Escaping Eritrea and inventing Zumba
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear about the lengths one woman goes to to escape Eritrea, how Zumba was invented by accident and how a giant peace statue on a Japanese island, crumbled into a ghostly ruin.Plus the arguments then, and the arguments still over the Good Friday Peace Agreement for Northern Ireland, and a picnic for peace that breached the Iron Curtain.This programme contains descriptions of sexual violence.Contributors: Martin Plaut - Senior Research Fellow at University of London Semhar Ghebreslassie - Eritrean graduate Beto Perez - Choreographer and inventor of Zumba Jane Morrice - Yes campaigner in 1998 referendum on the Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement Lee Reynolds - No campaigner in 1998 referendum on the Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement Yusuke Natsukawa - Local resident of Awaji Island Goro Otsubo - IT worker who enjoys visiting weird sites around Japan Walburga Habsburg Douglas - an organiser of the Pan-European picnic(Photo: Zumba creator Beto Perez. Credit: Getty Images)
8 Apr 202351min
The godfather of manicures and India's Silicon Valley
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear about Vietnam's manicure godfather, how Bengaluru became India's Silicon Valley and how the first ever photograph from a mobile phone was sent.Plus, the popularity of theoretical physicist Prof Stephen Hawking's book, A Brief History of Time, and the windmill that revolutionised wind power.Contributors:Tuong Vu - Professor of Political Science at the University of Oregon. Kien Nguyen - Wife of Minh Nguyen. Narayana Murthy - Founder of Infosys. Philippe Kahn - Software engineer and owner of world's first mobile phone photo. Peter Guzzardi - Publisher and editor. Britta Jensen - Teacher. (Photo: Minh and Kien Nguyen outside beauty school in California. Credit: Kien Nguyen)
1 Apr 202350min
Film and cinema around the world
Max Pearson presents a compilation of stories about the history of film and cinema from around the world, including the longest running film in Indian cinema, the man who lived in an airport for 18 years and the ambitious release of the orca from the movie, Free Willy.Plus, the real life escape from Alcatraz and the incredible story of Vietnamese movie star, Kieu Chinh.Contributors:Dr Ranita Chatterjee - Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at the University of Exeter. Kajol - Indian actress. Kieu Chinh - Vietnamese actress. Andrew Donkin - Biographer of Mehran Karimi Nasseri. Jolene Babyak - Lived on Alcatraz Island. Dave Phillips - Founder of the Free Willy Keiko Foundation.(Photo: People queuing for DDLJ in Mumbai. Credit: Getty Images)
25 Mars 202350min
The Invasion of Iraq
A compilation of stories marking the 20th anniversary of the American led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Caroline Hawley, who was the Baghdad correspondent for the BBC at the time, speaks to Max Pearson about reporting on Iraq. Contributors:Lubna Naji - schoolgirl in Baghdad when the war broke out. Yasir Dhannoon - became a refugee when he fled Iraq. General Vincent Brooks - first revealed the playing cards to help US troops identify the most-wanted members of Saddam Hussein's government. Muwafaq al Rubaie - was asked to help to identify Saddam Hussein after he was captured. Banwal Baba Dawud - brother to Ammo Baba.(Photo: US Marines help Iraqis take down a Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad. Credit: RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP via Getty Images)
18 Mars 202351min
International Women's Day
Max Pearson presents a compilation of stories celebrating women who made history including a ground-breaking, African American science fiction writer and the first presidential hopeful in Mexico. Plus the UN's first ever all-female peacekeeping unit, a woman who helped bring peace to Northern Ireland and a child goddess in Nepal.Contributors:Dr Brenda Stevenson - Hillary Rodham Clinton Chair in Women’s History at St John’s College, Oxford University. Nisi Shawl - friend of Octavia Butler. Rosario Piedra - daughter of Rosario Ibarra. Nick Caistor - journalist. Seema Dhundia - member of India’s Central Reserve Police Force. Lesley Pruitt - author of The Women in Blue Helmets. Monica McWilliams - one of the architects of the Good Friday Agreement. Chanira Bajrycharya - former child goddess in Nepal.(Photo: March for International Women's Day in Mexico City in 2023. Credit: Getty Images)
11 Mars 202351min
Pink triangles and political assassinations
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dr Uta Rautenberg from the University of Warwick in the UK, an expert on homophobia in Nazi camps.Rudolf Brazda recounts his experience of being a gay man in a Nazi concentration camp, symbolised by the pink triangle he was forced to wear on his uniform. Then, we hear first-hand accounts of the Indigenous American protest at Wounded Knee 50 years ago, and the assassination of Serbia's Prime Minister, Zoran Djindjic, in 2003. We finish with two lighter stories: the world's most remote museum on the island of South Georgia and the first ever underwater sculpture park in the Caribbean.Contributors: Dr Uta Rautenberg - University of Warwick. Rudolf Brazda - Nazi concentration camp survivor. Russell Means - former National Director of the American Indian Movement. Gordana Matkovic - former Serbian cabinet minister. Jan Cheek - South Georgia Museum trustee. Jason deCaires Taylor - creator of Grenadian underwater sculpture park.(Photo: Marchers carry a pink triangle at a Gay Pride event in London. Credit: Steve Eason/Hulton Archive via Getty Images)
4 Mars 202351min
Riots in Mauritius and the Queen 'jumping out of a helicopter'
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Philippe Sands, Professor of the Public Understanding of Law at University College London, who tells us about the history of ethnic tensions in Mauritius. The programme begins with Kaya a Mauritian musician whose death sparked three days of rioting. Then, we hear from John Huckstep who was interned by the Japanese when living in China during World War Two. In the second half of the programme, we tell the story of how Semtex was invented, and the debate about where the German capital should be after reunification. Finally, the man who made the Queen appear to jump out of a helicopter tells us how he did it, with the help of corgis, a clothesline, the Queen's dresser and of course James Bond.Contributors: Veronique Topize - Kaya's widow. Cassam Uteem - Former President of Mauritius. Phillippe Sands - Professor of the Public Understanding of Law at University College London. Jurgen Nimptsch - Former Mayor of Bonn. Wolfgang Schauble - Member of German Bundestag. John Huckstep - Held as a child at an interment camp in China. Stanislav Brebera - Brother of chemist who invented Semtex. Frank Cottrell-Boyce - Writer.(Photo: Mural of Kaya. Credit: BBC)
28 Feb 202352min
'Hot Autumn' and Tutankhamun
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Ilaria Favretto, Affiliate Professor at Kingston University in London, who tells us about the history of workers' protests across Europe.The programme begins with a former union leader describing Italy's 'Hot Autumn' of 1969 when protests erupted. Then, we hear the archaeologist Howard Carter's remarkable account of opening the burial chamber of Tutankhamun, the Egyptian Pharaoh, 100 years ago.In the second half of the programme, we hear about the creation of Pokémon, and the coronation of Denmark's first Queen in 600 years. Finally, an American woman tells us how she became a Muay Thai boxing champion.Contributors: Ilaria Favretto - Affiliate Professor at Kingston University in London. Renzo Baricelli - Italian union leader. Howard Carter - British archaeologist. Akihito Tomisawa - Pokémon developer. Kjeld Olesen - Danish politician. Sylvie Von Duuglas-Ittu - Muay Thai boxer.
18 Feb 202351min
