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Opening my Romanian Secret Police File

When American anthropologist Katherine Verdery worked in Romania during the Cold War, she had no idea the country鈥檚 secret police thought she was a spy.

When American anthropologist Katherine Verdery worked in Romania during the Cold War, little did she know that the country鈥檚 secret police - the Securitate - was compiling a dossier on her of nearly 3,000 pages. The file contained reports from 70 informers, including a number of her close friends. She got hold of it in 2008, and went on to meet with some of those who had informed on her. Katherine has written a book about reading her file called My Life as a Spy: Investigations in a Secret Police file.

Tresor Riziki's path to superstardom in South Africa started with a journey across half of the African continent. He is a multi-platinum selling artist with his own brand of Afrobeat pop music. But he鈥檚 not from South Africa, and he had a pretty tough journey getting there. Tresor started life in Goma, in the Eastern DRC. It鈥檚 a small city that has had quite a dramatic recent history. There have been decades of armed conflict, and even a volcanic eruption, but Tresor has fond memories of his childhood there.

(Image: Katherine Verdery. Credit: Juan Carlos Arevalo.)

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53 minutes

Last on

Wed 10 Oct 2018 06:06GMT

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Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary

Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary

Step into someone else鈥檚 life and expect the unexpected