大象传媒

Twenty years after the genocide the award-winning Rwandan singer Jean Paul Samputu, tells how he forgave his close friend for killing his parents. Jean Paul was touring in Europe when the 1994 genocide erupted in Rwanda. He survived, but lost his entire family. Years later he would return to the country to offer forgiveness to the friend who killed his parents.

As part of the 大象传媒's season of programmes on the theme of freedom, Matthew Bannister hears the freedom stories of some inspiring guests.

He visits San Francisco, a city with a reputation for liberal values, to meet Jay Thelin, a former hippie who, in the 1960s grew his hair long, took mind-altering drugs and believed he could change the world.

Tom Hart Dyke is a horticulturist who was kidnapped by an armed gang in the Colombian rainforest while hunting for rare orchids. He was held hostage for nine months, and kept himself going through the ordeal by creating gardens in the jungle.

John Bosco Nyombi is a Ugandan who had to flee his country when his secret life as a gay man was broadcast on national radio. He has now been granted asylum in the UK.

Ayo is a German born singer-songwriter with a Nigerian father and Romanian mother. She was sent into foster care and went on to become a double-platinum selling musician.

(Picture: From left- Jean Paul Samputu, Tom Hart Dyke, John Bosco Nyombi)