Witness History
BBC World Service
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.
For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue.
We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher.
You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest, the disastrous D-Day rehearsal, and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.
For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue.
We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher.
You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest, the disastrous D-Day rehearsal, and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Aug 9, 2022 • 9min
Sweden’s pronoun battle
Sweden has a long history of championing LGBTQ+ rights. But campaigners spent years battling to get the gender-neutral personal pronoun ‘hen’ included in Swedish dictionaries. The word was finally added in 2015. Maddy Savage spoke to Nasim Aghili from the "queer" art collective Ful, which rallied to get the word recognised. This is a Bespoken Media production for the BBC World Service. (Photo: Nasim Aghili. Credit: Thomas Straub)
Aug 8, 2022 • 9min
The resignation of President Nixon
On 8 August 1974 Richard Nixon became the first US president in history to resign from office, following the Watergate scandal. In 2014, Farhana Haider spoke to journalist Tom DeFrank, who watched the drama unfold minute by minute.(Photo: Nixon announces his resignation on national television. Credit: Getty Images)
Aug 5, 2022 • 9min
The return of Asians to Uganda
When President Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986, he encouraged exiled Asians to return to Uganda and reclaim their homes and businesses to help rebuild the country.
The economy had collapsed under the dictator Idi Amin after he expelled the Asian population in 1972.
Dr Mumtaz Kassam went back to Uganda years after arriving in the UK as a refugee. She talks to Reena Stanton-Sharma about returning to her birthplace.
Caption: Dr. Mumtaz Kassam receiving a Golden Jubilee Presidential medal at the 56th independence celebrations. Credit: Dr Mumtaz Kassam
The following programme has been updated since its original broadcast.
Aug 4, 2022 • 11min
The city shaped by Ugandan Asians
Thousands of Asians who were expelled from Uganda in 1972, settled in the UK and many made Leicester their home.
Their arrival in the East Midlands helped to shape its identity and now Leicester plays host to the largest Diwali celebrations outside of India.
Nisha Popat was nine-years-old when she arrived in the city with her family who later opened up a restaurant in the area that became known as the Golden Mile. Reena Stanton-Sharma spoke to her about moving there in the 70s as a child.
This programme contains descriptions of racial discrimination.
Caption: Nisha Popat at the Bobby's deli counter Credit: Nisha Popat
Aug 3, 2022 • 9min
The exodus of Asians from Uganda
In 1972, the dictator Idi Amin announced that all Asians had just 90 days to leave Uganda.
Teacher Nurdin Dawood, who had a young family, didn't at first believe that Amin was serious.
But soon he was desperately searching for a new country to call home. Farhana Dawood spoke to her father Nurdin Dawood in 2011.
This programme contains descriptions of racial discrimination.Caption: President of Uganda Idi Amin. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images
Aug 2, 2022 • 11min
When Asians were forced to leave Kenya
Many South Asians migrated to Kenya in the early 20th century. They lived in a society divided by race and experienced discrimination from the white rulers, and after Independence, from black Kenyans too. Saleem Sheikh’s parents fled South Asia for Kenya to escape the violence of partition. His family joined a thriving Asian community there. But, they were forced to leave in 1967 after a rise in violence against the Asian population.
This programme contains descriptions of racial discrimination.
(Photograph of Saleem Sheikh (bottom right) with his brothers and sisters in Nairobi, Kenya in the 1960s)
Aug 1, 2022 • 11min
Why Asians came to Uganda
In the early 20th century, South Asians migrated to Uganda in search of a better life. Jamie Govani’s grandparents married in Gujarat, India, in the 1920s. They were excited by the economic prospects in Uganda so they moved there with their young family. Jamie told Ben Henderson how it was a wonderful place to grow up, but racial segregation lingered in the background, and things began to change after Ugandan independence in 1962.
(Picture of Jamie Govani's family in Uganda in the 1950s)
The following programme has been updated since its original broadcast.
Aug 1, 2022 • 9min
The Leaflet Bomber
In 1971, young communist Bob Newland left the UK and headed to South Africa to take part in a secret mission to support the African National Congress. Known as one of the London Recruits, he took gunpowder from the UK to make bombs that would scatter leaflets on the streets containing information that a post Apartheid South Africa was possible. Bob has been speaking to Alex Collins.
Jul 28, 2022 • 10min
The Tangshan Earthquake
On 28 July 1976, one of the deadliest earthquakes in modern history hit the city of Tangshan in north-eastern China - killing hundreds of thousands of people. Lucy Burns spoke to eye-witness Yu Suyun in 2016.(Photo: A building in Tangshan after the earthquake. Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
Jul 27, 2022 • 9min
Inventing nicotine patches
By the 1990s, nicotine patches became commercially available all over the world but their origins go back to the early 1980s, when Dr Daniel Rose suggested to his brother Professor Jed Rose, to look into creating a nicotine patch. The idea turned into an invention with the help of Murray Jarvik. Professor Rose tells his story to Ashley Byrne. A Made in Manchester production for BBC World Service. (Photo: image of a nicotine patch on a man's chest. Credit: Getty Images)
