Devastating floods caused by a burst dam in northeastern Nigeria have submerged entire residential areas, displacing tens of thousands of people and animals. Authorities say at least thirty people have died. Two hundered prisoners also escaped from the Maiduguri state prison. It's been described as the worst flooding in thirty years, reports our correspondent Azzezat Olaoluwa in Maiduguri.
Also, how the influence of so-called Islamic State in Mali is making things worse for women and girls in the Sahel.
And the long history behind naked protests in Uganda. Three young women who staged a nude protest against corruption in front of the country's parliamentary buildings recently, are facing charges in a court of law.
Presenter: Audrey Brown
Producers: Yvette Twagiramariya, Bella Hassan, Susan Gachuhi and Alfonso Daniels.
Technical Producer: Nick Randell
Senior Journalist: Karnie Sharp
Editors: Alice Muthengi and Andre Lombard
Ngā Wai Hono i te Pō ascends the Māori throne as the new Kuini (Queen), much to the joy of her people, heralding a new age of prominence for the Kiingitanga movement.
We ask whether the new queen may have a biological advantage making her a better fit for leadership, whilst searching for examples of matriarchy in the animal kingdom and analogous human societies.
As is customary, Ngā Wai Hono i te Pō was crowned on the same day as her father’s funeral, thrust into a leadership role during a time of profound grief. We hear from Prof Lucy Selman, expert in palliative and end-of-life care from the University of Bristol, and founder of the Good Grief Festival. She speaks about the physical and emotional manifestations of grief and how it can be processed and overcome, even in the face of immense responsibility.
We remember the legendary voice of the late James Earl Jones, who played the intergalactic monarch, Darth Vader, as Marnie unpicks the science of stuttering.
Unravel a massive jigsaw puzzle, uncover a hidden secret behind Queen’s hit song Don’t Stop Me Now, and delve into the fascinating realm of neuroscience and much more on Unexpected Elements.
Nearly a year ago, the top of a mountain on the Greenland coast broke off and slid a thousand metres down into the Dickson Fjord. The impact created a tsunami that started two-hundred-metres-high and sloshed between the cliffs for nine days, producing a global seismic signal. But it was so remote, only now are the details becoming clear. We hear from Paula Koelemeijer, Wieter Boone and Søren Rysgaard.
The decline of the ancient inhabitants of Rapa Nui was unlikely to have been caused by a self-inflicted population collapse, thereby rejecting a contentious theory of ‘ecological suicide’. Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas of the University of Lausanne discusses her team’s findings which shed light on the population history of the island formerly known as Easter Island - one of the most remote inhabited places in the world, around 3,700 km west of South America and over 1,900 km east of the closest inhabited island.
A newly identified species of wasp that attacks and lays eggs inside an adult fly has been discovered by Logan Moore and colleagues from Mississippi State University. Around 200 species of parasitoid wasps that target the fruit fly have been discovered to date - they lay their eggs in living creatures - all of which have been shown to target their hosts during vulnerable stages, such as when larvae or pupae. Until now, no wasp that attacks and develops inside the adult stage of a fruit fly host has been described.
Presenter: Roland Pease
Producer: Jonathan Blackwell
Production Coordinator: Andrew Rhys Lewis
(Image: Copernicus Sentinel Data (2023). Credit: European Space Agency)
Why are workers at Kenya's main airports objecting to a planned deal to lease the facility to India's Adani Group for 30 years?
How Cameroon's simmering secessionist rebellion is affecting schooling for children
And why African women need to be involved in developing Artificial Intelligence.
Presenter : Audrey Brown
Producers: Charles Gitonga and Susan Gachuhi in Nairobi, Todah Opeyemi in Lagos with Bella Hassan and Paul Bakibinga in London
Technical Producer: Nick Randell
Editors: Alice Muthengi and Andre Lombard
On the night of 10 September 2023, Storm Daniel unleashed torrential rain and fierce winds on Libya’s north-east region. Two dams burst near Derna, releasing a devastating flood wave that swept through the city centre, killing thousands of people and causing widespread destruction. A year on since the disaster - a survivor reflects on the day and life now in Derna.
Also, there is a new malaria vaccine that could protect pregnant women and their unborn children.
And how the recent killings of Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei in Kenya and Christiania Idowu in Nigeria sparked deliberations on the extent of misogyny and femicide in some african societies on social media.
Presenter: Audrey Brown
Producers: Patrcia Whitehorn, Yvette Twagiramariya, Stefania Okereke and Blessing Aderogba
Technical Producer: Jack Graysmark
Senior Journalist: Karnie Sharp
Editors: Alice Muthengi and Andre Lombard
In recent years, there have been several incidents of fires at boarding schools in Kenya, causing concern about safety measures in place. Is accountability possible?
Dark days ahead as Zambia plans to shut down its hydropower plant at Kariba due to drought
And how changing forms of payment for land are affecting women farmers in Sierra Leone.
Presenter: Audrey
Producers :Frenny Jowi, Susan Gachuhi and Charles Gitonga in Nairobi. Blessing Aderogba in Lagos and Bella Hassan in London.
Technical Producer: Jack Graysmark
Senior Producer: Paul Bakibinga
Editors Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi.
Algeria's incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has been re-elected with almost 95% of the vote. Election officials reported that less than 6 million of the country's 24 million voters turned out to vote raising questions about Tebboune's popular support. We'll get analysis.
Also, the Nigerian woman in Canada who allegedly made threats against other Nigerian ethnic groups in the country.
And how did African athletes fare at the 2024 Paralympics?
Presenter: Audrey Brown
Producers: Bella Hassan, Kaine Pieri, Stefania Okereke and Patrcia Whitehorne.
Technical Producer: Jack Graysmark
Senior Journalist: Karnie Sharp
Editors: Alice Muthengi and Andre Lombard
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw built a pharmaceutical empire after failing to get a job brewing beer. She also overcame gender bias to become India’s first self-made female billionaire. Her company Biocon is now Asia's biggest insulin producer. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng follow her story, from a childhood living on a brewery compound in Bangalore to adventures in Australia and Ireland. How did Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw go from extracting enzymes from papaya fruit to mass-manufacturing medicines and being named among Time magazine's most influential people in the world? She calls herself an accidental entrepreneur; Simon and Zing decide whether they think she’s good, bad or just another billionaire.
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We dive into the unusual world of dog surfing and meet some of the surfers who take part in the sport's World Championships. Also, why the British rescue team are revisiting Morocco one year on from the earthquake.
Many of us experience an inner voice: we silently talk to ourselves as we go about our daily lives. CrowdScience listener Fredrick has been wondering about the science behind this interior dialogue.
We hear from psychologists researching our inner voice and discover that it’s something that begins in early childhood. Presenter Caroline Steel meets Russell Hurlburt, a pioneering scientist who devised a method of researching this - and volunteers to monitor her own inner speech to figure out what’s going on in her mind.
She discovers that speech is just part of what’s going on in our heads, much of our inner world in fact doesn’t involve language at all but includes images, sensations and feelings.
Caroline talks to psychologist Charles Fernyhough, who explains one theory for how we develop an interior dialogue as young children: first speaking out loud to ourselves and then learning to keep that conversation going silently. No one really knows how this evolved, but keeping our thoughts quiet may have been a way of staying safe from predators and enemies.
Using MRI scanning, Charles and Russell have peered inside people’s brains to understand this interior voice and found something surprising: inner dialogue appears to have more in common with listening than with speaking.
Caroline also has an encounter with a robot that has been programmed to dialogue with itself. Which leads us to some deep questions: is our inner voice part of what makes us human, and if so, what are the consequences of robots developing this ability? Scientist Arianna Pipitone describes it as a step towards artificial consciousness.
Featuring:
Professor Charles Fernyhough, University of Durham, UK
Professor Russell Hurlburt, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
Dr Arianna Pipitone, University of Palermo, Italy
Presenter: Caroline Steel
Producer: Jo Glanville
Editor: Cathy Edwards
Sound design: Julian Wharton
Studio manager: Donald MacDonald
Production co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano
(Image: Mixed Race boy looking up Credit: Jose Luis Pelaez Inc via Getty Images)
