Death of a language and the world’s longest kiss

Death of a language and the world’s longest kiss

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

We hear about the death of one of the oldest languages in the world, when an 85 year old woman died and took it with her in 2010.

Our expert guest is Dr Mandana Seyfeddinipur, who is the Head of the Endangered Languages Archive which endeavours to preserve languages that are disappearing at “an alarming rate.”

We also hear about the historian who helped bring a former Stasi officer to justice decades after he killed a man.

Also the moment Bolivia elected its first ever indigenous president in 2005.

The Thai couple that broke the world record for the longest kiss twice.

Plus, it’s 60 years since the controversial black activist, Malcolm X was assassinated. We hear from a man who was in the audience in New York when it happened.

This programme contains outdated and offensive language.

Contributors: Dr Anvita Abbi – linguist who documented one of the oldest languages before it died Dr Mandana Seyfeddinipur – Head of the Endangered Languages Archive Dr Filip Gańczak – the historian who helped convict a former Stasi officer of murder Herman Ferguson who was in the audience when Malcolm X was assassinated Álvaro García Linera – Vice President of Bolivia under Evo Morales for 14 years Ekkachai – one half of the couple who broke the record for the world’s longest kiss

(Photo: Boa Senior in Hospital. Credit: Anvita Abbi)

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Fighting Uganda's anti-gay laws

Fighting Uganda's anti-gay laws

In 2009 Ugandan MPs tried to introduce new laws against homosexuality that would include life imprisonment and even the death penalty. We speak to Victor Mukasa about his story of fighting for LGBT rights in Uganda, first as a lesbian woman and then as a trans man. Also, the early days of the environmental organisation Greenpeace, walking the Great Wall of China and fighting acid attacks on women in Bangladesh.(Photo: Ugandan LGBT Activist Victor Mukasa May 2019. BBC)

25 Maj 201950min

The final days of Sri Lanka's civil war

The final days of Sri Lanka's civil war

In May 2009 the Sri Lankan army defeated the Tamil Tigers, ending a brutal 25-year civil war; also, the economists who predicted the 2008 global economic crash, plus the Nazis' stolen children, a victim of China's One Child policy, and the building of the great Karakoram Highway.Photo: Tamil civilians standing on the roadside after crossing to a government-controlled area 2kms from the front-line, 2009 (Getty Images)

18 Maj 201950min

The war on drugs

The war on drugs

US President Richard Nixon's efforts to deal with illegal drugs in 1971, the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam plus the rise of Jack Ma and his Alibaba empire in China. Also the Bauhaus movement and the global TV hit 'Strictly Come Dancing'.Photo: US President Richard Nixon (BBC)

13 Maj 201950min

The Malayan Emergency

The Malayan Emergency

Battling a communist insurgency in 1950s Malaya, the sinking of the Belgrano during the UK Argentine conflict, plus how Ellen DeGeneres came out to millions on US TV, also the African who made the Arctic his home because of his fear of snakes and the life of WW1 poet Rupert Brooke.Photo: A photograph taken by a British sergeant on patrol in the Malayan jungle.. (Copyright: Keystone/Getty Images)

4 Maj 201951min

The al Yamamah arms deals

The al Yamamah arms deals

The huge but controversial Anglo-Saudi deal, the Sri Lankan journalist who predicted his own murder, plus remembering South Africa's historic election 25 years ago, the day NATO bombed Serbian TV, and the origin of modern Veganism. Photo: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and King Fahd in London in 1987. Credit: Tim Graham/Getty Images.

27 Apr 201950min

The Columbine school shooting

The Columbine school shooting

The memories of the brother of one of the victims of the Columbine mass school shooting; plus the story behind 'A Raisin in the Sun' - the first play on Broadway by a black woman; the world's first space tourist, the origins of organic farming and the auto-destructive art movement of the 1960s.Photo: Students from Columbine High School run under cover from police, following a shooting spree by two masked teenagers. April 20th 1999 (Mark Leffingwell/AFP/Getty Images

18 Apr 201950min

The rise of Hindu nationalism

The rise of Hindu nationalism

How an Indian religious rally in 1990 sparked the rise of Hindu nationalism, 100 years since the Amritsar Massacre plus the first wing-suit for base jumping, a US food scare in the 1960s and teaching Marilyn Monroe to dance.(Photo LK Advani during rath yatra 15/10/1990 Credit: Getty Image)

13 Apr 201950min

Abolishing the army

Abolishing the army

After a brief civil war in March-April 1948, the new president of Costa Rica, Jose Figueres, took the audacious step of dissolving the Armed Forces. The Central American country is now one of just over 20 countries without a standing army - we find out more. Plus, Maya Angelou's ground-breaking memoir, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, and the remarkable story of the raising of the Swedish warship, the Vasa.Photo: Costa Rican soldiers in San Jose after the end of the civil war, April 1948 (Credit: Getty Images)

6 Apr 201950min

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