Throne of Weapons

A History of the World in 100 Objects

BBC

History

4.4 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2010

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The history of humanity, as told through one hundred objects from the British Museum in London, is drawing to an end. Throughout this week, Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum in London, has been with things that help explain the modern world. He has explored political and sexual politics and freedoms, and now reflects on the impact of guns and weapons in the modern world - especially in Africa where thousands of children have been participants in brutal conflicts. He tells the story through a work of art - a sculptured throne made from decommissioned guns like the ubiquitous AK47. We hear from Kester, the artist from Mozambique who created theThrone of Weapons and test the reaction to the piece of Kofi Annan, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations. Producer: Anthony Denselow

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of a history of the world in a hundred objects
0:07.8	from BBC Radio 4. The sounds of people working with guns, but these are guns of peace, not of war.
0:28.5	They're being cut up, melted down, welded together and reshaped to make artworks in Mozambique.
0:35.8	It's the first time in this series that we can actually let you hear how one of the objects
0:40.6	was made.
0:41.6	It's also the first time that we have an object that's a record of
0:44.5	conflict but which doesn't glorify war or the ruler who waged it. The object today is known as
0:51.5	the throne of weapons.
0:53.6	It's a chair or throne constructed out of parts of guns
0:57.8	which were made all over the world
1:00.0	and then sold to Africa. We don't manufacture weapons.
1:07.0	We sometimes don't even have money to buy them.
1:13.6	How do we get these weapons to kill each other?
1:15.8	A history of the world in a hundred objects. the throne of weapons made in Mozambique in 2001.
1:37.0	In 2001.
1:47.0	If one of the defining features of the 19th century was the growth of mass markets
1:55.8	and mass consumption, then the 20th century might be characterized by mass warfare
2:00.6	and mass killing. The two world wars, Stalin's purges, the Holocaust, Hiroshima, Cambodia's killing fields,
2:08.0	Rwanda.
2:09.7	If there is any positive side at all to this tale of genocide and devastation. It's perhaps
2:15.7	that the 20th century has recorded and articulated the suffering of the ordinary
2:20.3	victims of war, the soldiers and civilians who paid with their lives or their limbs.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.