logo
episode-header-image
Apr 2022
38m 12s

How my father’s stories shielded me from...

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Wayétu Moore was just five years old in 1990, when Liberia's first civil war broke out. The family were forced to leave their home near Monrovia, and to flee on foot to the relative safety of a remote village. Throughout the journey, Wayétu's father Gus was determined to shield her and her sisters from the horrors of the conflict around them, and made up stories to explain what they saw.

After months hiding in a remote village, a young woman with a gun arrived. She was a rebel soldier, named Satta, and announced she'd been sent by Wayétu's mother, who had been away studying in America, to bring the family to safety across the border in Sierra Leone. Years later, living in New York, and by now an established writer, Wayétu set out to track Satta down and thank her for what she did.

Presenter: Emily Webb Producer: Laura Thomas

Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com

(Photo: Wayétu Moore. Credit: Yoni Levy)

Up next
Apr 2022
The astronaut who made a quilt in Space
Dr Karen Nyberg has many talents. She's an engineer and astronaut, but she's also an avid quilter, so when she joined the International Space Station in 2013, she took her sewing kit with her. She created a nine-inch, star-themed quilt square in orbit which inspired over two thou ... Show More
23m 54s
Apr 2022
The drag queen who ran for president of the United States
In the 1990s Terence Smith launched his campaign to run for United States president in drag, shocking voters and the media. His mission was not to win, but instead, to raise awareness about the Aids crisis which was killing his community. Critical of the government's slow respons ... Show More
29m 8s
Apr 2022
Drawing is my language: the artist who recreates cities from memory
Stephen Wiltshire was born in London in 1974, and diagnosed with autism when he was three. Mute until he was five, he was sent to a specialist school where his teachers soon noticed his prodigious talent for drawing. His passion was buildings - the more complicated, the better - ... Show More
24m 58s
Recommended Episodes
Jun 2023
Courtney Holden // 315
In July of 2018, a 26-year-old Washington woman attempted to flee her adoptive mother’s house, but was carried back inside by her brother. She hasn’t been seen by friends or neighbors since, and her family claims she ran away. Strangely, it would be nearly a year-and-a-half until ... Show More
37m 55s
Jul 2024
WOMAN CLAIMS TO BE MISSING CHERRIE MAHAN, 8, WHO VANISHED AT BUS STOP;MISSING BOY’S FAMILY SCARED OF IMPOSTER POSING AS TIMMOTHY
Two family grapple with individuals who claim to be long lost missing children.  A woman comes forward claiming to be Cherrie Ann Mahan. The little girl was just  8-years-old when she went missing, after getting off her school bus. just feet away from her home.  A blue or green v ... Show More
39m 45s
Nov 2024
Rachel Zimmerman, "Us, After: A Memoir of Love and Suicide" (SFWP, 2024)
Note: This episodes contains references to suicide.When a state trooper appeared at Rachel Zimmerman's door to report that her husband had jumped to his death off a nearby bridge, she fell to her knees, unable to fully absorb the news. How could the man she married, a devoted fat ... Show More
53m 34s
Mar 2025
CBS Evening News, 03/07/25
Gene Hackman died of heart disease days after his wife died of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, officials say. Brad Sigmon, 67, was executed by firing squad in South Carolina – the first U.S. execution of its kind since 2010. He admitted to killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents with ... Show More
26m 50s
Oct 2022
Erin Keane, "Runaway: Notes on the Myths That Made Me" (Belt Publishing, 2022)
From Erin Keane, editor in chief at Salon, comes Runaway: Notes in the Myths that Made Me (Belt Publishing, 2022), a touching memoir about the search for truths in the stories families tell. In 1970, Erin Keane's mother ran away from home for the first time. She was thirteen year ... Show More
1h 11m
Apr 15
Devastating Toll of Fame on Aaron and Nick Carter's Family | How Gayle Prepared for Space Flight | Aisha Bowe and Amanda Nguyen Describe Voyage into Space
El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele says he won't return a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to its maximum security prison. Kilmar Abrego Garcia was one of the more than 200 men the Trump administration flew to the notorious CECOT prison even though an immigration judge ... Show More
53m 33s
Jul 2024
The Sunday Read: ‘The Kidnapping I Can’t Escape’
On Nov. 12, 1974, Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s father’s childhood friend Jack Teich was kidnapped out of his driveway in the nicest part of the nicest part of Long Island. He was arriving home from work when two men forced him into their car at gunpoint and took him to a house where t ... Show More
54m 53s
Aug 2024
A Baby Adopted, A Family Divided
In 2017, David Leavitt drove to the Northern Cheyenne reservation in Montana to adopt a baby girl. A few years later, during an interview with a documentary filmmaker, Leavitt, a wealthy Utah politician, told a startling story about how he went about getting physical custody of t ... Show More
51m 13s
Nov 2024
The Mayflower: Why Did the Pilgrims Leave Europe?
More than 30 million people can trace their ancestry to the 102 passengers and 30 crew aboard the Mayflower when it landed in Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts in the harsh winter of 1620. On board were men, women and children from different walks of life across England and the city of ... Show More
41m 49s
Jul 2022
Doobie Brothers, The Funny Farm, Travel Trauma
Lee Cowan hosts this July 4th weekend edition of "Sunday Morning.” In our cover story, Kris Van Cleave looks at the difficulties facing exasperated travelers this summer. Plus: Major Garrett talks with a woman who had to leave the country in 1962 to get an abortion; Lesley Stahl ... Show More
50m 48s