Do you have a folktale passed down through your family, community, or culture? Oriire invites you to share it in your own words for our Folktale Writing Competition 2025.
This is your chance to bring timeless African stories to a wider audience.
The Challenge
Your challenge is to find a traditional African folktale and retell it in your own unique narrative voice. We encourage you to explore tales from your own culture or from a community you have researched with care and respect.
Your entry must be a compelling narrative that honours the spirit of the original tale while showcasing your skill as a storyteller. To ground your work in its cultural context, every submission must be accompanied by a short note (approx. 100 words) on the tale’s origin, including its associated people or region.
Prizes
We have a prize pool of over N300,000 to be won.
- First Prize: N100,000
- Second Prize: N75,000
- Third Prize: N50,000
- Shortlisted Finalists (7): N15,000 each
In addition to the cash prizes, all ten winning entries will be published on Oriire, and authors will be celebrated across our platform. Outstanding submissions that do not make the shortlist may also be selected for publication and paid our standard N10,000 fee.
Competition Timeline
- Submissions Open: 5th September 2025, 9:00 AM WAT
- Submissions Close: 19th September 2025, 5:00 PM WAT
- Shortlist Announced: 5th October 2025 (via the Oriire newsletter)
- Public Voting Opens: 6th October 2025, 5:00 PM WAT
- Public Voting Closes: 19th October 2025, 5:00 PM WAT
- Winners Announced: Week of 21st October 2025
- Prizes Paid Out: 21st - 25th October 2025
How to Enter
- Become an Oriire Member: The competition is an exclusive event for our community. You must have an active (free) Oriire membership to enter.
- Join the Conversation: Before submitting, engage with our community by posting a thoughtful comment on at least three of your favourite articles on the Oriire website.
- Submit Your Story: Upload your entry via the submission portal (link will be live on Sept 5th).
Submission Guidelines
- Length: 500-700 words.
- Origin Note: Must include a separate note of approx. 100 words (within the text) detailing the specific tribe, ethnic group or region the folktale comes from.
- Format: Submissions must be in English. Please submit as a .doc or .docx file.
- Plagiarism: All entries must be original retellings. Any form of plagiarism will result in immediate disqualification.
Judging Criteria
Entries will be judged in two phases. First, the Oriire team will select a shortlist of 10 finalists based on the following criteria:
- Narrative Voice: The quality, confidence, and uniqueness of the storytelling.
- Cultural Authenticity: The respect and care shown to the source material and its context.
- Originality: A fresh perspective or creative approach to the retelling.
- Adherence to Theme: How well the entry meets the competition guidelines.
Once the shortlist is announced, judging will be handed over to the Oriire community via voting
How Voting Works
- Voting will be open to all members of Oriire.
- During voting, members will see
- Vote counts in real time
- A leaderboard of top entries
Authors are encouraged to share the voting page to rally support.
Ready to share your story?
