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The Fifth Floor: Focus on Africa: 60 years on

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28/08/2020 GMT

Focus on Africa: 60 years on

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, Focus on Africa: 60 years on

Today’s Focus presenters share standout moments from the past and hopes for the future

Today’s Focus presenters share standout moments from the past and hopes for the future.

As BBC Africa’s Focus on Africa celebrates its 60th anniversary, David Amanor talks to fellow members of the Focus team Bola Mosuro and Paul Bakibinga.  What makes the programme special to them, what moments and encounters stand out, and what are their expectations for the future?

Uzbekistan: spotlight on a forgotten past  
For the past two years, the BBC’s Ibrat Safo has been tracing the stories of a generation of young Uzbek scientists, doctors and academics who were murdered in Stalin’s purges in the 1930s.  He tells us how they are being brought back to life after decades of silence. 

Getting to know Navalny 
Last week Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny was taken seriously ill on a flight to Moscow.   Poisoning is suspected, and he remains in a coma in Germany undergoing treatment.   But who is Navalny and what does he stand for? We speak to BBC Russian editor Famil Ismailov to get a closer look at Putin's biggest political rival. 

In praise of mariachi 
In Mexico City, Plaza Garibaldi is the heart of mariachi music, where flamboyantly suited, sombrero-wearing musicians entertain drinkers and diners alike.  But the Covid-19 lockdown also shut down mariachi, and led to mariachi band protests across Mexico.  BBC Monitoring contributor Marcos Martínez Chacón explains what mariachi means to him and Mexicans.  

Photo:Mr George Nyandoro (right) who represents the southern Rhodesian Peoples Caretaker Council in London , is interviwed by Edward Muska for Focus On Africa
Credit: BBC

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