麻豆约拍

Ugandan born journalist and 麻豆约拍 World Service presenter Paul Bakibinga explores the idea of loss and how to get going again after a major life setback in Something Understood: Starting Over.

The programme includes an account of his own experience of losing a baby, and explores how others have managed to restart their lives after setbacks such as contracting HIV, and an account from an Asian family who managed to get going again after being thrown out of Uganda by Idi Amin. Paul Bakibinga explains how directly experiencing adversity has given him more empathy when covering death or disaster as a journalist.

It also features an interview with South African performance poet Malika Ndlovu who reads a moving extract from her journal, "Invisible Earthquake", which depicts her struggle to regain a sense of inner calm after her daughter was still-born.

An uplifting programme which begins in darkness with Mahler's "Songs on the Death of Children" and moves into the light - ending with the Ugandan Children's Choir singing "Siyahamba - We Are Marching In The Light of God".

The programme is presented by Paul Bakibinga.

Producer: Kim Normanton.
A Loftus production for 麻豆约拍 Radio 4.