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TVOTRIBE
TVOTRIBE is a community of proud and constantly evolving African Creatives. We focus on inspiring one another to become the best representation of Africa and change the narrative of the African literary world.
THE AKWAABA ISSUE
“I have learned and dismantled all the words in order to draw from them a single word: Home”
—Mahmoud Darwish
Akwaaba– a Twi word spoken by the Akan tribe of Ghana. It means “Welcome,” symbolising acceptance, friendliness and cooperation. For us, at TVOTRIBE, it means coming home and belonging. To relocate ourselves to places that are eager to accept and welcome us. As such, we want this issue to be that home to all your beautiful musings, doodles and rants. We want those personal stories (on any topic) that you have kept in your heart or in a .doc somewhere to find a place in this issue and trust us, there is plenty of room!
Submit to: contributions@tvotribe.com
Deadline: 15th May 2023
Publication Date: 15th June 2023
Please read below for our submission guidelines and to get more details on how to share your work with us.
You as a Contributor
The Contribution Team manages the content on the blog and those that are shared on our social media pages. As a Contributor, you are expected to submit entries during our submission period.
We always accept entries related to Africa, so as to give our contributors a sense of belonging and familiarity with home.
There are two options available for intending contributors; you may choose to be either a guest contributor or one of our in-house contributors. To be a guest contributor, all you have to do is check out for our submissions period, write your entry, ensure it doesn’t contradict our guidelines, and then submit.
To be part of our in-house contributors, you’ll have to fill out the free application form here
Contribution Guidelines
TVO TRIBE is a safe space. We encourage both new and older voices to submit. Our focus is to help African Creatives propagate their own voices, find their way, and get heard.
We encourage experimentation, we want to read you in your best and crudest form, and we want to read your “beautyfull” creative pieces. Send us your fears and pieces that keep you up at night, and write us your fact-laden opinionated pieces. Remember, we publish creative works provided they go with our theme.
We will be open for submissions during the following periods:
1st April until 15th May 2023
1st September until 15th October 2023
Here are a few things to note:
1. We accept only original, previously unpublished pieces. Do not send us works that have appeared on either personal websites or other literary houses. We do not count work that has appeared on your personal social media as published.
2. While we give every contributor the right to be deeply opinionated in their pieces, we encourage you to add facts, great insights, pure knowledge, and undeniable value to your pieces.
3. Your content should revolve around Africa. We want to publish African pieces that promote Africa, that are written by Africans either here at home or in the diaspora.
4. Please submit photographs, artworks, and other images you think are important to understanding your pieces. Do give us a notice on photo credit so we can duly recognise them.
5. We won’t publish hate pieces, works that naturally are meant to stir hatred in the African literary world. We also won’t consider works our editor finds too extreme for our ever-growing audience. Do ensure you add a content warning if your piece deserves it.
6. While we are committed to editing your pieces and ensuring they are not only refined but aesthetically appealing to readers, we encourage you to edit your pieces before submitting them. Please download our style guide to properly format your entry.
7. Limits to each category of submission:
Poetry — Submit no more than two poems of a maximum of 40 lines each on the theme. Each poem should start on a new page and may be titled.
Articles — Submit one article that is between 700 to 3000 words on the theme. We want you to write as much as possible, remember, we can only post your work once a month.
Personal accounts — These are nonfiction pieces and we’d want you to write everything possible but limited to a maximum of 4000 words in just one piece.
Photographs/Artwork — Submit no more than 5 creative artworks during a particular submission period.
Short Stories — Submit no more than two short stories limited to a maximum of 1000 words in just one piece.
8. Our team of editors are always available to ensure each submission receives deserved attention. Send us your bio in not more than 100 words. A cover letter is not compulsory, but you can attach one if it’s important to understand your piece. The bio and the cover letter should be part of the body of the mail while your piece should be attached as a single document.
There should be no identifying information on your piece — we read blind.
We read your pieces ONLY during the submission period.
Please direct all your submissions to “contributions@tvotribe.com“.
We try to respond to every submission between three to four weeks after receiving them. You are free to send an enquiry email after five weeks if you do not get a reply from us.
Download our Style Guide
If you think your piece is beautiful enough but not in tandem with our present theme, we can have it as part of our featured post. Pitch to us here.
Goodluck Tribesman.