The Documentary (BBC) The Global Jigsaw: The rebels who retook Aleppo I listened to this as the Assad regime fell in Syria, but the program was actually first broadcast in 2023. It looks at Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), led by Abu Mohammed al Jawlani (although I note that this is his ‘nom de guerre’ and he’s now going by Ahmed al-Sharaa. In 2023 when this was recorded, there was scepticism about his transformation from islamic terrorist to the leader of the ‘Salvation Government’ that he was leading in Idlib province. This government allowed in aid, re-opened schools, shops and churches, and as leader he wanted to appear statesmanlike, trimming his beard and wearing casual clothes, moving around openly in Idlib. Like many, I have been appalled by the repression of the Assad government that is now being fully revealed. Let’s hope that Syria has a better future.
The Rest is History Episode 455 Fall of the Sioux: The Ghost Dance (Part 2) This is all so sad and has so many resonances with Australian Aboriginal history. From their webpage “Following the tragic death of Crazy Horse and the ruthless cessation of the Sioux way of life, the last of the great Native American leaders were gradually picked off or repressed by the U.S. Government. Few though had so pitiful a fate as the once mighty Lakota War Chieftain, Sitting Bull. Having fled to Canada in search of peace from the relentless harrowing of his people, Sitting Bull finally returned and arrived at the Standing Rock Reservation in 1883. He was unprepared, however, for the changes wrought upon his people. With the explosion of railroads and the decimation of the already flailing buffalo populations, the Great Plains had been transformed into a desolate, barbed wasteland. While, the Native Americans within the reservations were increasingly coerced into Christianity by missionaries, or controlled by Federal agents. Then, news reached Sitting Bull and his people of a messianic figure from beyond the Rocky Mountains, who would come to liberate them from their plight. With him he brought the answer to their troubles: the Ghost Dance. Would it see the drums of war sound once more?” When Sitting Bull returned to Standing Rock, everything had changed. He joined the Buffalo Bill tour, and the restaging of Custer’s last Battle. Then we have the ‘second coming’ narrative of spiritual leader Wovoka, whose Ghost Dance, if performed properly would reunite the living with spirits of the dead, bring the spirits to fight on their behalf, ending Westward expansion and bring peace and prosperity. This is not going to end well.
History Extra A Victorian Cult: Inside the Strange World of the Agapemone I tend to think of cults today as being an American phenomenon, but especially during the 19th century, Britain had its fair share too. The Agapemone (originally called the Princites), named for Henry James Prince, who believed that he had a direct line of communication with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit told him to establish himself in Somerset, in a house purchased from the ‘donations’ of his wealthy, mainly female followers in 1856. Those who could not afford to donate their money donated their labour instead, working in the kitchen. There they were to wait for the second coming, and as they were already saved, then they weren’t going to die- which became a bit embarrassing when they DID start dying off- but no matter, because John Hugh Smyth-Pigott quickly took his place, as cult leaders tend to do. The commune limped on until the 1960s when it had become a type of old-people’s home. The episode features Stuart Flinders, the author of A Very British Cult: Rogue Priests and the Abode of Love (Icon Books, 2024).
The Resident Judge of Port Phillip 