African Perspective
British Broadcasting Corporation
Documentaries on all aspects of Africa - from politics to history, from music to conflict.
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BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 24 September 2011
The story of one of Africa's greatest travellers from the 14th Century, Ibn Battuta. He was a great chronicler of his time and left the first written account of one …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 17 September 2011
In Senegal, there's been a boom in informal gold mining in recent years. The programme visits a remote village in the south-east of Senegal to explore what life is like …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 20 August 2011
For over 20 years Uganda was terrorized by the Lord's Resistance Army. Thousands of children were forced to become child soldiers. Now the LRA has gone, can they come to …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 13 August 2011
2/2 programmes about the 100 year old, 600-mile railway line in East Africa from the Indian Ocean to Lake Victoria. Ayisha Yahya travels on the existing creaking line and asks …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 6 August 2011
100 years ago a 600-mile railway line was completed in East Africa from the Indian Ocean to Lake Victoria. It was an engineering miracle, but its financial and human cost …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 30 July 2011
10 million people face famine in the Horn of Africa which is in the grip of the worst drought in decades. A look at how the UN World Food Programme …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 23 July 2011
Next year London hosts the Olympic Games. For years there have been dreams of an African city one day doing the same. Steve Vickers travels to Durban to find out …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 9 July 2011
An exploration of how Africa's newest country, South Sudan is going to feed its people. It imports more than 80% of its food from neighbours. But it has lots of …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 9 July 2011
An exploration of how Africa's newest country, South Sudan is going to feed its people. It imports more than 80% of its food from neighbours. But it has lots of …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 2 July 2011
A look at why tens of thousands of Sahrawi people are still in refugee camps, 20 years after they thought the would be returning to their homeland across the border, …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 28 May 2011
A tribute to Joe Mogotsi, the lead singer of South Africa's Manhattan Brothers, who died on 19 May 2011. The Manhattan Brothers were superstars in South Africa's musical golden age …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 21 May 2011
An examination of the challenges people in Ivory Coast face as they try to rebuild their lives now that the battle for the presidency is finally over. John James returns …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 23 April 2011
A look at a remarkable musical collaboration, the Sukiyaki Allstars, that's bringing Africa and Asia closer together and shows that culturally there's more in common than it might seem. The …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 16 April 2011
An exploration into whether it's physically and mentally possible to smash the next great sporting barrier and run the marathon in under two hours. Reporter Chris Dennis investigates, travelling to …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 26 March 2011
A studio discussion on the forthcoming Nigerian elections. What is the mood in the country and what impact the elections will have? With Oxford University lecturer Abdul Raufu Mustapha and …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 12 March 2011
In 2010 Senegal president Abdoulaye Wade offered 200 Haitian students places to study in Senegal as a gesture of 'black solidarity'. This programme speaks to two of the students who …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 12 March 2011
Former ANC politician Hilda Ndude remembers her important role behind the scenes of Nelson Mandela's historic walk to freedom on the eleventh of February 1990.
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 5 March 2011
The problems for the young girls who live in rural Tanzanian wooden temporary huts, known as ghettos, in order to be close to school. At night drunk men often try …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 26 February 2011
A report from Northern Bahr el Ghazal in Southern Sudan as it prepares for independence. Martin Plaut talks to people there about the economy and cultures of both the Dinka …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 29 January 2011
A report from Eastleigh, the Somali district in the heart of the Kenyan capital Nairobi. What is life like for the residents of 'Little Mogadishu'? For some, it's a shopper's …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 22 January 2011
A discussion on the prospects for the forthcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in Nigeria. The last elections were almost farcical so how will they go this time? With Hassan Arouni, …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 8 January 2011
A tribute to one of Africa's most famous contemporary artists, Malangatana, who died on 5 January 2011. He is best known for his dramatic paintings, which tell the story of …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 18 December 2010
Ahead of next month's critical referendum on possible southern independence, James Copnall examines the sometimes difficult lives of southerners in northern Sudan.
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 11 December 2010
An examination of Ivory Coast's current political crisis in which two men both claim to be the legitimate president. How did the country, once the most stable in west Africa, …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 4 December 2010
South African Pastor Xola Skosana sparked equal fury and praise last year when he used the metaphor 'Jesus was HIV-positive' to challenge what he sees as churches' silence on the …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 13 November 2010
A look at the proposal to construct a commercial road through Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. Opinions are strongly divided and this programme speaks to those both in favour, and …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 6 November 2010
As Liberia tries to rebuild it's economy after years of war, a look at the country's latex industry. What is life like for the rubber-tappers?
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 30 October 2010
Liberia is Africa's oldest republic where most people live on less than a dollar a day. It is trying to recover from fourteen years of war and rebuild a shattered …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 16 October 2010
The link between Kenya and China seen in the descendants of Chinese seamen shipwrecked in Africa around 1400. The search for evidence of China's early interaction with Africa and the …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 2 October 2010
To mark 50 years of Nigeria's independence, an exploration of how Flora Shaw, a female journalist on the London Times newspaper, came up with the name for Africa's most populous …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 18 September 2010
A look back at the 50 year history of African performance drama productions on the BBC World Service. Jenny Horrocks trawls the archives to see how the output, presentation style, …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 11 September 2010
On 12th September 1977 the leader of the Black Conscious Movement Bantu Steve Biko, was murdered while in police custody. Carolyn Dempster explores his legacy in South Africa. Includes an …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 4 September 2010
In Koubri, Burkina Faso, 24 nuns follow the rule of St Benedict, the founder of western monasticism. They rarely leave their convent, singing psalms and praying 8 times a day. …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 28 August 2010
Martin Shikuku was campaigning for human rights and good governance in Kenya long before the country gained its independence. An interview with him now as Kenya finally adopts a new …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 21 August 2010
The cultural significance of the yam. The west African yam season is a time to eat one of Africa's favourite tubers. But the yam is not just a food crop, …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 7 August 2010
In central Ghana, the Ga people take pride in according their departed members a fitting send off in decorated caskets. These are a status symbol reflecting the personality of the …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 31 July 2010
Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka talks about his early life, his love for the written word, his passion for politics and how his hair gives him away every time.
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 24 July 2010
Martin Vogl follows the case of one family in a recent spate of children disappearing in Mali. Families allege their children are being targeted for illegal adoption.
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 17 July 2010
Zimbabwean Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khuphe talks to Veronique Edwards about her role as Vice Chair of the Movement for Democratic Change. She discusses Zimbabwe's progress since the formation of …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 5 June 2010
An interview with the First Lady of Sierra Leone, Sia Koroma. She was a refugee during the civil war and spent nine years in Britain working as a nurse in …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 29 May 2010
An interview with the First Lady of Namibia, Penehupifo Pohamba who struggled for 20 years for the liberation of Namibia. This is one in a short series of in-depth talks …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 22 May 2010
An interview with the youngest ever First Lady of Zambia, Thandiwe Banda. This is one in a short series of in-depth talks with the wives of some of the most …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 15 May 2010
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, three men are willing to talk about the rapes they have committed. They tell Anne Mawathe what motivated them and why they still feel …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 8 May 2010
A discussion on the current state of African economies. Are businesses growing and what direction should African economies now be heading?
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 1 May 2010
One in four prisoners in Zambia are HIV positive. Some go into prison already infected with the virus, others contract it while there. Sex is traded for food and privileges, …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 24 April 2010
Zanzibar's first all-women orchestra, Tausi Women's Taraab are pushing musical and social boundaries. They talk to Freddie Boswell as they rehearse.
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 3 April 2010
An examination of Egypt's rich legacy of folk music and the role played in it by one of the world's oldest musical instruments - the semsemia.
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 27 March 2010
Max Reinhardt and Rita Ray take a trip to Lagos in an attempt to get a real sense of the King of Afrobeat, Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Was he Africa's most …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 20 March 2010
An exploration of the palace of Chomba in north Cameroon and an interview with the traditional village ruler, Fobuzie II Martin Asanj. He talks about the village traditions and how …
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation · 13 March 2010
A report on artisanal diamond mining in the Central African Republic. The government says it wants to reform the industry but these reforms come against the background of low diamond …