Ethiopian history

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. On the 40th anniversary of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, we hear from one man involved in the clean-up operation. Our guest is Jordan Dunbar, presenter of the BBC documenta ...  Show more

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.This week, the moment when Irish writer Roddy Doyle discovered he'd won one of the most prestigious honours in fiction: The Booker Prize. And our guest, Merritt Moseley, emeritus ...  Show more

From Roman emperor Septimius Severus to Senegal's Signares to the ten days in Harlem that Fidel Castro used to link up with African leaders at the UN, through to the missed opportunity to enshrine racial equality in post war negotiations following World War I; Olivette Otele, Sim ...  Show more

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

A figure of wealth, wisdom, and global fascination - how did the Queen of Sheba become one of history’s most enduring royal icons?

In this episode, Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr Jillian Stinchcomb to trace the enduring story of the Queen of Sheba — from her biblical ...

In 1924, the crown prince and future emperor of Ethiopia, Ras Täfäri, on a visit to Jerusalem, called on forty Armenian orphans who had survived the genocide of 1915-1916 to form his empire's royal brass band. The conductor, who was also Armenian, composed the first official anth ...  Show more