Show Notes
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Professor Rachel E. Johnson, Professor of Modern African History at Durham University in the UK. We begin with the 50th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising, which became a defining symbol of youth resistance to apartheid. We hear from one of the students who took part in the protest, which was violently suppressed by South African security forces in June 1976. Then we have the harrowing account of an ethnic Georgian poet who fled his home in Abkhazia when the breakaway region was engulfed in war in 1993. We also hear from one of the Greek Cypriot women who, in 1987, marched towards the ceasefire line dividing Cyprus to protest against the island’s partition. Next, the scientist who identified Lyme disease in 1976. Plus, the discovery of the remains known as “Mungo Man”, a 42,000‑year‑old skeleton that transformed understanding of Australia’s ancient past. And Brazil’s heaviest defeat in a World Cup, which happened on home soil in 2014. Contributors: Professor Rachel E. Johnson – Professor of Modern African History, Durham University Bongi Mkhabela – Soweto Uprising participant Guram Odisharia – Georgian poet from Abkhazia Niki Katsaouni – Greek Cypriot peace activist Dr Jim Bowler – geologist Prof Allen Steere – rheumatologist Thomas Müller – German footballer (Photo: Black students protesting against the compulsory teaching of Dutch-based Afrikaans in schools. Credit: Getty Images)
More from The History Hour
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about the tests on baby rhesus monkeys which would become some of the most controversial in modern science. Also, the chimpanzee who apparently learned American sign language. Our guest zoologist Megan McCubbin discusses how ethics around using animals in experiments have changed over the years. And we hear about the two monkeys that were sent into space in the late 1950s. Also the campaign to get chimps listed as endangered, and the murder of the mountain gorilla scientist Dian Fossey. Finally in this week's Sporting Witness, we learn why Manchester City fans started taking inflatable bananas to games in the late 80s. Contributors: Harry Harlow - psychologist. Roger Fouts - worked with Washoe the chimpanzee. Megan McCubbin - zoologist and author. Dr Ron Nowak - led the team which declared chimpanzees endangered. Lieutenant Joe Guion - commander of the USS Kiowa. Kelly Stewart - Dian Fossey’s colleague. Dr Gary James - football historian. Imre Varadi - former Man City striker. (Photo: Monkeys Able and Baker at a press conference to mark their return from space. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear from one of the Peruvian pilots who secretly flew fighter jets to help Argentina during the Falklands War in 1982. We discuss with our guest, Iberian and Latin American historian Stella Krepp from Bern University, about the stance Peru and other countries from the region took in the conflict. Plus, the killing of the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981, the mirrors that brought winter sunshine to a Norwegian town, the rats that were trained to detect landmines, and the real-life boy who inspired the Winnie-the-Pooh books. Finally, this week's Sporting Witness – the day Australia’s cricket captain had to choose between setting a personal record and his team’s chance to win. Contributors: Rubén Mimbela – former Peruvian Air Force pilot. Jehan Sedat – Anwar Sadat’s widow. Martin Andersen – inventor and artist. Bart Weetjens – product designer. Christopher Robin Milne – son of author A.A. Milne (archive). Mark Taylor – Australia’s former cricket captain. (Photo: Argentina's Air Force patrol during the Falklands War. Credit: Fireshot/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dr. April Nowell, a paleolithic archaeologist and professor of anthropology at the University of Victoria in Canada. We start by hearing how in 2012, archaeologists on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi made a discovery that changed our understanding of early human history. Next, we're in the UK in 1957, as the final touches are made to what was then the largest radio telescope in the world: Jodrell Bank. Plus, how the contraceptive pill was finally legalised in Japan in 1999, after decades of campaigning. Then we go back to 1947 for what's been described as one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century: the Dead Sea Scrolls. And we hear one soldier's account of the siege of Ladysmith, a key moment in the Boer War in 1899. Finally, we're in Kenya for the start of one athlete's historic journey to javelin gold at the World Athletics Championships in 2015. Contributors: Professor Maxime Aubert - archaeologist, Griffith University, Australia Sir Bernard Lovell - British radio astronomer and physicist (archive) Yoriko Madoka - Japanese politician Gerald Lankester Harding - British archaeologist (archive) James Dalton - British Army bandsman with the Gordon Highlanders (archive) Julius Yego ('Mr YouTube Man') - Kenyan track and field athlete (Photo: Cave painting, Sulawesi, Indonesia. Credit: Maxime Aubert)
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We dedicate this edition to Manchester, in England. We hear about the man who opened the city's first racially inclusive nightclub in 1962. This programme contains descriptions of racial discrimination. Our guest Kath McDermott, a Mancunian DJ and producer at BBC 6 Music, tells us about Manchester's musical scene and how it helped shape the town’s culture and identity. The acclaimed artist Harold Riley was a local to Greater Manchester and also the only one granted access to paint Nelson Mandela from life. Plus, we remember the time the city hosted the Fifth Pan-African Congress in 1945, where activists from around the world met to discuss the struggle against colonialism and racial discrimination. And we go back to 1948, when the University of Manchester developed ‘Baby,’ the world’s first stored-program computer. Also, the mass trespass on Kinder Scout in the Peak District that challenged private landownership to demand access to the countryside. And the UK’s first female football photographer. Contributors: Lisa Ayegun – daughter of Phil Magbotiwan, the founder of The Reno. Harold Riley – artist (archive). Peter Abrahams – African National Congress activist and writer. Tom Kilburn – creator of the 'Baby' computer (archive). Hakim Adi – historian. Benny Rothman – organiser of the Kinder Scout mass tresspass (archive). Harry Rothman – son of Benny Rothman. Magi Haroun – football photographer. (Photo: Albert Square in Manchester in 1968. Credit: Manchester Evening News Archive/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear how Norwegian teachers resisted peddling Nazi propaganda during the German occupation of the Second World War and our guest, Dr Rachel Pistol, talks us through other examples of resistance around Europe. Plus, the Stardust nightclub fire in Dublin in 1981, the Iranian engineer who connected homes to the internet using cable TV and the birth of India's call centre industry. Finally, this week's Sporting Witness - the most successful Paralympian and the discovery of the 'holy grail' of shipwrecks. Contributors: Mr Roll Hansen - Norwegian teacher. Dr Rachel Pistol - a historian specialising in the Second World War, from the University of Southampton. Antoinette Keegan - survivor of the Stardust nightclub fire. Rouzbeh Yassini - father of the cable modem. Pramod Bhasin - businessman who set up India’s first call centre. Trischa Zorn-Hudson - the most successful Paralympian. Juan Manuel Santos - former President of Colombia. (Photo: German troops marching through Oslo in occupied Norway during World War Two in 1940. Credit: European / FPG / Getty Images)