Hello and welcome to the History Hour Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson and

the witness history team, the past brought to life by those who were there.

Among the items for you this week as government struggled to get COVID-19 vaccines to all parts of the world,

we revisit South Africa's groundbreaking fight to get access to cheaper drugs in the late 1990s.

I think the South African government did show that we were not going to allow ourselves to be bullied by the multinationals.

We've also got art, sex therapy and slavery in the 20th century. So let's meet the team this week. We have Bob

Bethan, Josephine, Matt and Vince. Hi there. Hi. Hi. Hi. And what have you all got for us this week?

Let's start with Joe.

Hello, so I have been looking at the anti-slavery movement in Mauritania.

I'm Matt Murphy and I've been looking at the first attempt to bring peace in Northern Ireland.

I'm Bethanhead and this week I've been looking at the first large wall mural by Banksy.

And I'm Vince Dowd and I'll be looking at sex, sex therapy and one very well known sex therapist.

Those all coming up later in the program.

Right now, though, there is considerable concern and not a little controversy around the

issue of vaccines to fight COVID-19, getting vaccines to all parts of the world and at a reasonable price

is vital. And this has echoes from the past. Bob Howard has been looking into an epic legal battle in South Africa in the 1990s Bob.

Hi Max I've been finding out about how South Africa took on some of the big farmer

companies and one. At the end of the 1990s tens of millions of people across Africa

had been infected with HIV and in South Africa hundreds of thousands of people were dying from AIDS.

They were demanding cheaper drugs but the big pharmaceutical companies didn't want to play ball.

We ask you one thing. Join our hands to fight the drug companies. My name is

Barra-Parasi. I joined the Department of Health in 1995. The issue which preoccupied

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