The severe restrictions on public life which have been repeatedly introduced by the German government due to the outbreak of COVID-19 have overwhelmed almost everyone - including many individuals, who until March 2020 had not experienced any existential limits to their freedom of movement, civil rights or bodily autonomy. Suddenly they were confronted with severely restricted access to health care, childcare, public transport, social networks and family support. Suddenly they were losing their paid work or struggling to juggle home office with home schooling. Suddenly they were in new territory, desperately wondering how they would survive.

For those who have been in crisis, none of this felt new. Black people have been warning the less affected over and over, long before they proudly used the hashtag Black Lives Matter on Twitter, or posted black squares on Instagram. And yet even in the midst of this outpouring of new-found awareness, we Black people are still fighting to defend our humanity. Writers like Toni Morrison and Chinua Achebe have shown us how to transform our collective pain - reimagining our humanity - and hand it back to us as art. This talk will consider the theme of solidarity from the perspective of a Black artist. As a writer I can bear witness. I can use my literature in the service of Black lives. Why I do this and how I do this will be the subject of my talk.

Sharon Dodua Otoo ist freie Schriftstellerin. 2016 wurde sie mit dem Ingeborg Bachmann Preis ausgezeichnet.