India's nine day tea strike and the birth of the Excel spreadsheet
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes.Tea expert Sabita Banerji talks about the history of tea in India. We look back at how women teapickers in 2015 fought for justice - and improved the lives of thousands of tea plantation workers.We hear the story of a famous photo of American president John F Kennedy working at his desk in the White House - with his cheeky young son underneath.Also, from 1985 one of the most notorious killings from the apartheid era in South Africa of the men who became known as the Cradock four - this includes graphic descriptions of violence.It’s 30 years since American football star OJ Simpson was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife and her friend. We hear from one of his former friends who testified against him in the criminal trial including his desciptions of the injuries suffered by the victims.And finally, it’s 40 years this week since the release of Microsoft Excel, the spreadsheet software that's now used all over the world. We hear from one of the creators.Contributors:
Rajeshwary - tea plantation worker.
Sabita Banerji - founder of Thirst tea charity.
Lukhanyo Calata - son of Fort Calata, one of the Cradock Four.
Ron Shipp - who testified against OJ Simpson.
Mike Koss – one of the creators of Microsoft Excel.
Plus, archive recordings of American photographer Stanley Tretick from the John F Kennedy Library and Museum.(Photo: Female tea pickers on strike in Munnar. Credit: Countercurrents.org)
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The origins of Indian cinema and the start of Scouting
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes taking us from India to Texas. Professor Sunny Singh, author of A Bollywood State of Mind, discusses the origins of Indian cinema in 1912. And we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of Bollywood romance Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. We also head to Paris in 1971, to the launch of what would become one of the world’s best known humanitarian organisations: Médecins Sans Frontières.And we learn how Lord Robert Baden-Powell laid the foundations for one of the largest international youth organisations.Finally, we discover how Bette Graham, a single mum from Texas cooked up the first correction fluid in her kitchen. Contributors:
Kajol, Bollywood actress
Professor Sunny Singh, author of A Bollywood State of Mind
Asmaou Diallo, mother of a protestor who was killed in the 2009 Guinea rally
Dr Xavier Emmanuelli, one of the founders of Medecins San Frontieres(Photo: Maratha Mandir cinema in Mumbai. Credit: Indranil Mukherjee AFP via Getty Images)
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The fight against sexual harassment in Egypt and Omar Sharif enters the world stage
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes, all with an Egyptian theme.We find out more about the 2014 fight against sexual harassment. And we hear from Professor Nicola Pratt, an expert on Middle East feminism about the significance of that moment in the fight for women's rights.Also, we go to the 1960s when antiquities were saved to make way for the Aswan High Dam on the River Nile. And recollections from Egypt's first free democratic presidential election in 2012. Plus, the woman who broke the convention of the role of a first lady to help change divorce laws. And finally, we remember the moment the egyptian actor Omar Sharif swept onto the world stage in Lawrence of Arabia.Contributors:
Engy Ghozlan - co-founder of HarassMap
Professor Herman Bell - scientist
Rabab El-Mahdi - chief strategist to one of Mohamed Morsi's rival candidates
Jehan Sadat - wife of President Anwar Sadat who helped change divorce laws
Archive recordings of Egyptian actor Omar Sharif(Photo: Women at a protest in Cairo, Egypt, in 2014. Credit: Getty Images)
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Nigeria’s Festac’77 and Gander’s generosity during 9/11
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Lucy Durán, a Spanish ethnomusicologist, record producer and Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. We start with an African American artist who recounts exhibiting her work at Nigeria's largest ever festival of African arts and culture in 1977. Then, the testimony of a pilot stranded in airspace following the 9/11 terror attack.A 94-year-old Jewish refugee remembers how she was saved by the Philippines during World War Two.The first woman to complete the challenge of crossing straits of the world’s Seven Seas, reveals how she was inspired by a traditional Bengali folk tale.Finally, from a BBC archive interview in 1974, the story of how a satirical book, that was a parody of management theory, became an instant classic in 1969.Contributors:
Lucy Durán - Spanish ethnomusicologist
Viola Burley Leak - artist
Beverley Bass - American Airlines pilot
Lotte Hershfield - former Jewish refugee in the Philippines
Bula Choudhury - Indian long-distance swimmer
Archive interview with Dr Laurence J Peter - Canadian academic(Photo: The official emblem of festac'77. Credit: Alamy)
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The Chindits and USAID
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's episodes of Witness History.The formation of an unconventional special force during the Second World War sparks a discussion about three others around the world with military historian Lucy Betteridge-Dyson.Plus, the founding of the United States Agency for International Development, the discovery of the wreck of the Titanic 40 years ago and the first baby born after a womb transplant. Finally, Mexican-American boxer Oscar De La Hoya's toughest test - a clash with Ghana's Ike 'Bazooka' Quartey and how the online marketplace started at a house party in Lithuania in the noughties.The first item contains outdated and offensive language.Contributors:
Major General Orde Wingate - leader of the Chindits.
Baroness Jackson - economist who influenced the founding of USAID.
Cathy Offinger and Jean Louis Michel - explorers who helped find the wreck of the Titanic.
Prof Pernilla Dahm-Kähler - gynaecologist who helped deliver the first baby after a womb transplant.
Oscar De La Hoya - boxer nicknamed 'the Golden Boy of Boxing'.
Milda Mitkutė - co-founder of Vinted.This programme has been updated since the original broadcast to add additional context.(Photo: Members of the Chindits in the jungle in Burma, now Myanmar. Credit: Hulton Archive / Getty Images)
Colombia