Zikoko is now accepting submissions from Nigerian creators worldwide!
We are excited to announce that we’re now accepting submissions from Nigerian creators located anywhere in the world. We’re looking for stories that explore themes such as migration, food, culture, music, friendships, and more. These stories can be based on your personal experiences, or distinct stories that capture the essence of what it means to be Nigerian.
We’re not looking for your everyday article. We’re looking for visual stories that pack a punch. They dive into specific themes and explore that entire universe. Our audience should feel things and know things they wouldn’t have ordinarily known.
At Zikoko, we are passionate about sharing diverse perspectives and unique stories with our audience. By submitting your work, you’ll have the opportunity to connect with our readers and show them a side of life they may not have experienced before.
These are the formats we’re interested in:
- Photojournalism: we want images from Nigerians across the world that tell a story.
- Visual stories: these stories have strong visual elements, like images, and illustrations. They can [should] feel interactive and create a sensory experience.
- Videos: these can be documentary-styled, human interest focused, etc. The important thing is that they tell a strong story.
- A series of limited stories: These are pockets of stories that share a specific theme. They can take any of the formats listed above.
Here are some reference stories
Theme
For this submissions period, we’re exploring the question: how does moving countries affect Nigerians through food, loneliness, community and language?
In the last few years, we’ve seen a new wave of migration hit Nigerians. Through Abroad Life, we covered some of these stories, but now, we’re interested in the cultural shift that happens when a person migrates.
We’ve witnessed several brain drains throughout our collective history as Nigerians, and we’ve heard the recurring stories that show the impact of leaving: the classic tale of a bank manager who had two houses and left Nigeria to wait tables at McDonald’s and clean toilets because they needed a better life. Or stories around access to innovation, better education and more opportunities. We’ve even heard stories about regret. People who regretted leaving. The people who miss Nigerian food. We’ve heard it all.
We’re looking for a different set of stories.
With social media and the internet, what does this new age of migration bring to the table? What does it mean to leave family behind? Are there any patterns we’ve seen in previous peak periods of migrations that we can see now? How are people building and maintaining community? How are people navigating food? We want to explore why and how people are moving.
We’ve taken four sections that are core to humanity: food, loneliness, community, language, and want our contributors to apply them to the stories they produce. But we don’t want you to limit yourself to these. Think creatively. Step outside the box.
Submissions Guideline
- Fill out this form to submit your pitch. We do not accept complete drafts. We want to work with you in shaping the idea. We encourage you to be as detailed as possible in the pitch form.
- Submissions close at 11:59 pm WAT on June 24, 2023. If you’re interested in pitching a story, we encourage you to do this as soon as possible, instead of waiting until the last minute.
- Once you submit your form, you can expect to hear from us within three weeks.
- We will publish at least six stories from July to November. If you’re submitting a pitch for a series, you should aim for at least two stories, but no more than four stories. These will be published in a specified month within the July to November timeline. We will reach out to you with the specific month should your pitch be accepted.
- If your pitch is accepted, you’ll be expected to work on your story within a two-week timeline, after which an editor will work with you to beat the story into shape.
- For accepted video pitches, we will share detailed guidelines on the visual appearance of your work.
- For articles, we have no set maximum length or minimum length, though most of our stories are less than 2000 words. This also applies to videos. We encourage you to share a pitch for a video idea that is less than three minutes. You might however submit a pitch for multiple videos in a series, which in total can be up to 12 minutes.
- For articles, remember, we’re super keen on stories that use visuals: photography or animation. Please keep this in mind as you submit your pitch.
- If you have any questions that haven’t been responded to here, please reach out to me ruth@bigcabal.com with Contributor Submission in the subject line.
- Last but not least, we pay contributors!
Airtable
Please find the list to the form here.
Agreement
You are expected to send your story within a month after your pitch is accepted. The editing process includes 1 set of developmental edits and a proofread. We expect fully formed stories that do not need a lot of work. The developmental edit would include any changes that’ll be made to the final work that’s published.
The editing process will take a week.
We’re excited to see your ideas!
