Nigeria’s Festac’77 and Gander’s generosity during 9/11

The History Hour

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 879 Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Lucy Durán, a Spanish ethnomusicologist, record producer and Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

We start with an African American artist who recounts exhibiting her work at Nigeria's largest ever festival of African arts and culture in 1977.

Then, the testimony of a pilot stranded in airspace following the 9/11 terror attack.

A 94-year-old Jewish refugee remembers how she was saved by the Philippines during World War Two.

The first woman to complete the challenge of crossing straits of the world’s Seven Seas, reveals how she was inspired by a traditional Bengali folk tale.

Finally, from a BBC archive interview in 1974, the story of how a satirical book, that was a parody of management theory, became an instant classic in 1969.

Contributors: Lucy Durán - Spanish ethnomusicologist Viola Burley Leak - artist Beverley Bass - American Airlines pilot Lotte Hershfield - former Jewish refugee in the Philippines Bula Choudhury - Indian long-distance swimmer Archive interview with Dr Laurence J Peter - Canadian academic

(Photo: The official emblem of festac'77. Credit: Alamy)

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're dead to me.
0:05.0	No, no, that's the name of our podcast. Sorry.
0:08.7	And we're back for a brand new series.
0:11.1	Not only is it British history, it was the quill drop.
0:15.1	With more fun and facts from history without taking it too seriously.
0:19.8	Empress Matilda, what is she going to do now?
0:21.7	She decides to take back some of the jewels with her. I'm taking these as well. I'm going to come back
0:27.3	for Tuscany one day as well. You're dead to me. Again, not you. Name of the show. Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:40.4	Hello and welcome to The History Hour from the BBC World Service
0:44.3	with me, Max Pearson, the past brought to life by those who were there.
0:48.7	This week, the lone voice against the passage in 1933 of the Enabling Act that gave Hitler dictatorial powers.
0:57.2	Freedom and life can be taken away from us, but not honor.
1:04.8	Also, how Jews fleeing Nazi persecution in Germany found a surprising welcome.
1:10.7	I don't believe that President Kazan of the Philippine fleeing Nazi persecution in Germany found a surprising welcome.
1:17.7	I don't believe that President Kazan of the Philippines has been given enough credit. I am here today because of Filipinos.
1:21.9	And what happened to the other planes that were in the air on 9-11?
1:26.8	Ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Bath.
1:29.5	There's been a crisis in the United States.
1:32.5	All of the airspace is closed.
1:34.6	We're going to be landing our airplane in Gander, Newfoundland.
1:38.1	That's coming up later, but we're going to begin with an important moment in cultural history.
1:43.1	This is from 1977 in what was then Nigeria's capital city, Lagos.
	...

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