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)
The Iron Curtain
The fall of Kwame Nkrumah
Black History: The Black Panthers
US 'smart bombs' hit an Iraqi air raid shelter
The Burma protests of 1988
The Arab Spring of 2011
Hitler's beer hall putsch
Attack at the US Capitol
Buddhist on Death Row
75 years of Unesco
Film special
The birth of Bangladesh
The first African to win the Nobel Peace Prize
The fall of Addis Ababa
Disability History special
The world's first woman premier
The Guerrilla Girls
The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
US presidential history special
Why Portugal decriminalised all drugs
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