Black Girl from Pyongyang by Monica Macias

Monique Macías, along with her sister and brother, attended Mangyongdae Revolutionary School in Pyongyang, North Korea, where they learned to shoot Kalashnikov rifles and participated in daily physical drills that involved running and climbing.įormerly an all-boys school, the Mangyongdae Revolutionary School made a new class for Macías and her sister as an exception. Francisco Macías was executed by firing squad in the late 1970s.įoreseeing his exile and later execution, Franciso Macías sent his three children to North Korea to live and receive an education.

Francisco Macías was overthrown as president of Equatorial Guinea and tried for numerous crimes including genocide, embezzlement and treason. Regardless, Francisco Macías had a short term due to a series of illegal acts he implemented through the Equatorial Guinean government. Monique Macías stated that her father and Kim Il-sung became fast friends because they had “a lot in common”, pointing out that “both fought against colonial powers and both built their support base through nationalism.” As a new president, Macías sought to form relationships with leaders of other countries such as North Korean President Kim Il-sung. Now out of exile and in her 40s, Monique Macías often depicts her unconventional upbringing as a black African adolescent in articles and memoirs.īorn in Equatorial Guinea in 1970, only two years after the country gained independence from Spain, her father, Francisco Macías Nguema, was the small country’s first elected president.

Optimistic yet unflinching, Monica's astonishing and unique story challenges us to see the world through different eyes.Who is Monique Macías? Currently an author, Monique Macías was one of the only foreign students at the prestigious Mangyongdae Revolutionary School in Pyongyang, North Korea. At military boarding school, Monica learned to mix with older children, speak fluent Korean and handle weapons on training exercises.Īfter university, she went in search of her roots, passing through Beijing, Seoul, Madrid, Guinea, New York and finally London – forced at every step to reckon with damning perceptions of her adoptive homeland.

Effectively orphaned, she and two siblings had to make their life in Pyongyang. Within months, her father was executed in a military coup her mother became unreachable. She was sent by her father Francisco, the first president of post-Independence Equatorial Guinea, to be educated under the guardianship of his ally, Kim Il Sung. I n 1979, aged only seven, Monica Macias was transplanted from West Africa to the unfamiliar surroundings of North Korea. The extraordinary true story of a West African girl's upbringing in North Korea under the protection of President Kim Il Sung.

Black Girl from Pyongyang by Monica Macias