First person

Choi Song Hui served as a loyal soldier in North Korea’s army, but then fled across the border river. She now lives in Seoul where she continues to fight for human rights in her home country

For the first time in history Mexico voted for a female president. Following Claudia Sheinbaum’s landslide win, the writer Gabriela Jauregui lists her demands for the new Presidenta

Norway spent decades trying to force the Saami to assimilate. The activist Ida Helene Benonisen is fighting for indigenous rights – in the tradition of her forefathers

The Brazilian filmmaker Karim Aïnouz has always been drawn to distant horizons. From Brazil via New York, he found his way to Berlin

Doctor and author, Ma Thida, spent a long time in prison as a result of fighting for democracy in Myanmar. Regardless, she hopes to return to her country soon

In northern Canada, the indigenous population has always lived in balance with nature - but then Europeans found their way to the icy desert. The newcomers harvested its raw materials. A personal story about life on the periphery of North America

From the airport to the Sahara: author Saïd Khatibi travelled to the Algerian oasis town of Timimoun. A text about the lure of the desert and the inspiration of emptiness

Between fiction and beats, between Africa and Europe: as an author and musician, Kalaf Epalanga is always travelling between worlds

Since he can remember, there has been a deep rift between Daljit Nagra and his parents. He is ashamed of their narrow-mindedness; they despise his transformation into a “white man”. Memories of a difficult childhood

Between religious fanaticism and sibling love: British author Kit de Waal describes her childhood of extremes – and talks about how it shaped her relationship with her adopted children

Persecution, prison, exile: Life has moved fast for the Ugandan poet Stella Nyanzi since her parents died. So much has changed that she she’s catching up with the past. A farewell letter to Mummy and Daddy.

Comics are booming in Taiwan but until recently, LGBTQ storylines were hard to find. Publisher Aho Huang wants to change all that

Students, a fish farmer, a beautician and an activist: we asked eight Taiwanese people what’s on their mind

Our author drifts through the city, meets people in nightclubs and drinks sweetened soy milk with a date at dawn. A story about being young in Taiwan

The Kuomintang and the Democratic Progressive Party are the only two political parties in Taiwan. What do they stand for? Two delegates give us the low-down on their political hopes, dreams and aspirations

From the South African slum to the top of the United Nations: Judge Navi Pillay reflects on an eventful life

Taiwanese author Wu Ming-Yi and Chinese writer Yan Lianke exchanged letters for us. The result is a very personal exchange about censorship, loss, and the pain that is expressed between the lines

What do you need in life? From Canada to South Africa to Pakistan, people around the globe explain what they can’t live without. Here Fatma Aydemir and T. C. Boyle say what is indispensable

The author Musa Okwonga hasn’t looked back on his decision to leave his home country Great Britain. On a life between Eton College, day-to-day life in Berlin and memories of Uganda

Only those who already have something can settle for less. But for many people around the globe, going without things is no more than a pipe dream. A life spent living in and fleeing from the Central African Republic

Civil war, nightly air raids, a lack of water: as a refugee from Palestine, Mohammad El-Hassan, felt he had no future in Lebanon. He fled to Berlin in 2003 and today works as a cook in Prenzlauer Berg

When the Taliban came to power, women in Afghanistan lost almost everything overnight: their rights, their jobs, their dignity. What are their concerns today? We asked Afghan women for a selfie, and asked the question: how are you doing?

Our anonymous author’s sister was a journalist who was murdered on the street by the Taliban. This is her attempt to say farewell

Girls scavenging in piles of rubbish and scarcely any cars on the streets: the Afghan capital has changed. An author takes us for a stroll in her neighbourhood

South African literature slipped from the international gaze after the end of apartheid. Books by black authors in particular rarely reached foreign readers. Now festivals, small publishers and the film industry are finally changing the picture

Is there something to be learned from traveling? South African writer Lerato Mogoatlhe has traveled to thirty African countries – and learned a lot about herself in the process

Publishers in South Africa have long thought that Black communities do not read all that much. New book clubs are finally changing this picture

French dancer Maïmouna Coulibaly took to African dance to process experiences of sexual violence and a conservative upbringing. Now she helps others do the same with her “Booty therapy”

Ahmed Soura lost his family in Burkina Faso and suffered racism in Europe. When he danced to Händel’s “Messiah” in Berlin, he understood: those who really want to be free must redeem themselves

The ocean doesn’t care about skin colour or origin: A surfer’s life in South Africa

How does it feel to jump into a lake of melted snow in the South American summer?

Irina Shcherbakova was born in Moscow in 1949 and is a well-known historian and expert in German studies. Since the 1970s, she has been working to come to terms with the impact of the Stalin era on Russia. She is one of the founders of the now-outlawed NGO, Memorial.

The basis of white supremacy is a way of thinking, one that says the colour of one's skin makes one human being better or worse than other human beings. Even as a successful professional, the author was unable to escape it.

From a Somalian childhood to reading books in Paris and writing in Germany: On why I had to learn a foreign language to express myself freely

Threatened from all sides, the young author Lale Gül is paying a high price for her self-determinat­ion

Historian Frauke Heard-Bey moved from Berlin to Abu Dhabi in 1967 for love. More than fifty years later, she calls the Emirates her home - and has helped build up an entire national archive.

The world around you starts to vibrate – that only happens elsewhere, you think. Until it happens to you. Reflections on an extraordinary day

Hums, buzzes, squeaks: It’s surprisingly loud underground. What do these noises tell us?

Four kilometres below the earth’s surface lies the deepest mine in the world. A worker tells of his day-to-day life in South Africa’s Mponeng gold mine

In Quechua culture, life above ground is closely linked to the subterranean. From birth to after death, the Pachamama plays a vital role

Welket Bungué, born in Xitole in the south of Guinea-Bissau in 1988, is an actor and filmmaker. After living and working in Portugal and Brazil, he now lives in Berlin. 

The Sámi from Scandinavia know how to build a house. For 4,000 years they have been building goahtis to withstand the harsh climate

Bjeen Alhassan, born in Qamishli, Syria, now lives in Germany. In her Facebook group “Learning with Bijin” she helps refugee women, earning her the German Integration Award 

Auma Obama is a German scholar, sociologist, author - and Barack Obama’s sister. She doesn’t like to discuss her famous brother, preferring to talk about her work between Germany and Kenya

Politicians and companies like to urge people to do their bit to help the environment, creating a smokescreen for their own failure to act.