About Ukamaka
Ukamaka: A Way of Remembering
Her Godmother took one look at her and gave her “Ukamaka” meaning “church is beautiful.”
Uka in Igbo means to talk. We like to say that Ukamaka means “talking is beautiful” or more appropriately “discussion is important.”
“Ukamaka Magazine is our way of remembering.”
The visual language of Ukamaka leans on high-quality, fine-art and editorial images of African women, chosen to accompany the work with dignity and restraint rather than generic stock illustration.
Our Mission & Leadership
What Is Ukamaka Magazine
Ukamaka Magazine is a literary magazine devoted to the interior lives, memories, and imaginations of African and Nigerian women.
It is concerned with how the world treats women and how women see, think, remember, grieve, desire, and make sense of their worlds.
Every piece is selected and edited with the standards of a serious literary journal: careful curation, attentive line editing, and a considered relationship between language, image, and space. Ukamaka is an editor-led publication, distinct from a personal blog in both ambition and craft.
The magazine publishes work in issues as well as individual features, allowing each piece to stand alone while also belonging to a larger editorial conversation shaped over time.
Founder and Origins
Ukamaka was founded in 2026 by Kosarachi Faith-Ann Nnebe, then a history student at the University of Nigeria.
She started it in memory of her mother, Joy Ngozi Ukamaka Nnebe, whom she always describes as sunshine, a market woman, and a troublemaker.
Ukamaka Magazine was born out of love for women and a deep curiosity about how the world treats and affects them. She wants to read your stories, poetry, news, and essays about African women, Nigerian women, and especially market women (this is her soft spot).
"Meet the women, writers, and readers reshaping how we remember women's stories."
Ukamaka Magazine is a home for poetry, stories, and essays that honor women's lives. We publish bold voices, recover forgotten histories, and create space for women to remember, resist, and reimagine the world together.
Editorial Focus & Vision
Purpose & Editorial Focus
Our editorial focus is simple, good, savouring eye-catching story. Can you write about any female, your mother, market women, men who were there for women, heartbreak story. We accept.
We hope to also spotlight women. We accept spotlight pieces about women. Book reviews. Poetry.
Our Vision
Ukamaka Magazine aims to become a reference point for contemporary writing by and about African women. The magazine seeks to be a place that writers, scholars, students, and general readers turn to when they want to encounter work that is both artistically ambitious and deeply grounded in lived experience.
Central to this vision is the building of an accessible, beautifully designed digital archive. Over time, Ukamaka intends for its issues and features to form a constellation of voices, themes, and images that can be read across years.
How We Publish & Connect
How We Publish
Ukamaka Magazine publishes new work weekly on both our online magazine and our Substack. We also plan quarterly calls and yearly calls for anthologies, but for now we are focusing on these weekly calls for submissions.
We want something fun, alive with detail and personality, but also honest about how the world sees women. We welcome short stories, spotlights, discussions or news about women, poems, essays, fiction, and non-fiction.
Ukamaka Community
It is a space that honors the lives of African and Nigerian women, tracing their lineages, celebrating their resilience, and providing a sanctuary for their creative expression.
We believe that remembering is a collaborative act. Through review, dialogue, and creation, we build a community that preserves our heritage, nurturing slow, attentive reading rather than fast, blog-style posting.
For Readers and Contributors
Ukamaka Magazine offers a space to slow down. You are invited to move through the work deliberately, to return to pieces more than once, and to allow the language, images, and silences to reveal themselves over time.
Ukamaka is an invitation to consider sharing work that speaks to the magazine’s focus on memory, interiority, and the lives of African and diasporic women. The editorial process is collaborative and rigorous, helping each piece arrive in its best possible form.