We need your voice

Voices of Africa is an ambitious new publishing venture by the Mail & Guardian, which aims to show how we live in Africa, not how we die; how we thrive as multifaceted humans, not merely as survivors. It is an ongoing series of lively articles written by Africans about life in "their" Africa -- ordinary people getting on with their own lives, often in the face of adversity.

Here's what we'd like

An "audition" article of about 800 words that's about some aspect of life in your neck of the world that you think would be appropriate for Voices of Africa.

• It could be humorous, anedotal, descriptive -- something that will give us a glimpse into how life, love, work, family or society works as you observe or experience it in that unique place on the planet where you live.
  
• We don't want traditional news reports (he said, she said and so forth), but your personal point of view, with great details and voices, of course -- more chatty blog style than typical straight newspaper reporting.
  
• We do want authors to be "of the place" they write about -- which, unfortunately, cuts out Africans living elsewhere in the world and non-Africans living in African countries.
  
• We welcome contributions in French. Please correspond with Stephanie Wolters.
  
• You don't have to be a journalist to write for Voices of Africa; you do need to be able to write interestingly and clearly.
  
• If we like your article, we'll undertake to edit it and publish it, in consultation with you.
  
• We will consider each article submitted on its merits, where we think it will work for Voices of Africa.
  
• We will let you know as promptly as possible if your article is not suitable for publication in this series.
  
• We pay R2 per word accepted for publication (after editing), in South African rands.
  
• For logistical reasons we can only pay via an electronic funds transfer into a bank account of your choice (that is, not via Western Union and so forth).
  
• The money will be transferred into your account within 60 days of receipt of your invoice.
• Please state your full name and country of origin in all correspondence.
• All work submitted must be original and written specifically for Voices of Africa. We do not accept previously published work and we check for plagiarism.
• Once the Mail & Guardian buys and publishes your story, the copyright belongs to the newspaper.

Contact details Submit your Voices of Africa articles to: Charlotte Bauer (English): voices@mg.co.za Stephanie Wolters (French): stephanie@okapi.cc Tel: +27 11 250 7300

Voices of Africa is still in its early days. However, we are now commissioning. If you write something we wish to publish -- even though it may not appear in print for several weeks -- we will process payment immediately.

If you are still interested, please email us an "on spec" story of no more than 800 words and we'll take it from there. If, by mutual agreement, there's a second time (or third, or fourth!), we will offer you a commission on acceptance of an idea.

If you're unsure about what you think might work, you're welcome to pitch one or two ideas before you write. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

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