The rise of Boko Haram
The History Hour
BBC
4.4 • 879 Ratings
🗓️ 22 January 2022
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 2009, Boko Haram, a small Islamist group, launched an insurgency in the north eastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri. The conflict would eventually force hundreds of thousands from their homes, and leave tens of thousands dead. We hear a witness account of how the violence started. Plus, this past week Americans have been observing the Martin Luther King Jr. Day national holiday. The long campaign to have Dr King formally recognized in the US was led by his widow, Coretta Scott King. We hear from her daughter, Dr Bernice King, about the campaign. We dip into the BBC archive to bring you the story of the notorious Stanford Prison Experiment. Also, from the 1980s, a time when many wanted to get out of East Germany and into the West, the young woman who decided to go the other way and set up a new life in the East. And the Dutchman behind the first bike sharing scheme.
Photo: A suspected Boko Haram house in Maiduguri set ablaze by Nigerian security forces, 30th July 2009 (AFP/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the History Hour Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson, history as told by people who were there. |
| 0:08.0 | This week, the story of the campaign to make Martin Luther King Day a national holiday in the US. |
| 0:13.5 | When my father was assassinated, he was one of the most hated men in just our nation alone. |
| 0:19.5 | But now he's one of the most loved persons in the world. |
| 0:23.0 | Also, an infamous psychology experiment in 1970s, California. |
| 0:27.0 | They assumed the role of guards who had to demonstrate, |
| 0:32.0 | and what all evil is about is the exercise of power |
| 0:34.3 | to demonstrate we have power and you have not. Plus a love story across the Cold War |
| 0:39.3 | divide in Germany and the Dutchman who came up with the first bike sharing scheme but quickly found |
| 0:45.1 | that in the 1960s some people didn't want to know. |
| 0:48.3 | The bike was going down for the members of the town council the future was of the cars and the bike was going out. |
| 0:58.0 | That's all coming up later in the podcast, but first Nigeria and Bocco-Ham. This is the story of how in 2009 a small Islamist group |
| 1:08.0 | launched an insurgency. The conflict would eventually force hundreds of thousands from their homes and leave tens of thousands dead. |
| 1:15.0 | Alex Last has been looking into the origins of Boca Haram and is with us now. |
| 1:19.1 | Alex. |
| 1:20.1 | Yes, hi Max. |
| 1:21.1 | I think many people know about B Haram really is the group responsible for the |
| 1:25.8 | kidnapping of the Chibok school girls back in 2014 and the devastating conflict in |
| 1:31.8 | Northeastern Nigeria, which continues under a slightly different guise to this day |
| 1:36.8 | but I thought we should really look at the emergence of Boca Haram and the moment they first hit the headlines which was back in 2009 |
| 1:45.8 | when they fought a four-day pitch battle with security forces in the northeastern city of Maidugery. |
| 1:56.0 | What I found was the most terrifying and horrific scene I have ever seen in my life, |
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