.
Structured lists of items connected by a theme. Figures in a pantheon, festivals in a calendar, motifs across a tradition. Each item has its own title, short summary and optional source.
An article centred on a testimony or witness account of an encounter with a mythological figure, tradition or cultural moment. The testimony can be the author's own or someone else's, woven into commentary, scholarship, or comparison with existing accounts.
How It Works
Submit
Create an account and submit your draft through our submission portal.
Review
Our editorial team reviews your submission within 1–4 weeks. Not every submission is accepted.
Edit
Work with our editors to refine your piece for publication.
Publish
If your work is accepted, it goes live on Oriire and you are paid for it.
Payments
We pay for work we publish. Authors are paid a flat rate of ₦10,000 per published article and ₦5,000 per published codex entry. Submissions that are not accepted are not paid for.
Payment details will be requested in the submission form. Contributors are responsible for complying with any tax obligations in their country of residence.
Ready to share your story?
We look forward to reading your work. Thank you for your interest in contributing to Oriire.
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