Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.
This week, we hear from Lumepa Hald who survived the devastating tsunami that hit Samoa in 2009 but suffered a tragic loss.
Our expert guest, Prof Tiziana Rossetto, looks back at some of the worst tsunamis in history and how they have shaped our landscapes.
Plus we talk to Caster Semenya, the gold medallist who faced questions over her gender at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin.
There’s also an interview with Peter Greste, one of three Al Jazeera journalists sentenced to seven years in jail in Egypt.
We also look at the mystery surrounding the death of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda with his driver, Manuel Araya.
And finally we talk to singer Dafydd Iwan, the “bad boy of Welsh politics”, who was arrested for defacing an English sign. He wanted official recognition for the Welsh language.
Contributors: Lumepa Hald – survivor of the tsunami that hit Samoa in 2009. Tiziana Rossetto - Professor of Earthquake Engineering at University College London, UK. Caster Semenya – world champion runner who faced questions over her gender. Peter Greste – journalist sentenced to seven years in prison in Egypt. Manuel Araya – driver of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Dafydd Iwan – singer who campaigned for official recognition the Welsh language.
(Photo: Devastation at a beach in Samoa after the 2009 tsunami. Credit: Getty Images)
Anwar Ibrahim and road safety inventions
Arabian Peninsula
Racist raids, protests and a political assassination
The best Championship Manager player ever
Women taking a stand
Cuban boxing and the brink of nuclear war
Global strikes and industrial action
Caribbean carnivals and a racially inclusive nightclub
Dassler brothers' rift
Queen Elizabeth II and broadcasting
Queen Elizabeth II
Brazil
Gorbachev's legacy
Inflation and the cost of living
Seventy-five years since India's Partition
The nightclub that changed Ibiza
Fifty years since Asians were kicked out of Uganda
The Revolution on Granite
Stories from iconic TV shows from around the world
Stories from the abortion fight frontline
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