Story of the Month · November is for Food
This month’s topic
“Pounded Yam Won’t Pound Itself: Can AI Actually Fix Our Food Prices, or is it Just Tech-Bro Nonsense?”
Everyone is talking about AI writing essays and generating fake pictures. But while tech bros are building apps like Glovo to deliver coffee, the price of tomatoes and rice in the local market is doing sumasaults to the levels of crazy.
- 1Write1 Nov – 20 Nov
- 2Readers vote21 Nov – 28 Nov
- 3Top 3 to the editorsReaders’ shortlist
- 4Winner announced30 Nov
This month’s entries.
No entries published yet — yours could be the first.
Add your entry
Enter Story of the Month
Add your entry.
Topic: “Pounded Yam Won’t Pound Itself: Can AI Actually Fix Our Food Prices, or is it Just Tech-Bro Nonsense?”
- 150–1000 words, typed right here
- Your real name is shown; your email stays private
- One entry per person per month
- Editors approve entries before they go live
- Entries close 20 November at 23:59
Read before you write or vote
The rules.
Short version: write something original, keep it clean and non-partisan, be 18+ and live in Africa. Readers shortlist, editors decide.
01 Who can enter
- You must be 18 or older and live in an African country.
- One entry per person per month. Extra entries, or entries made under someone else’s name, will be removed.
- DevNews.Africa staff, judges and their immediate families can’t win.
- Your real name is shown with your story. Your email address is never shown publicly.
02 How it works each month
- Every month has a theme chosen by our editors. Your story must respond to that month’s theme.
- Entries: from the 1st until 23:59 on the 20th (West Africa Time / site time).
- Public voting: from the 21st until 23:59 on the 28th.
- Winner: the top 3 stories by confirmed votes form the readers’ shortlist. Our editors choose the Story of the Month from that shortlist and announce it on the last day of the month.
03 Writing your entry
- Between 150 and 1000 words, in English. Type it directly into the form — no uploads or attachments.
- It must be your own original work and not published anywhere else before (including social media, blogs and other competitions). No plagiarism.
- Fiction, true stories, letters and poems in prose form are all welcome.
- Every entry is checked by our editors before it appears. Approval can take up to 48 hours.
04 What we won’t accept
- No party politics: no campaigning, endorsing or attacking political parties or candidates, or party slogans. Stories can explore public life and governance — but not as political promotion.
- No insults or hate: nothing that insults, harasses or attacks anyone, or any ethnic group, religion, gender, disability or nationality.
- No real private people: don’t name, expose or make claims about real private individuals. Nothing defamatory about anyone.
- Nothing harmful: no sexual content, nothing involving harm to children, no glorifying violence, crime or self-harm, no illegal content.
- No ads or spam: no links, promotions or contact details inside your story.
05 Voting & comments
- Anyone can vote. Each email address can vote once per story, and every vote must be confirmed by clicking the link we email you. Unconfirmed votes don’t count.
- You can vote for as many different stories as you like. Writers can’t vote for their own story.
- Buying votes, fake or disposable email addresses, bots or any other vote manipulation will get the entry disqualified. We may remove suspicious votes.
- Comments are limited to 300 characters, appear immediately and must follow the same content rules. No links. We remove comments that break the rules.
06 The prize
- The Story of the Month wins $100, paid in local currency at that day’s exchange rate or in US dollars, by bank transfer or mobile money — the winner chooses — or another payout method agreed with the winner.
- We pay within 30 days of the announcement, after the winner confirms their identity, age and country with a valid ID. Transfer fees are covered by us; any personal taxes are the winner’s responsibility.
- If a winner doesn’t reply within 14 days, or doesn’t meet the rules, the editors may choose another story from the shortlist.
- The prize can’t be transferred. If there are too few eligible entries in a month, we may roll the prize over to the next month.
07 Your story, your data
- You keep the copyright. By entering you give DevNews.Africa permission to publish your story on our website, newsletter and social media, with your name, without payment beyond the prize. We may correct obvious typos but won’t change your story’s meaning.
- We use your email only to run the competition (confirmations, contacting winners). We add you to our newsletter only if you tick the box, and you can unsubscribe any time.
- Want your entry taken down later? Contact us and we’ll remove it.
08 The fine print
- DevNews.Africa may reject or remove any entry or comment, disqualify any entrant, and change, pause or cancel the competition if something outside our control affects it. The editors’ decision is final.
- Sponsors support the prize and the page. They don’t choose the winner or see entrants’ private details.
- By entering, voting or commenting you agree to these rules.
Stay in the loop
Africa’s development stories, straight to your inbox.
From the frontline to the data. No noise.