/ah-yun-fe/ – beloved.
Àyànfé Magazine is where Nigerian women are foremost and center. Our goal is to become the go-to space when Nigerian women need the comfort of familiarity from shared experiences and community. We want to be the first publication that comes to your mind when you think about the many many glorious stories Nigerian women have to share. We publish in tones that are conscious, open, certain, and kind.
Categories Guide
- Hidden Gele: The untold stories of elderly Nigerian women, the full lives they lived and continue to live. The era of their youths differs from this era, so Àyànfé Magazine is interested in stories about how they lived during their youths: were they rebels? Were they ruly? What did they fight for? How was romance for them? Did they elope? Tell us about their rich and diverse experiences, especially against the backdrop of the unique era they grew up in. This category will also shine a light on the depths of heroism by Nigerian women. Àyànfé magazine will publish stories that range from the women who fought to own land and be counted as their father’s children to the women who constantly sell pepper in the market, under sun and rain to sustain their families. Women with peculiar occupations [doesn’t have to be a job, can be a non-monetized hobby] you find interesting. Àyànfé magazine is interested in stories of badassry by Nigerian women. This category will not feature Nigerian women in the limelight whose activity or heroism has been carried by other publications except in previously unexplored perspectives.
- Gen S: Generational stories keep the world moving, hence this category features stories of Nigerian women as told by mothers, aunts, and grandmothers. It can be a retelling [for example, the story your mom told you about the awful hostel she stayed in when she was in the university and the particular shege she went through] or a lesson passed down and its effects on your life. Your funny aunty? Tell us the intriguing personal lore she shared with you. Your grandmother’s experience as a young girl during the Civil War? We are interested.
- Nigerian feminism: The radical notion that Nigerian women are as human. This category will publish all of your thoughts, facts, and opinions on reproductive rights, bodily autonomy, sexism, sexuality, and misogyny.
- See Me: This category is personal stories about the concerns of Nigerian women; from body to sex life to love life to liberation to the most mundane things occupying your thoughts. Àyànfé is interested in your best and worst moments in friendships. Feel seen. Tell your curiosities, your lessons, your desires, your pain, your misery, your joy… We want the honor of seeing you.
- See Her Too: The personal stories you want to tell on someone else’s behalf; your friend or the stranger whose story has piqued your curiosity, we will see her too.
- Faces: Interviews of Nigerian women ranging from the famous singer to the woman who plaits hair behind your house, from the filmmaker to bole sellers. Àyànfé Magazine is interested in who they are beyond their outward personas—their deep motivations, strengths, weaknesses, concealed sources of happiness, concealed sources of despair, how have they turned pretense into an art form, and when they are truest to themselves. What do they strive for? Àyànfé wants to know what excites them!
Column Guide
- Love in Nigeria: If you have ever fallen in love, fallen out of love, nursed a heartbreak, fallen back in love, found yourself in situationships and everything else that being in love and feelings entails as a Nigerian woman, this column is for you; even if you are simply curious about the notion of love. This is Àyànfé’s first column and our columnist, Ayomide Agboola, will be your sister-in-love. Feel free to ask her about the confusions and dilemmas and certainties and fears that you have about your love life. You can always AskAyo by sending your questions and a detailed explanation of your situation [to properly understand you] to askayoloveinnigeria@gmail.com. If you decide to be anonymous, kindly use an interesting alias instead. Thank you!
Editorial Demands
a. Àyànfé’s publications demand originality and depth: narrate your experiences, let us know the Nigerian woman that is the center of your story, don’t just describe her experiences, narrate her life. We accept a minimum of 750 words and a maximum of 5000 words. We are not immune to humor and the occasional witty banter too.
b. Works published by Àyànfé cannot be published elsewhere. Àyànfé will have exclusive publishing rights.
c. If you are rejected, you may choose to apply the editor’s corrections and resubmit.
d. Àyànfé would only make changes to published material with the author’s permission.
e. Publishing requires time. When the team is processing your work, please be patient. If you do not receive feedback after 2 weeks, you may send a query here.
f. Àyànfé is currently not paying contributors but we are in the process of making sure we can.
g. We love proper punctuation.
h. We accept simultaneous submissions but let us know if your work has been accepted elsewhere.
i. We do not accept pieces that have been published elsewhere, including on personal blogs.
j. Prioritize readability. Be expressive. Use personalized languages if need be. We are bored with the dictionary meaning of words, instead, let us know how it relates to you. Less can be more and while we appreciate the art of showing, there is also beauty in the telling of mundane things.
k. We only accept drafts. If you send a pitch, it will be rejected. Kindly send your draft as a Word document or copy it to the body of your mail along with a short bio written in the third person. Again, if you send a pitch, it will be automatically rejected. Don’t think too hard about a title for your story, if you don’t have one, our team will provide it. Send your drafts to ayanfezine@gmail.com. Thank you.