logo
episode-header-image
May 2021
49m 36s

Amilcar Cabral: an African liberation le...

Bbc World Service
About this episode

We remember Amilcar Cabral, who led the armed struggle against Portuguese colonial rule in West Africa in the 1970s and speak to Dr Nayanka Perdigao about his legacy. Plus the shocking fallout of the Indian rail strike in 1974 which was - at the time - the biggest industrial action on record and from a century ago, the Tulsa race massacre, when thousands of African Americans were left homeless and hundreds were killed. We'll also find out how Lotfia Elnadi became the first Arab woman pilot in 1933 and the story behind the first big charity fundraising rock concert in the Soviet Union when communism broke with its antipathy toward western pop music.

Photo: Rebel soldiers on patrol in Guinea Bissau during the Portuguese Colonial War in West Africa, 1972. Credit: Reg Lancaster/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Up next
Yesterday
The Falklands War and the assassination of Anwar Sadat
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 his ... Show More
1h 2m
Oct 3
Sulawesi's historic cave art and the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls
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, archaeologist ... Show More
1 h
Sep 26
Manchester's racially inclusive nightclub and the artist who portrayed Nelson Mandela from life
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 ... Show More
1 h
Recommended Episodes
May 2024
Carlos Lamarca: From army captain to Brazil's 'most wanted'
In 1964, João Goulart, the president of Brazil, was overthrown in a military coup. In the repression which followed, hundreds of people were disappeared or killed, and many more detained and tortured. Carlos Lamarca was a captain who deserted the army and joined in the armed stru ... Show More
10m 5s
Mar 2025
Muhammad Ali vs. The Draft | Black Athletes and Activism | 4
Muhammad Ali risked his career and even his freedom to take a stand against the Vietnam War. He followed in the footsteps of men like baseball great Jackie Robinson and singer Paul Robeson, who started out playing football. These Black athletes are all part of a heritage of worki ... Show More
36m 8s
Apr 2024
Soweto uprising: Children who marched against apartheid
When South African schoolchildren marched in protest against having to study Afrikaans in 1976, they were gunned down by the police.The killings sparked a cycle of protests across the country against the racist apartheid regime.In 2010, march organiser Bongi Mkhabela told Alan Jo ... Show More
9m 52s
Jun 2023
61. The Black Abolitionist
Olaudah Equiano: slave, free man, captive, abolitionist, public figure, entrepreneur, successful author, family man. His life is one of the most extraordinary tales of ups and down, with more happening to him in one lifetime than happens in ten average ones. Listen as William and ... Show More
49m 4s
Aug 2020
Margaret Ekpo - Nigeria's feminist pioneer
One of the leading figures in Nigeria's fight for democracy was Margaret Ekpo, a feminist politician and trades union leader. After Nigerian independence in 1960, Ekpo became an MP and a hero to a generation of Nigerians - men and women. Rebecca Kesby tells the story of her life. ... Show More
11m 8s
Sep 2025
Festac ’77: Nigeria’s largest festival of African arts and culture
In 1977, Nigeria hosted the largest festival of African arts and culture there had ever been. About half a million visitors attended, as well as 16,000 delegates including Stevie Wonder and Miriam Makeba.Dozens of African nationalities, and people from the African diaspora were r ... Show More
10m 3s
May 2021
A Symphony of Resistance
The Arab Spring erupted ten years ago when a wave of "pro-democracy" protests spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa. The effects of the uprisings reverberated around the world as regimes fell in some countries, and civil war began in others. This week, we remember th ... Show More
56m 30s