In an interview with Nicolette Stewart of Young Germany, Series Editor Sharon Dodua Otoo spoke about Witnessed:
I chose the name Witnessed because I want the series to really be an account of life in Germany from Black perspectives. The aim is to reverse the gaze: Black people are used to being looked at in public spaces. These looks are not always friendly by the way! With Witnessed I would like to provide a platform for Black people who write in English to record what they see when they look back.
I deliberately chose the past tense of the verb (witnessed) rather than present tense or a noun (witness). This is to show that the accounts are about a very specific point of time. Life in Germany for Black people will not remain static (I am also a hopeless optimist!) so, the series should perhaps be considered to be something like diary entries which we can all go back to at some point in the future and say: “Ahh, so that's what it was like back then. Wow, how weird?!”
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