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Outlook: 15/10/2015 11:06 GMT: From Slum to Soundman

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Abdul Rahman Ramadhan

15/10/2015 11:06 GMT

15/10/2015 11:06 GMT: From Slum to Soundman

From Slum to Soundman

BBC World Service - Outlook, From Slum to Soundman

Abdul Rahman grew up in Africa's biggest slum. He became a world class sound recordist

Abdul Ramadhan grew up in Africa's largest slum. As a sound recordist he has gone onto cover some of the most important moments in African history.

Abdul Rahman Ramadhan has spent the last 35 years risking his life to bring the world news of some of the most important moments in African history - from the Rwandan Genocide to civil war in Sudan. Abdul is from the biggest slum in Africa, Kibera in Nairobi, and he is so dedicated to his profession as a sound recordist that he left his own wedding to cover some local riots for the news. 

There has traditionally been a cultural bias in India against having daughters. Each year, an estimated half-a-million female foetuses are aborted. In a bid to prevent this, in 1994, a law was brought in to stop expectant parents from testing the sex of their unborn children. But no cases were brought for 14 years. Then Dr Mitu Khurana filed a complaint against her husband and his family. She claimed that when she was pregnant with twins, they tricked her into having an illegal sex determination test, and on discovering that she was expecting girls, put her under pressure to have an abortion - which didn't happen. She is now bringing up her ten-year-old daughters on her own. For the last seven years, she has been fighting in the courts - but last week, her case was rejected. 

Ko Un is one of South Korea's most famous and prolific poets. Now in his 80s he witnessed massacres during the 1950s Korean War when North and South Korea battled against each other. He was also imprisoned in the 1980s under the military regime of Chun Doo-hwan as a dissident and political activist. During his time in solitary confinement he decided to write poems about his family and friends who had passed away and those who had suffered under the cold war which has amounted to 4001 poems, and 10 volumes of this 30 volume work have now been translated into English called Maninbo.

(Photo: Taken from The Soundman, directed by Chip Duncan)

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