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Outlook: Grandma and the great gold rush of Suriname

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Hennah Draaibaar

31/01/2023 GMT

Grandma and the great gold rush of Suriname

BBC World Service - Outlook, Grandma and the great gold rush of Suriname

Hennah Draaibaar is on the trail of her family’s legendary lost gold

Hennah Draaibaar looks for the truth behind her grandma's stories of gold. What she finds is a life marked by hardship and loss, but was once the most celebrated in Suriname.

Hennah Draaibaar sets out to investigate a family legend she'd heard whispers of as a girl, that of her grandmother making a huge gold discovery in the 1930s which briefly made her the richest woman in Suriname. Could it be that a family just a few decades out from under the yoke of slavery had found unimaginable riches buried beneath their feet? Hennah's digging uncovers the murky history of the gold’s path down the years and reveals a portrait of the Golden Lady of Suriname that was even more precious. 

High in the mountains ranges of Western Mongolia, the nomadic Kazakh people carry on a spectacular tradition: they train and hunt with the majestic golden eagle. Among them is a girl called Aisholpan Nurgaiv who was the subject of the 2016 film The Eagle Huntress. Its director, Otto Bell, told Outlook about the photos that first inspired him. This interview was first broadcast in 2016.

Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com

Presenter: Andrea Kennedy

(Photo: (Front) Collage of Hennah Draaibaar's family (Background) The city of Albina in 1970s. Credit: (Front) Courtesy of Hennah Draaibaar (Background) Seidel/United Archives/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

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