The Documentary Podcast

In 1994 apartheid ended in South Africa and Nelson Mandela was elected president. He promised in his inauguration speech to “build a society in which all South Africans will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts ... a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.” These promises were enshrined in South Africa’s post-apartheid constitution, the first in the world to outlaw all forms of discrimination.

In 1994 Motshidisi Pascalina Melamu was born, making her one of the first of the so-called ‘born free generation’. Pasca, as she was known, dreamed of becoming a politician, and studied hard at school. She loved singing, dancing and football. And girls - Pasca was a lesbian.

In December last year, Pasca’s body was found in a field. She had been beaten and mutilated. She was one of three LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex) people murdered in a six-week period last year. Hate crimes against the LGBTI community have long been a problem in South Africa, and the government has tried to tackle them. But activists say these recent crimes are just one sign that things aren’t getting better. James Fletcher travels to the townships south of Johannesburg to speak with Pasca’s family and friends, and to ask whether the government is failing LGBTI South Africans.

BBC presenter Nkem Ifejika cannot speak Igbo the language of his forefathers. He wants to know why he was never taught Igbo as a child and travels to the Igbo heartland in the south-east of Nigeria to explore the demise of a once proud language. He discovers that recent history has had profound effects on Igbo culture and identity. He discovers too that some Igbos are seeking to reassert their language and culture.

In communities around the globe, non-binary people are rejecting the categories of ‘male’ and ‘female’, and attempting to redefine gender identity. Linda Pressly hears stories from activists who are part of this contemporary movement, and from those trying to live free from the constraints of the expectations of gender.

Farhana Haider enters Dhaka, in Bangladesh to meet a group of teenage girls who were married and then abandoned by their husbands before they even reached the age of 16.

Chloe Hadjimatheou tells the astonishing story of a group of young men from Raqqa in Syria who chose to resist the so-called ‘Islamic State’, which occupied their city in 2014 and made it the capital of their ‘Caliphate’. These extraordinary activists have risked everything to oppose ISIS; several have been killed, or had family members murdered. IS has put a bounty on the resistance leaders’ heads forcing them to go into hiding. But the group continues its work, under the banner ‘Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently’. Chloe meets the group’s founders, who are now organising undercover activists in Raqqa from the relative safety of other countries.

Producer: Rob Walker

To salute the 90th birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, David Cannadine, eminent professor of History at Princeton University explores the worldwide role and significance of the British monarchy.

Emily Thomas explores what our secrets tell us about who we are, and what happens when we reveal them. Now that it is easy to go online and tell strangers anything anonymously, are we more or less likely to confide in the people around us? She explores the link between identity and secret-keeping and asks how much of our identity is what we keep hidden.

In the chaotic city of Kolkata in India, Catherine Carr hears from the feminist Shakespeare enthusiast to the man dying of AIDS and the woman still a little bit in love with her colleague; from the father and son begging by the roadside to the teenager dreaming of Olympic success.

The brief portraits have been woven together with the sounds of the city, to create an unpredictable and poetic experience of Kolkata. This series, part of the Identity series, invites strangers to pause on their way from A to B and asks them one simple question: ‘Where Are You Going?’ The encounters reveal funny, moving, poignant and sometimes astonishing details about the lives of others.

Image: Ayushi, a student at Kolkata's Presidence University. Credit: Peter Jay

Norway's widely regarded as one of the world's most progressive societies, yet it's at the centre of an international storm over its child protection policies. Campaigners accuse its social workers of removing children - some from immigrant backgrounds - from their parents without justification, and permanently erasing family bonds. Tim Whewell meets parents who say they've lost their children because of misunderstood remarks or "insufficient eye contact" - and Norwegian professionals who call the system monstrous and dysfunctional. Is a service designed to put children first now out of control?

Justine Lang embarks on a journey to find out why women in India sacrifice their natural hair and why an increasing number of South African women want to buy it.