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Black Girl from Pyongyang: In Search of My Identity
In 1979, aged only seven, Monica Macias was transplanted from West Africa to the unfamiliar surroundings of North Korea. 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.
Within months, her father was executed in a military coup; her mother became unreachable. Effectively orphaned, she and two siblings had to make their life in Pyongyang. At military boarding school, Monica learned to mix with older children, speak fluent Korean and handle weapons on training exercises.
After 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. Optimistic yet unflinching, Monica’s astonishing and unique story challenges us to see the world through different eyes.
Within months, her father was executed in a military coup; her mother became unreachable. Effectively orphaned, she and two siblings had to make their life in Pyongyang. At military boarding school, Monica learned to mix with older children, speak fluent Korean and handle weapons on training exercises.
After 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. Optimistic yet unflinching, Monica’s astonishing and unique story challenges us to see the world through different eyes.
294 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 2, 2023
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November 24, 2022
Are they aware that, wherever there are asymmetric power dynamics, the victor's version of events is accepted as the truth, creating a warped narrative of historical events?
Hmm, this is essentially a lightweight and patronisingly naïve narrative in which Macias states well-known axioms such as that above as if they're discoveries that only she has made and which she wants to impart to us. And yes, we are aware that, to quote the cliché, history is written by the victors. It's really not news.
I constantly felt that there's a space between the book that has been intentionally written and the one that we are reading. The story pushed is that her father, Francisco Macias, 'was the victim of powerful enemies who elaborated a meticulous plan to eliminate him from the Guinean political scene' (this is how she summarises the main thrust of her Masters dissertation) and that he and her proxy father, Kim Il Sung, President of North Korea until his death in 1994, have been essentially maligned unfairly by the West. Of course, there is an element of truth in the way that pat anti-communist narratives are spread but, at the same time, this book doesn't engage with the more neutral and documented narratives of brutalities, torture, and abysmal human rights abuses that exist in both states. Calling out one extreme form of propaganda does not make its opposite true.
It's a shame as Monica has had a fascinating life: daughter of the leader of Equatorial Guinea in its independence from its status as a colony of Spain, sent with her siblings at age seven to live in North Korea under the personal patronage of Kim Il Sung. But we don't get any real details of everyday life in North Korea, and she's soon off travelling to Spain, back to Equatorial Guinea, South Korea, China, New York and London where she does a masters at SOAS.
It's quite amazing that Monica works as a retail assistant in a shop, as a chambermaid in a London hotel, low-paid jobs, and yet somehow manages to fly around the world, live in expensive cities (she claims she gets a part-loan for her SOAS studies) and never makes mention of how any of this is funded. Indeed, against the claim that her father stole national money, her mother says if that were true, where is the money...
Comments about structural racism feel tired and clichéd - whereas Monica could have had a fascinating perspective as someone with very mixed-race antecedents who has moved from Africa to Asia to Europe, and who speaks a variety of languages. For all her claims about the importance of education, there's not much evidence in here of critical thinking above a most basic level.
And then there are the anomalies that feel inserted for dramatic effect: the daughter of an African leader and proxy daughter of the North Korean President turns up in Spain and doesn't realise she needs a residency visa? The night before her masters dissertation is due in she hits a key, all the text turns to numbers and she sits up all night to rewrite the entire thing from memory? (I mean, which postgrad student doesn't save their dissertation compulsively in seven different places?)
Ultimately this feels rather opaque.
Thanks to Duckworth for an ARC via NetGalley
September 6, 2024
Women's History Month
I admit, I read this under a very biased Western lens, which the author herself warns against. I went in wanting to know more about North Korea and Equatorial Guinea. I didn't get what I wanted.
This is a very naïve and unapologetic "memoir" that reeks of privilege of a certain nature. You can love someone that is horrible to others. Just because they weren't dismissive or abusive to you doesn't mean they weren't to others. To repeatedly defend and try to separate dictators from their regimes is disingenuous.
📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Duckworth Books
I admit, I read this under a very biased Western lens, which the author herself warns against. I went in wanting to know more about North Korea and Equatorial Guinea. I didn't get what I wanted.
This is a very naïve and unapologetic "memoir" that reeks of privilege of a certain nature. You can love someone that is horrible to others. Just because they weren't dismissive or abusive to you doesn't mean they weren't to others. To repeatedly defend and try to separate dictators from their regimes is disingenuous.
📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Duckworth Books
March 26, 2024
Monica Macias’ life is interesting. Born the youngest daughter of Francisco Macias, the first president of Equatorial Guinea, she was transported to Pyongyang aged seven in 1979 as her father requested his friend Kim Il Sung to educate Monica and her two older siblings there. Months after she began living in Pyongyang, her father was overthrown in a coup d’état and she was to begin what will be a 15-year period of life growing up in Pyongyang during her formative years. Kim Il Sung honoured the wish of his late friend by ensuring that all of Monica’s needs were taken care of and overseeing her education in the North Korean education system.
I’ll have to admit my lack of knowledge about the history of Equatorial Guinea might hinder me from wholly understanding Monica’s narrative. But in terms of message, Monica is pretty clear in her memoir about the need to view issues from multiple perspectives and understand both North Korean and Equato-Guinean struggles in relation to the decolonisation process. The title and synopsis are captivating. A black girl – who naturally would come from a country in Africa or the Pacific – and Pyongyang, which is the capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – a country now commonly reported in the mainstream media as a rogue state pursuing its nuclear ambition at the expense of its own people. After the end of history, both countries do not find themselves in a favourable light in the international community, with their infamous track records in human rights and economic development.
Granted, this memoir is not only about life in North Korea per se as the portion of Monica’s life in North Korea only covers around one-third of the book and she lived a highly privileged life in the DPRK, so it’s not easy to view the daily life of North Koreans from her story. Yet this is a book about someone’s search for her identity (born from parents of Afro-European descent yet growing up in an East Asian country) and the need to establish truth based on meticulous research after seeing the viewpoints on both sides. Probably the latter is the most difficult thing to perform (even for readers with open minds), as it’s natural that our views would gravitate towards one view or another. Monica’s views on the human rights situation are also something that I regret a bit, given her educational background for someone who studied international relations and African politics at SOAS in London, yet I find her courage to challenge the established narratives that she learned during the time she grew up admirable.
While Monica’s stories focus more on her uneasy feelings growing up rather than established facts, I find them insightful in terms of understanding the complexities of global migration and questions on identities. And with memoir, it is essential to understand that there is always some degree of subjectivity as Monica interprets the way the western world in general views Francisco Macias and Kim Il Sung. While the book also offers alternative viewpoints, I understand that it lacks depth, which perhaps has something to do more with Monica’s intention of describing her life story rather than providing detailed research on either her life in DPRK or the question of identity that has been surrounding her. I find this book in general an interesting and concise memoir but I would not take it as an authoritative source of information.
Reviewed from an electronic advance reading copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
I’ll have to admit my lack of knowledge about the history of Equatorial Guinea might hinder me from wholly understanding Monica’s narrative. But in terms of message, Monica is pretty clear in her memoir about the need to view issues from multiple perspectives and understand both North Korean and Equato-Guinean struggles in relation to the decolonisation process. The title and synopsis are captivating. A black girl – who naturally would come from a country in Africa or the Pacific – and Pyongyang, which is the capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – a country now commonly reported in the mainstream media as a rogue state pursuing its nuclear ambition at the expense of its own people. After the end of history, both countries do not find themselves in a favourable light in the international community, with their infamous track records in human rights and economic development.
Granted, this memoir is not only about life in North Korea per se as the portion of Monica’s life in North Korea only covers around one-third of the book and she lived a highly privileged life in the DPRK, so it’s not easy to view the daily life of North Koreans from her story. Yet this is a book about someone’s search for her identity (born from parents of Afro-European descent yet growing up in an East Asian country) and the need to establish truth based on meticulous research after seeing the viewpoints on both sides. Probably the latter is the most difficult thing to perform (even for readers with open minds), as it’s natural that our views would gravitate towards one view or another. Monica’s views on the human rights situation are also something that I regret a bit, given her educational background for someone who studied international relations and African politics at SOAS in London, yet I find her courage to challenge the established narratives that she learned during the time she grew up admirable.
While Monica’s stories focus more on her uneasy feelings growing up rather than established facts, I find them insightful in terms of understanding the complexities of global migration and questions on identities. And with memoir, it is essential to understand that there is always some degree of subjectivity as Monica interprets the way the western world in general views Francisco Macias and Kim Il Sung. While the book also offers alternative viewpoints, I understand that it lacks depth, which perhaps has something to do more with Monica’s intention of describing her life story rather than providing detailed research on either her life in DPRK or the question of identity that has been surrounding her. I find this book in general an interesting and concise memoir but I would not take it as an authoritative source of information.
Reviewed from an electronic advance reading copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
March 5, 2023
“My connection to the society I grew up in is partly emotional, but I do have the capacity for dispassionate legal analysis. The moment that emotion interferes with analysis, the analysis can become sloppy.”
Macias is the daughter of the late Francisco Macias, the erstwhile leader (/dictator) of Equatorial Guinea, which attained its independence from its coloniser Spain in 1968.
With his family’s life in danger from his putative enemies, and with Communist nations reaching out to offer Macias assistance, he sent his wife and children to North Korea to live and be educated under the stewardship of Kim Il Sung, who the author refers to as her adopted father, and of whom she speaks very fondly.
Monica spent a somewhat confused and happy childhood at a strict, military boarding school in Pyongyang, where she lived a relatively privileged existence as the daughter of a close comrade and friend of Kim Il Sung.
In a short space of time, she began to identify as Korean, speaking the language fluently and making many Korean friends. When she came of age, she was offered the chance by Kim Il Sung either to stay or leave, and in the book she documents her decision to leave North Korea and discover her heritage in Spain and Equatorial Guinea, before moving to the US, South Korea and the UK.
It’s an interesting book at times and Macias has clearly led a very interesting life. The above quote though by Macias, referencing her experience of academic analysis of the North Korean regime, sums up my main gripe with the book.
Macias allows her own experience, and her experience alone, to determine her thoughts and opinions on North Korean society (and on her father, widely considered to have been one of Africa’s most brutal dictators).
Ultimately this is a pretty superficial analysis of a happy childhood in North Korea. It’s a memoir and a quick read, but you can expect little critical thinking on Communism, famine, nuclear power and the Kim dynasty or the author’s own father.
A cursory Google will tell you that Francisco Macias developed a cult of personality, a one party system and appointed himself President for life.
As for North Korea, Macias with her rose-tinted glasses neglects to mention that North Koreans can’t actually leave North Korea, so there’s that. 1/5 ⭐️
*Many thanks to the author, the publisher @duckworthbooks and @netgalley for the advance copy of the book, which was published on Thursday. As always, this is an honest review.*
Macias is the daughter of the late Francisco Macias, the erstwhile leader (/dictator) of Equatorial Guinea, which attained its independence from its coloniser Spain in 1968.
With his family’s life in danger from his putative enemies, and with Communist nations reaching out to offer Macias assistance, he sent his wife and children to North Korea to live and be educated under the stewardship of Kim Il Sung, who the author refers to as her adopted father, and of whom she speaks very fondly.
Monica spent a somewhat confused and happy childhood at a strict, military boarding school in Pyongyang, where she lived a relatively privileged existence as the daughter of a close comrade and friend of Kim Il Sung.
In a short space of time, she began to identify as Korean, speaking the language fluently and making many Korean friends. When she came of age, she was offered the chance by Kim Il Sung either to stay or leave, and in the book she documents her decision to leave North Korea and discover her heritage in Spain and Equatorial Guinea, before moving to the US, South Korea and the UK.
It’s an interesting book at times and Macias has clearly led a very interesting life. The above quote though by Macias, referencing her experience of academic analysis of the North Korean regime, sums up my main gripe with the book.
Macias allows her own experience, and her experience alone, to determine her thoughts and opinions on North Korean society (and on her father, widely considered to have been one of Africa’s most brutal dictators).
Ultimately this is a pretty superficial analysis of a happy childhood in North Korea. It’s a memoir and a quick read, but you can expect little critical thinking on Communism, famine, nuclear power and the Kim dynasty or the author’s own father.
A cursory Google will tell you that Francisco Macias developed a cult of personality, a one party system and appointed himself President for life.
As for North Korea, Macias with her rose-tinted glasses neglects to mention that North Koreans can’t actually leave North Korea, so there’s that. 1/5 ⭐️
*Many thanks to the author, the publisher @duckworthbooks and @netgalley for the advance copy of the book, which was published on Thursday. As always, this is an honest review.*
November 9, 2022
Life in North Korea is a subject I find interesting; however, every account of life in the DPRK I have read has been from either a Korean citizen or a white person who has visited for some time. The title of Monica Macias' book, Black Girl from Pyongyang, was what initially drew me to this (special thanks to NetGalley for the ARC), as I had never considered what life for a black person in North Korea may be like. Come to find out, author Monica Macias is the daughter of the former president of Equatorial Guinea, Francisco Macias Nguema. I learned much more about Equatorial Guinea and its history since gaining independence from Spain than I had expected; however, that, unfortunately, is where my compliments end.
As far as style goes, the book is shallow and brief. Macias decides to leave North Korea after finishing school, and a chapter later ten years has passed. Storytelling and pacing do not seem to be the author's strong suit. The writing lacked detail or depth; Macias often repeated that she did not feel comfortable, but she never went into detail about what that meant for her development as a person. You could cut out much of this repetition and the book would be much shorter--something, unfortunately, I think it would have benefited from. That said, this memoir IS a translation of an earlier edition, originally published in Korean--something she discusses in the book itself, however, meaning she added additional chapters after translation and the book still felt shallow. There may be nuances and storytelling techniques that come through more in the original language of the text that I miss given that this is in English, but unfortunately I cannot comment on the literary value of the Korean text.
Finally, and what most importantly inspired such a low rating, was the blatant erasure of Macias' father figures' negative impacts. Sure, Macias is not Francisco, and she is not Kim Il-sung; she does not deserve to be attacked for the actions of her elders. She does, however, spend MOST of the memoir defending North Korea and Kim Il-sung. She writes about how Kim took her in, but she offers up almost nothing on what her and the dictator's relationship looked like. She attempts to make a dictator look sympathetic, and yet provides no reason for our sympathy beyond the fact that she lived alongside him. I doubt a heartwarming chapter about evenings spent together or details about beloved memories together would make me particularly sympathetic to the literal leader of North Korea, but it may have helped Macias' case to support the regime if she had used any attempt beyond "well, they raised me". At the same time, Macias refuses to acknowledge her own father's abusive rule and in fact spends much of the final pages trying to convince the reader, through poorly constructed dialogue between Macias and unknown cousins at her MOTHER'S FUNERAL, that Macias really was not that bad because the current president and first lady are also corrupt. Upon Googling Francisco's name, one of the first things you see is his being named "one of the most brutal dictators of history" and how, under his power, Equatorial Guinea was nicknamed the "Dachau of Africa". Thousands fled, for fear for their lives or for better life opportunity, INCLUDING Macias herself. And yet, neither man is that bad.
This book reads like a piece of political propaganda. I can understand why it may not be intentional; Macias may firmly believe that her biological and adopted fathers, both corrupt dictators, are just misunderstood by the rest of the world. I do not doubt that she loved both men. Unfortunately, despite going into this book with an open mind and a readiness to accept Macias' support for the dictators, I was not able to leave feeling content. Lacking any actual detail, repeating the same lines about her fathers' innocence without support, and dragging on--not unlike this review--for far too long, Monica Macias' Black Girl from Pyongyang is one I would recommend you skip.
As far as style goes, the book is shallow and brief. Macias decides to leave North Korea after finishing school, and a chapter later ten years has passed. Storytelling and pacing do not seem to be the author's strong suit. The writing lacked detail or depth; Macias often repeated that she did not feel comfortable, but she never went into detail about what that meant for her development as a person. You could cut out much of this repetition and the book would be much shorter--something, unfortunately, I think it would have benefited from. That said, this memoir IS a translation of an earlier edition, originally published in Korean--something she discusses in the book itself, however, meaning she added additional chapters after translation and the book still felt shallow. There may be nuances and storytelling techniques that come through more in the original language of the text that I miss given that this is in English, but unfortunately I cannot comment on the literary value of the Korean text.
Finally, and what most importantly inspired such a low rating, was the blatant erasure of Macias' father figures' negative impacts. Sure, Macias is not Francisco, and she is not Kim Il-sung; she does not deserve to be attacked for the actions of her elders. She does, however, spend MOST of the memoir defending North Korea and Kim Il-sung. She writes about how Kim took her in, but she offers up almost nothing on what her and the dictator's relationship looked like. She attempts to make a dictator look sympathetic, and yet provides no reason for our sympathy beyond the fact that she lived alongside him. I doubt a heartwarming chapter about evenings spent together or details about beloved memories together would make me particularly sympathetic to the literal leader of North Korea, but it may have helped Macias' case to support the regime if she had used any attempt beyond "well, they raised me". At the same time, Macias refuses to acknowledge her own father's abusive rule and in fact spends much of the final pages trying to convince the reader, through poorly constructed dialogue between Macias and unknown cousins at her MOTHER'S FUNERAL, that Macias really was not that bad because the current president and first lady are also corrupt. Upon Googling Francisco's name, one of the first things you see is his being named "one of the most brutal dictators of history" and how, under his power, Equatorial Guinea was nicknamed the "Dachau of Africa". Thousands fled, for fear for their lives or for better life opportunity, INCLUDING Macias herself. And yet, neither man is that bad.
This book reads like a piece of political propaganda. I can understand why it may not be intentional; Macias may firmly believe that her biological and adopted fathers, both corrupt dictators, are just misunderstood by the rest of the world. I do not doubt that she loved both men. Unfortunately, despite going into this book with an open mind and a readiness to accept Macias' support for the dictators, I was not able to leave feeling content. Lacking any actual detail, repeating the same lines about her fathers' innocence without support, and dragging on--not unlike this review--for far too long, Monica Macias' Black Girl from Pyongyang is one I would recommend you skip.
November 22, 2022
Monica Macias has written a powerful account of her life in Black Girl from Pyongyang. Her circumstances growing up are unusual as her father decided to send her and her other siblings to be raised in Pyongyang North Korea from Equatorial Guinea. Clearly the young Monica struggles, from being a young child separated from her family, from the vigorous education process, and the new culture. Over time Monica adapts, she is in the guardianship of Kim II Sung, who takes a fatherly interest in her life and remains so until she leaves the country.
Shortly after arriving in Pyongyang, her father is assassinated, and she is truly on her own with almost no contact with her mother. As all this sinks in, Monica slows adapts, learns Korean and even finds foods that she likes. She is given a choice at the end of her studies to stay in North Korea where she now has many friends and is comfortable or go and see a world that she knows nothing about.
Her choice is to leave, and she heads to Spain as she has lost her ability to speak Spanish (this is the language she used with her mother and family - the other is Fang). In Spain she begins to learn about the world, about other people besides North Koreans, and investigates the circumstances of her father’s death. She grows tremendously, makes friends, works, and opens her eyes to the world. She gains strength from this and then sets her sites on New York, Seoul, Guinea, Beijing and London where she earns an advanced degree at SOSA, a leading school for the study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Overall I think this is an important book with an interesting view into North Korea. Granted it is one person’s experience, but she points out that in every country there are good and bad people. She is not making big political statements as to the present regime. At times I have disagreed with her perspective, but I see no point in taking away from her experience. There is value here if as a world we truly want peace.
Shortly after arriving in Pyongyang, her father is assassinated, and she is truly on her own with almost no contact with her mother. As all this sinks in, Monica slows adapts, learns Korean and even finds foods that she likes. She is given a choice at the end of her studies to stay in North Korea where she now has many friends and is comfortable or go and see a world that she knows nothing about.
Her choice is to leave, and she heads to Spain as she has lost her ability to speak Spanish (this is the language she used with her mother and family - the other is Fang). In Spain she begins to learn about the world, about other people besides North Koreans, and investigates the circumstances of her father’s death. She grows tremendously, makes friends, works, and opens her eyes to the world. She gains strength from this and then sets her sites on New York, Seoul, Guinea, Beijing and London where she earns an advanced degree at SOSA, a leading school for the study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Overall I think this is an important book with an interesting view into North Korea. Granted it is one person’s experience, but she points out that in every country there are good and bad people. She is not making big political statements as to the present regime. At times I have disagreed with her perspective, but I see no point in taking away from her experience. There is value here if as a world we truly want peace.
November 5, 2022
I would like to start by thanking Netgalley and Duckworth Books for providing me with an a free ARC!
As is often the case with memoirs, this is a difficult book to review..
The author, Monica Macias is the daughter of Francisco Macias, deemed to be one of the most violent leaders to ever be. She also spent the majority of her childhood in North Korea, under the protection of Kim Il-Sung, an important ally to her father. As a little girl she lost the connection with her home country, her mother tongue and quickly lost her father too. She says her soul is Korean as for a long time it was the only country she remembered living in.
As she moved to Spain after receiving an education, she felt the need to learn where she came from and reconciliate the different parts of her story and origins. Spanish (her mother tongue) quickly came back to her, she met people there, got her first job and started to experience life in a different way. She came to grasp with the fact that the men she calls her fathers are mostly seen in a negative light abroad and set herself on a mission to uncover the whole truth and learn all the facts before speaking up about anything political concerning them both. As she wrote this memoir she believes her father was set up and hasn't commited the crimes he is accused of.
I must admit I am not too familiar with her father's story and I don't feel I am fit to talk about much of Guinean's history either although I can agree on her thoughts on decolonisation.
As to North Korea, I feel very ambivalent about what she has to say. She liked it, misses it and I can understand that as it is home to her. I do wonder how being essentially pupil of the state has influenced her experience..
I find it a little easy to talk about North Korean defectors she has met and point out their wanting to go back if they could to show that it -supposedly- isn't as bad as we've been told in the west. Where are the defectors who would rather die than go back ? There are a few points she makes like this one that to me felt shallow, especially for an academic.
Do a lot of the defectors face discrimination in South Korea, I believe so yes. Must it be difficult to rebuild your life as an immigrant in the South? So hard I expect, especially when often times they have left their family behind and may never know what will happen to them but also economically, competitively etc. However considering the circumstances people have to flee in I would argue that they've left for good reasons.
She reminisces about the food and community she misses but I find it bizarre that she chose to skip over the negative parts altogether. Maybe in an effort to balance with what we otherwise would read about NK. I would have liked to read about her full experience though. I would have liked to know whether or not she was aware of executions, disappearings etc while she lived there.
I think a lot of her arguments lack complexity. It's a shame because she clearly is a smart woman.
Despite all of this she makes some really good points about the cultures she has encountered along her travels in Spain, the U.S.A, The U.K and South Korea as well as about race. It's an easy read and the kind of life trajectories you don't often read about. If you are thinking about picking this book up, all I would advice is that you don't go in expecting much on politics but treat it more as an atipycal journey of self discovery.
Ultimately I think the general idea is to point out that no matter our differences, we could all gain from being more open ot others and seek objectivity instead of reactivity when forming opinions and with that I can fully agree. I'm looking forward to reading more reviews as this book gains new readers and maybe one day to read Monica's fully formed thoughts on both Guinean and North Korean governments!
As is often the case with memoirs, this is a difficult book to review..
The author, Monica Macias is the daughter of Francisco Macias, deemed to be one of the most violent leaders to ever be. She also spent the majority of her childhood in North Korea, under the protection of Kim Il-Sung, an important ally to her father. As a little girl she lost the connection with her home country, her mother tongue and quickly lost her father too. She says her soul is Korean as for a long time it was the only country she remembered living in.
As she moved to Spain after receiving an education, she felt the need to learn where she came from and reconciliate the different parts of her story and origins. Spanish (her mother tongue) quickly came back to her, she met people there, got her first job and started to experience life in a different way. She came to grasp with the fact that the men she calls her fathers are mostly seen in a negative light abroad and set herself on a mission to uncover the whole truth and learn all the facts before speaking up about anything political concerning them both. As she wrote this memoir she believes her father was set up and hasn't commited the crimes he is accused of.
I must admit I am not too familiar with her father's story and I don't feel I am fit to talk about much of Guinean's history either although I can agree on her thoughts on decolonisation.
As to North Korea, I feel very ambivalent about what she has to say. She liked it, misses it and I can understand that as it is home to her. I do wonder how being essentially pupil of the state has influenced her experience..
I find it a little easy to talk about North Korean defectors she has met and point out their wanting to go back if they could to show that it -supposedly- isn't as bad as we've been told in the west. Where are the defectors who would rather die than go back ? There are a few points she makes like this one that to me felt shallow, especially for an academic.
Do a lot of the defectors face discrimination in South Korea, I believe so yes. Must it be difficult to rebuild your life as an immigrant in the South? So hard I expect, especially when often times they have left their family behind and may never know what will happen to them but also economically, competitively etc. However considering the circumstances people have to flee in I would argue that they've left for good reasons.
She reminisces about the food and community she misses but I find it bizarre that she chose to skip over the negative parts altogether. Maybe in an effort to balance with what we otherwise would read about NK. I would have liked to read about her full experience though. I would have liked to know whether or not she was aware of executions, disappearings etc while she lived there.
I think a lot of her arguments lack complexity. It's a shame because she clearly is a smart woman.
Despite all of this she makes some really good points about the cultures she has encountered along her travels in Spain, the U.S.A, The U.K and South Korea as well as about race. It's an easy read and the kind of life trajectories you don't often read about. If you are thinking about picking this book up, all I would advice is that you don't go in expecting much on politics but treat it more as an atipycal journey of self discovery.
Ultimately I think the general idea is to point out that no matter our differences, we could all gain from being more open ot others and seek objectivity instead of reactivity when forming opinions and with that I can fully agree. I'm looking forward to reading more reviews as this book gains new readers and maybe one day to read Monica's fully formed thoughts on both Guinean and North Korean governments!
March 2, 2023
https://shonareads.wordpress.com/2023...
Monica Macias is the youngest child of Francisco Macías Nguema (Masie Nguema Biyogo Ñegue Ndong), known as Macías, the first president of Equatorial Guinea, who was deposed in 1979, and later executed by firing squad. (In this write-up, Macias will refer to Monica Macias, the author.) Monica Macias had been sent to be the ward, along with her siblings, of Francisco Macías’s friend, North Korean leader Kim Il Sung. On her father’s death, her mother, who had accompanied them, returned to Equatorial Guinea. Monica and her siblings were then educated and raised in North Korea, leaving only after they had each completed university.
Monica was seven years old when her father was killed. She had been Spanish-speaking, but lost her language and culture during her education (and, frankly, indoctrination) at the military boarding school she attended just outside of Pyongyang. This book is the story of her life from her earliest childhood memories, through her years in North Korea, her leaving, and later, as she made her way as a woman with a complicated identity. Her decision to leave was driven by her desire to see the outside world, to connect to her past, and to find out whether her father really was a cruel dictator.
Macias considers that she had two fathers, both reviled by the world. She is Brown (self-identifying, as she is from an Equatoguinean father and a Spanish-Equatoguinean mother), yet she is culturally Asian, and Korean to be specific. She is completely dislocated from her father’s culture, except as she encountered it as an adult (and she hates the food, except for plantains). The memories of those closest to her of Francisco Macias, and their accounts of his rule, do not align with the world’s image of him, which she attributes to propaganda created by Equatorial Guinea’s former colonisers, the Spanish, and her father’s Equatoguinean enemies. At the beginning of the book, she promises to outline evidence that her father was not as bad as he was portrayed to be, and was rather the victim of circumstances, but she does not do this. Instead, she talks briefly about how people around him were killing innocent people in his name, without presenting evidence.
This book is fascinating on the level of the uniqueness of Macias’s rather improbable perspective, with wonderful biographical details. It was delightful to read about her childhood, and I could empathise with her painful circumstances. She even had me feeling for the children of the former leader of my own country, because yes, it is true that the family becomes collateral damage. However, Macias’s frequent declamations and the solutions she advances for fixing the world, when she stands on her soapbox, are far less interesting, and most of my notes on these are on how perplexing bias can be to those watching.
This is an excellent read. Many of my fellow Goodreads readers are offended by the fact of her being, and by the sheer effrontery of her advancing her view on things; I, however, am not. I think there is much value in her entreaty to consider the perspective we use to judge world leaders, because, as she points out, history is written by the victor (or, perhaps, in the case of North Korea, by the all-powerful Superpower), sometimes to the detriment of real progress. However, I did find myself sneering, too, at her attempts to sanitise the images of her two fathers: we all know that if the devil is your bestie, you’ll be moved to comment on his cute curls and how he used his fork to help plough your field that one time you really needed help. In other words, no one is truly the caricature that those who demonise them claim; but that can never mean they have not committed – or are not able to commit – atrocities. Macias cannot be blamed for speaking for those she cares for or loves.
I enjoyed this for its honesty, for her remarkable and truly fascinating story, for the insight she provides into life in North Korea, for the spotlight, however flawed, on Equatoguinean life, and for her perspective on life as an eternal migrant in Spain, the US, the UK, South Korea, and other places. There are many highlights, and I loved that she included so many photographs. Her account of her first visit to China from North Korea is hilarious, and sad. In all, Macias is a brave and complex woman, and I’d love to invite her to that hypothetical dinner party.
Absolutely read this.
Thank you to NetGalley and to Duckworth Books for this excellent ARC.
Monica Macias is the youngest child of Francisco Macías Nguema (Masie Nguema Biyogo Ñegue Ndong), known as Macías, the first president of Equatorial Guinea, who was deposed in 1979, and later executed by firing squad. (In this write-up, Macias will refer to Monica Macias, the author.) Monica Macias had been sent to be the ward, along with her siblings, of Francisco Macías’s friend, North Korean leader Kim Il Sung. On her father’s death, her mother, who had accompanied them, returned to Equatorial Guinea. Monica and her siblings were then educated and raised in North Korea, leaving only after they had each completed university.
Monica was seven years old when her father was killed. She had been Spanish-speaking, but lost her language and culture during her education (and, frankly, indoctrination) at the military boarding school she attended just outside of Pyongyang. This book is the story of her life from her earliest childhood memories, through her years in North Korea, her leaving, and later, as she made her way as a woman with a complicated identity. Her decision to leave was driven by her desire to see the outside world, to connect to her past, and to find out whether her father really was a cruel dictator.
Macias considers that she had two fathers, both reviled by the world. She is Brown (self-identifying, as she is from an Equatoguinean father and a Spanish-Equatoguinean mother), yet she is culturally Asian, and Korean to be specific. She is completely dislocated from her father’s culture, except as she encountered it as an adult (and she hates the food, except for plantains). The memories of those closest to her of Francisco Macias, and their accounts of his rule, do not align with the world’s image of him, which she attributes to propaganda created by Equatorial Guinea’s former colonisers, the Spanish, and her father’s Equatoguinean enemies. At the beginning of the book, she promises to outline evidence that her father was not as bad as he was portrayed to be, and was rather the victim of circumstances, but she does not do this. Instead, she talks briefly about how people around him were killing innocent people in his name, without presenting evidence.
This book is fascinating on the level of the uniqueness of Macias’s rather improbable perspective, with wonderful biographical details. It was delightful to read about her childhood, and I could empathise with her painful circumstances. She even had me feeling for the children of the former leader of my own country, because yes, it is true that the family becomes collateral damage. However, Macias’s frequent declamations and the solutions she advances for fixing the world, when she stands on her soapbox, are far less interesting, and most of my notes on these are on how perplexing bias can be to those watching.
This is an excellent read. Many of my fellow Goodreads readers are offended by the fact of her being, and by the sheer effrontery of her advancing her view on things; I, however, am not. I think there is much value in her entreaty to consider the perspective we use to judge world leaders, because, as she points out, history is written by the victor (or, perhaps, in the case of North Korea, by the all-powerful Superpower), sometimes to the detriment of real progress. However, I did find myself sneering, too, at her attempts to sanitise the images of her two fathers: we all know that if the devil is your bestie, you’ll be moved to comment on his cute curls and how he used his fork to help plough your field that one time you really needed help. In other words, no one is truly the caricature that those who demonise them claim; but that can never mean they have not committed – or are not able to commit – atrocities. Macias cannot be blamed for speaking for those she cares for or loves.
I enjoyed this for its honesty, for her remarkable and truly fascinating story, for the insight she provides into life in North Korea, for the spotlight, however flawed, on Equatoguinean life, and for her perspective on life as an eternal migrant in Spain, the US, the UK, South Korea, and other places. There are many highlights, and I loved that she included so many photographs. Her account of her first visit to China from North Korea is hilarious, and sad. In all, Macias is a brave and complex woman, and I’d love to invite her to that hypothetical dinner party.
Absolutely read this.
Thank you to NetGalley and to Duckworth Books for this excellent ARC.
March 6, 2023
Thanks ever so much to @duck_books for sharing this title with me on @netgalley!
Black Girl from Pyongyang by Monica Macías.
The biggest of sighs. This book had so much potential to be uniquely insightful, but it just didn't work for me and it feels cruelly personal of me to say this but it's Macias' grating narrative voice and flimsy value system that I couldn't hack.
As the daughter of Francisco Macias, the first president of Equatorial Guinea following its independence from colonial Spanish rule, and as someone who grew up in North Korea, then proceeded to live in Madrid, New York, London and Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, this had the makings of a fantastic social and political tour-de-force. However, for the most part, her observations only ran skin deep and felt like incredibly biased and misplaced generalisations.
Of course, our judgements are almost always informed by our lived experiences, but it felt almost risible to me that Macias spends longer criticising Spanish border control staff than, I dunno, at least some of North Korea's policies towards its own citizens? Or her father's own rule over Equatorial Guinea? Or even the fact that the current President of Equatorial Guinea is her uncle, only the country's second ever president? For example, the North Korean famine of the mid-nineties only has a few lines devoted to it and there is no critical assessment of any of the misfortunes that befell any of her fellow citizens in either country. Did I expect her to go all out criticising her own father and her protector, Kim Il-sung? Well, no, given what we come to learn about her through her own writing, but I know other people would have been capable of doing so.
This may sound harsh, but whenever she does try and expose her value system, her prose is reminiscent of an undergraduate-level politics essay. Grand statements that mean very little, waffly overarching generalisations, 'love don't hate'-style statements... such a missed opportunity, so many glaring omissions, and yet a lot of time is devoted to her time as a Leroy Merlin employee - only Spanish readers and/or anyone sufficiently acquainted with the Spanish home furniture market will realise how bonkers that sentence is.
2.5/5
Black Girl from Pyongyang by Monica Macías.
The biggest of sighs. This book had so much potential to be uniquely insightful, but it just didn't work for me and it feels cruelly personal of me to say this but it's Macias' grating narrative voice and flimsy value system that I couldn't hack.
As the daughter of Francisco Macias, the first president of Equatorial Guinea following its independence from colonial Spanish rule, and as someone who grew up in North Korea, then proceeded to live in Madrid, New York, London and Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, this had the makings of a fantastic social and political tour-de-force. However, for the most part, her observations only ran skin deep and felt like incredibly biased and misplaced generalisations.
Of course, our judgements are almost always informed by our lived experiences, but it felt almost risible to me that Macias spends longer criticising Spanish border control staff than, I dunno, at least some of North Korea's policies towards its own citizens? Or her father's own rule over Equatorial Guinea? Or even the fact that the current President of Equatorial Guinea is her uncle, only the country's second ever president? For example, the North Korean famine of the mid-nineties only has a few lines devoted to it and there is no critical assessment of any of the misfortunes that befell any of her fellow citizens in either country. Did I expect her to go all out criticising her own father and her protector, Kim Il-sung? Well, no, given what we come to learn about her through her own writing, but I know other people would have been capable of doing so.
This may sound harsh, but whenever she does try and expose her value system, her prose is reminiscent of an undergraduate-level politics essay. Grand statements that mean very little, waffly overarching generalisations, 'love don't hate'-style statements... such a missed opportunity, so many glaring omissions, and yet a lot of time is devoted to her time as a Leroy Merlin employee - only Spanish readers and/or anyone sufficiently acquainted with the Spanish home furniture market will realise how bonkers that sentence is.
2.5/5
August 3, 2024
4.5 stars, probably the most unique and fascinating perspective I’ve seen in a memoiiiir.
January 23, 2024
이 책을 써주셔서 정말 너무 고맙습니다
Many years ago I took a tour bus from Seoul and through the DMZ to the city of Gaeseong. After crossing into North Korea, the bus stopped to let a North Korean minder aboard which, along with the sudden change in uniform of the guards did make me nervous. As far as I know, this was my first close contact with a North Korean. I have read several accounts of North Korean's first encounters with Americans, and I suppose I had a similar reaction. It's so easy to forget the human element and give in to preconceived anxiety. On the way in to Gaeseong, we passed freshly ploughed fields, a school playground busy with kids having fun in bright white shirts and red scarfs. Sitting in a field I saw two old men laughing and smoking. We saw lots of beautiful scenery and famous landmarks and had a nice lunch. Was any of this beauty real? I didn't know. It seemed too incongruous with the ugliness I had heard so much about. I remember clearly the conversation I had with our minder later that day. He was an much older man with kind eyes. My Korean was just good enough at the time to have basic conversation with him about his family and mine. He asked naturally curious questions about how I came to speak Korean and where in Korea I had lived. From him I learned that in the North the language was referred to as 조선말 and not 한국말 as it was in the South. Otherwise though, our conversation seemed no different than I would have had with a Korean man of his generation in the South. I have been asked repeatedly since then what strange things I saw in North Korea. Overall, the strangest part of the experience was that I was left not knowing what was real and what was not. Was it all staged? The happy kids in the playground could have been timed for the bus's passage. Our minder might have been making up stories about his hopes for his son. But I think not. Monica Macias has given me some hope that the old men sitting and laughing in the field were as real as they seemed.
I have seen stories since about that crazy North Korean place where people cut grass by hand with scissors and I get a chuckle thinking about how I've seen them do that in the South too.
The invisible fences are very real. And so many never notice them at all. I very much admire Macias for putting in so much effort to understand her place in the world and dismantling her own mental fences. While living in Korea, I got to wondering where my cultural lens ends and where my true self begins. Now, I know enough to know that I may never know.
Thanks again for sharing a unique perspective. While I'm sure it was personally painful, it was a story that needed to be told for the benefit of all.
Many years ago I took a tour bus from Seoul and through the DMZ to the city of Gaeseong. After crossing into North Korea, the bus stopped to let a North Korean minder aboard which, along with the sudden change in uniform of the guards did make me nervous. As far as I know, this was my first close contact with a North Korean. I have read several accounts of North Korean's first encounters with Americans, and I suppose I had a similar reaction. It's so easy to forget the human element and give in to preconceived anxiety. On the way in to Gaeseong, we passed freshly ploughed fields, a school playground busy with kids having fun in bright white shirts and red scarfs. Sitting in a field I saw two old men laughing and smoking. We saw lots of beautiful scenery and famous landmarks and had a nice lunch. Was any of this beauty real? I didn't know. It seemed too incongruous with the ugliness I had heard so much about. I remember clearly the conversation I had with our minder later that day. He was an much older man with kind eyes. My Korean was just good enough at the time to have basic conversation with him about his family and mine. He asked naturally curious questions about how I came to speak Korean and where in Korea I had lived. From him I learned that in the North the language was referred to as 조선말 and not 한국말 as it was in the South. Otherwise though, our conversation seemed no different than I would have had with a Korean man of his generation in the South. I have been asked repeatedly since then what strange things I saw in North Korea. Overall, the strangest part of the experience was that I was left not knowing what was real and what was not. Was it all staged? The happy kids in the playground could have been timed for the bus's passage. Our minder might have been making up stories about his hopes for his son. But I think not. Monica Macias has given me some hope that the old men sitting and laughing in the field were as real as they seemed.
I have seen stories since about that crazy North Korean place where people cut grass by hand with scissors and I get a chuckle thinking about how I've seen them do that in the South too.
The invisible fences are very real. And so many never notice them at all. I very much admire Macias for putting in so much effort to understand her place in the world and dismantling her own mental fences. While living in Korea, I got to wondering where my cultural lens ends and where my true self begins. Now, I know enough to know that I may never know.
Thanks again for sharing a unique perspective. While I'm sure it was personally painful, it was a story that needed to be told for the benefit of all.
March 25, 2023
Black Girl From Pyongyang
The extraordinary true story of a West African girl’s upbringing in North Korea under the protection of President Kim Il Sung
by Monica Macias
Pub Date 02 Mar 2023 | Archive Date 02 Mar 2023
Duckworth Books
Biographies & Memoirs | Multicultural Interest | Nonfiction (Adult)
I am reviewing a copy of Black Girl from Pyongyang through Duckworth Books and Netgalley:
In 1979 when she was only seven Monica Macias was transplanted from West Africa to the unfamiliar surroundings of North Korea. 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.
Within just a matter of months, her father had been executed in a military coup; her mother became unreachable. Effectively orphaned, she and two siblings had to make their life in Pyongyang. At military boarding school, Monica learned to mix with older children, speak fluent Korean and handle weapons on training exercises.
After completing 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. Optimistic yet unflinching, Monica’s astonishing and unique story challenges us to see the world through different eyes.
I give Black Girl from Pyongyang five out of five stars!
Happy Reading!
The extraordinary true story of a West African girl’s upbringing in North Korea under the protection of President Kim Il Sung
by Monica Macias
Pub Date 02 Mar 2023 | Archive Date 02 Mar 2023
Duckworth Books
Biographies & Memoirs | Multicultural Interest | Nonfiction (Adult)
I am reviewing a copy of Black Girl from Pyongyang through Duckworth Books and Netgalley:
In 1979 when she was only seven Monica Macias was transplanted from West Africa to the unfamiliar surroundings of North Korea. 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.
Within just a matter of months, her father had been executed in a military coup; her mother became unreachable. Effectively orphaned, she and two siblings had to make their life in Pyongyang. At military boarding school, Monica learned to mix with older children, speak fluent Korean and handle weapons on training exercises.
After completing 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. Optimistic yet unflinching, Monica’s astonishing and unique story challenges us to see the world through different eyes.
I give Black Girl from Pyongyang five out of five stars!
Happy Reading!
May 26, 2024
what a fascinating life!
in some ways, i do wish this book had been more political and less vague but understand the material reality of writing such deeply personal things for a memoir keeping in mind all the ties in her life. i feel a lot angrier towards the US than she seems to; not sure i buy that forgiveness is always healing as she believes. nonetheless i truly loved this book and the wisdom in her perspective deeply! she writes beautifully and fairly, i only wish the book were longer, more specific. if this book could exist in a vaccum, i would want to hear the raw details of her thoughts and experiences. someone id love to meet at the bar and talk to forever about everything in life
more a 4-4-.5, but i enjoyed it so thoroughly and made me reflect so much that i had to give it a 5
in some ways, i do wish this book had been more political and less vague but understand the material reality of writing such deeply personal things for a memoir keeping in mind all the ties in her life. i feel a lot angrier towards the US than she seems to; not sure i buy that forgiveness is always healing as she believes. nonetheless i truly loved this book and the wisdom in her perspective deeply! she writes beautifully and fairly, i only wish the book were longer, more specific. if this book could exist in a vaccum, i would want to hear the raw details of her thoughts and experiences. someone id love to meet at the bar and talk to forever about everything in life
more a 4-4-.5, but i enjoyed it so thoroughly and made me reflect so much that i had to give it a 5
Read
June 2, 2024Read Around the World: Equatorial Guinea
Thank you to NetGalley, Monica Macias, and Duckworth Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley, Monica Macias, and Duckworth Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
February 26, 2025
Историята на Моника безспорно е интригуваща и доста нетипична, но през цялото време докато четях някакси не можех наистина да се отпусна да ѝ повярвам на 100%.
September 18, 2024
Loved this book. Loved her perspective. The inside look at life in North Korea and the exploration of her identity around the world was really insightful.
Now, yes, I’m aware she’s going to be a biased narrator just by the nature of her upbringing. But I also feel like she went to extensive lengths to try and be objective.
But, at the end of the day, this is the story of her personal experiences, her discovery of her identity, discovering her history and the cultures that formed her life. So of course she is going to feel sympathetic towards the figures in her life.
And boy, what a life. Obviously she was privileged and protected, and the world she lived in North Korea was also skewed - but then her journey after NK, her discoveries in Spain, the US, South Korea, China, the UK and, of course Equatorial Guinea.
She’s lived all different ends of the socioeconomic ladder, willing exposed herself to cultures and ideas that were foreign to her, and genuinely pursued objectivity and evidence to help her get a greater understanding of the world around her.
I’m sure many will not agree with her conclusions. I’m sure once I do some googling and research into the histories and time periods she lived through, I may come to a different understanding. But I doubt that will change how I felt reading this book, and the appreciation I have for her sharing this journey.
Now, yes, I’m aware she’s going to be a biased narrator just by the nature of her upbringing. But I also feel like she went to extensive lengths to try and be objective.
But, at the end of the day, this is the story of her personal experiences, her discovery of her identity, discovering her history and the cultures that formed her life. So of course she is going to feel sympathetic towards the figures in her life.
And boy, what a life. Obviously she was privileged and protected, and the world she lived in North Korea was also skewed - but then her journey after NK, her discoveries in Spain, the US, South Korea, China, the UK and, of course Equatorial Guinea.
She’s lived all different ends of the socioeconomic ladder, willing exposed herself to cultures and ideas that were foreign to her, and genuinely pursued objectivity and evidence to help her get a greater understanding of the world around her.
I’m sure many will not agree with her conclusions. I’m sure once I do some googling and research into the histories and time periods she lived through, I may come to a different understanding. But I doubt that will change how I felt reading this book, and the appreciation I have for her sharing this journey.
January 26, 2024
Born in Equatorial Guinea but raised in North Korea, Monica Macias has faced millions of questions and doubts about her identity both from others and from herself. Her journey to seek the truth of her family, and learn about the parts of her culture that she had shunned — Spanish and Equatorial Guinean — was very enlightening and eye-opening. It made me self-reflect and question my prejudice against North Korea, Kim Il Sung and any politicians such as Francisco Macias — the first president of Equatorial Guinea and Monica's father — who were framed by the West to look violent and selfish when they were quite the opposite. I also really liked that she added photos of her, and photos of her with her friends or family. It was interesting how everything was black and white even though most were probably taken with color. I wish I had attended the presentation by her when she visited my school! I recommend this book for anyone interested in learning new perspectives of controversial topics, and reading autobiographies.
May 1, 2025
Almost gave this short but interesting book about the authoress Monica Macias's very unusual life, lived in 4 Continents and 7 countries, five stars, as I really enjoyed reading it. A theme that often comes up, how one country seems through the eyes of another, has long intrigued me. Another theme, how news reports and even academic works are often misleading when judged against the reality of experience, is an important one for our modern world.
Her father, Francisco Macias, was the first President of former Spanish colony in Africa, Equatorial Guinea, after independence. He was later overthrown by a coup d'état led by a nephew, and executed by firing squad.
This is partly why Monica Macias has lived mostly outside Equatorial Guinea. When her father was overthrown, she was only 7 and, together with some older siblings, had been sent to a boarding school in North Korea, which her father, having fallen out with the West, considered an ally. The North Korean dictator Kim il Sung took responsibility for most of President Macias's children's education after Macias was killed, and gave them the freedom to leave North Korea to go wherever they wished after they finished school and university, a privilege not enjoyed by most North Koreans. Monica M has since lived in Equatorial Guinea, Spain, the USA, South Korea, China and Britain.
My slight reservations that led me to give this 4 stars rather than 5 include:
-The already quite brief text is printed with lines unusually far apart, as though the publisher wanted it to look as though the purchaser is getting a full length book for their money, when they are probably only getting 60% of one.
-She believes bad Western journalism, by biased correspondents who have never lived in and sometimes not even visited the countries they write about, and inadequate academic study, means Western audiences receive distorted and overly negative impressions of both Macias's Equatorial Guinea and Kim il Sung's North Korea. That could be true, although she is probably biased herself, to some extent understandably, in favour of her own father (whom others described as 'the Pol Pot of Africa') and her former guardian, founder of Communist North Korea Kim il Sung, a regime normally regarded as a totalitarian tyranny that impoverishes its people.
-What Ms Macias says about each country she has lived in is interesting, but there is often not very much of it. Other people manage to write whole books about a single year or shorter visit to a single country, so I would expect her to have more to say. Thus, she tells us of her time living and working in China, mainly Shanghai:
'Once again I immersed myself in learning the language and culture. I found that, by comparison to both the Koreas, China had a hint of individualism within a broadly collectivist society. Also, Korean society is male centred and patriarchal (although there is a bit of a challenge to this coming from the younger generations). China seemed female centred. In Korea, men do not even set foot in the kitchen, while in China I came across many men who cooked and washed the dishes.'
I did not know any of this before and found it interesting. However, this is almost all she says about it. It would be nice to have more examples of what she sees as the more individualist and female centred society and culture in China, and how else it differs from the Koreas.
She grew up in North Korea before the terrible famine of 1994-1999 (called in North Korea the 'Konanai Haenggun' or 'Arduous March') By North Korean standards, she lived a privileged, if controlled and restricted, life at a 'Revolutionary Military Boarding School', and then studying Textiles at the Light Industry University, both in the capital Pyongyang.
It took Monica Macias a while to realise how closely she and other resident foreigners, mostly from countries allied to North Korea, were monitored. While she believed they achieved a genuine close friendship, the North Korean girl assigned as her roommate at boarding school was there to watch and report on her. She regrets it was absolutely forbidden for her to visit her friend's home or meet her family, or to keep contact after they left school.
Whether, as a schoolgirl or student in N Korea, Ms Macias was aware of prison camps, executions or the stratified society in which privileges and advancement were given to or withheld from hereditary classes based on perceived political reliability, I do not know.
Years later, Monica M agreed to translate a Korean soundtrack into English subtitles for a European documentary film, but found her translation was deliberately altered in the film to make the words of North Korean spokesmen sound more extreme and threatening than they really were.
As a teenager in Pyongyang, she was allowed to watch both American and Soviet films and noticed how both presented unfavourable stereotypes of each other. Thus, in the American film Rocky IV, the American boxer Rocky Balboa fights a Russian boxer who is presented as:
'a robotic character with no ability to smile. In the Soviet films I saw, meanwhile, Americans were depicted as the stupidest human beings on Earth; many ended up captivated by the beauty and intelligence of Soviet women.'
After leaving North Korea, it took the authoress a while to get over her extreme suspicion of Americans picked up from North Korean propaganda.
She remains concerned that neither in Western democracies nor Communist North Korea do people get a true impression of what the other is like. Yet when she tried to tell people she met in New York that their preconceptions about North Korea were not the full story, she was accused of having been brainwashed, or of being a spy.
Despite occasional return visits to Equatorial Guinea, she had been too long out of the country to regain fluency in its most widely spoken native language, Fang, or to like its oily food, except fried plantains. She observes:
'Whenever I interacted with Guineans, I could immediately sense fear, insecurity, jealousy and suspicion of each other.'
Her sister, trained abroad as a gynaecologist, went back to work in Equatorial Guinea but eventually left in despair, as her patients' unshakable belief in sorcery meant that they took their health problems to a sorcerer first. Only when that didn't work would they try a hospital, by which time they were often too far gone for medical treatment to save them.
She spoke to an Australian of part Angolan African descent who worked for a western oil company that had sponsored the building of a school in Equatorial Guinea. He went to check how the school was doing and complained:
'Like always in Africa, half the materials that we bought have been stolen and there has been zero maintenance of the schoolyard. They did absolutely nothing. I had told them to cut the grass, but it was still overgrown. It is something that could be done in one day with a machete. It is so difficult to work with Africans. They don't co-operate. Their own unwillingness to make their lives better is sometimes discouraging, honestly.'
I trust this review gives anyone thinking of reading 'Black Girl from Pyongyang' enough idea what it is like that, to avoid making this review even longer, I shall leave you to read the book if you want to know what Monica Macias has to say about her time in the other countries she has lived in: Spain, South Korea and England.
Her father, Francisco Macias, was the first President of former Spanish colony in Africa, Equatorial Guinea, after independence. He was later overthrown by a coup d'état led by a nephew, and executed by firing squad.
This is partly why Monica Macias has lived mostly outside Equatorial Guinea. When her father was overthrown, she was only 7 and, together with some older siblings, had been sent to a boarding school in North Korea, which her father, having fallen out with the West, considered an ally. The North Korean dictator Kim il Sung took responsibility for most of President Macias's children's education after Macias was killed, and gave them the freedom to leave North Korea to go wherever they wished after they finished school and university, a privilege not enjoyed by most North Koreans. Monica M has since lived in Equatorial Guinea, Spain, the USA, South Korea, China and Britain.
My slight reservations that led me to give this 4 stars rather than 5 include:
-The already quite brief text is printed with lines unusually far apart, as though the publisher wanted it to look as though the purchaser is getting a full length book for their money, when they are probably only getting 60% of one.
-She believes bad Western journalism, by biased correspondents who have never lived in and sometimes not even visited the countries they write about, and inadequate academic study, means Western audiences receive distorted and overly negative impressions of both Macias's Equatorial Guinea and Kim il Sung's North Korea. That could be true, although she is probably biased herself, to some extent understandably, in favour of her own father (whom others described as 'the Pol Pot of Africa') and her former guardian, founder of Communist North Korea Kim il Sung, a regime normally regarded as a totalitarian tyranny that impoverishes its people.
-What Ms Macias says about each country she has lived in is interesting, but there is often not very much of it. Other people manage to write whole books about a single year or shorter visit to a single country, so I would expect her to have more to say. Thus, she tells us of her time living and working in China, mainly Shanghai:
'Once again I immersed myself in learning the language and culture. I found that, by comparison to both the Koreas, China had a hint of individualism within a broadly collectivist society. Also, Korean society is male centred and patriarchal (although there is a bit of a challenge to this coming from the younger generations). China seemed female centred. In Korea, men do not even set foot in the kitchen, while in China I came across many men who cooked and washed the dishes.'
I did not know any of this before and found it interesting. However, this is almost all she says about it. It would be nice to have more examples of what she sees as the more individualist and female centred society and culture in China, and how else it differs from the Koreas.
She grew up in North Korea before the terrible famine of 1994-1999 (called in North Korea the 'Konanai Haenggun' or 'Arduous March') By North Korean standards, she lived a privileged, if controlled and restricted, life at a 'Revolutionary Military Boarding School', and then studying Textiles at the Light Industry University, both in the capital Pyongyang.
It took Monica Macias a while to realise how closely she and other resident foreigners, mostly from countries allied to North Korea, were monitored. While she believed they achieved a genuine close friendship, the North Korean girl assigned as her roommate at boarding school was there to watch and report on her. She regrets it was absolutely forbidden for her to visit her friend's home or meet her family, or to keep contact after they left school.
Whether, as a schoolgirl or student in N Korea, Ms Macias was aware of prison camps, executions or the stratified society in which privileges and advancement were given to or withheld from hereditary classes based on perceived political reliability, I do not know.
Years later, Monica M agreed to translate a Korean soundtrack into English subtitles for a European documentary film, but found her translation was deliberately altered in the film to make the words of North Korean spokesmen sound more extreme and threatening than they really were.
As a teenager in Pyongyang, she was allowed to watch both American and Soviet films and noticed how both presented unfavourable stereotypes of each other. Thus, in the American film Rocky IV, the American boxer Rocky Balboa fights a Russian boxer who is presented as:
'a robotic character with no ability to smile. In the Soviet films I saw, meanwhile, Americans were depicted as the stupidest human beings on Earth; many ended up captivated by the beauty and intelligence of Soviet women.'
After leaving North Korea, it took the authoress a while to get over her extreme suspicion of Americans picked up from North Korean propaganda.
She remains concerned that neither in Western democracies nor Communist North Korea do people get a true impression of what the other is like. Yet when she tried to tell people she met in New York that their preconceptions about North Korea were not the full story, she was accused of having been brainwashed, or of being a spy.
Despite occasional return visits to Equatorial Guinea, she had been too long out of the country to regain fluency in its most widely spoken native language, Fang, or to like its oily food, except fried plantains. She observes:
'Whenever I interacted with Guineans, I could immediately sense fear, insecurity, jealousy and suspicion of each other.'
Her sister, trained abroad as a gynaecologist, went back to work in Equatorial Guinea but eventually left in despair, as her patients' unshakable belief in sorcery meant that they took their health problems to a sorcerer first. Only when that didn't work would they try a hospital, by which time they were often too far gone for medical treatment to save them.
She spoke to an Australian of part Angolan African descent who worked for a western oil company that had sponsored the building of a school in Equatorial Guinea. He went to check how the school was doing and complained:
'Like always in Africa, half the materials that we bought have been stolen and there has been zero maintenance of the schoolyard. They did absolutely nothing. I had told them to cut the grass, but it was still overgrown. It is something that could be done in one day with a machete. It is so difficult to work with Africans. They don't co-operate. Their own unwillingness to make their lives better is sometimes discouraging, honestly.'
I trust this review gives anyone thinking of reading 'Black Girl from Pyongyang' enough idea what it is like that, to avoid making this review even longer, I shall leave you to read the book if you want to know what Monica Macias has to say about her time in the other countries she has lived in: Spain, South Korea and England.
February 19, 2025
Loved this. Fascinating insight about growing up in North Korea which I feel few people can discuss. I was surprised at how positive, and dare I say normal, it sounded. Also very reflective on cultural bias- poignant and thought provoking. Definitely made me reflect on my own biases, cultivated by an image of wester media and history through which “the victors” (ie. Colonisers) got to write.
Lost as star because it does not address the simple truths of where NK is today. Defending NK (e.g saying Pyongyang and Seoul are more alike than dissimilar) without addressing the elephant in the room (dictatorship??? freedom of speech??? Freedom of press?? Human rights??? Famine????) for me, undermined Macias’ points about western biases vs brutal dictatorships in NK and some African states.
Lost as star because it does not address the simple truths of where NK is today. Defending NK (e.g saying Pyongyang and Seoul are more alike than dissimilar) without addressing the elephant in the room (dictatorship??? freedom of speech??? Freedom of press?? Human rights??? Famine????) for me, undermined Macias’ points about western biases vs brutal dictatorships in NK and some African states.
March 12, 2023
2.5 stars
Pro:
* unique opportunity to hear a first-hand account of historical people and events
* blend of perspectives, it is valuable to see frameworks other than our own
Con:
* inconsistencies in the prose
* a feeling of judgment in places, despite the claims to the contrary. Sometimes “methinks thou dost protest too much.”
Pro:
* unique opportunity to hear a first-hand account of historical people and events
* blend of perspectives, it is valuable to see frameworks other than our own
Con:
* inconsistencies in the prose
* a feeling of judgment in places, despite the claims to the contrary. Sometimes “methinks thou dost protest too much.”
March 26, 2024
How do you deal with childhood trauma when you are unable to be honest with yourself? Blaming others.
In 1979 seven year old Mónica Macías, daughter of Equatorial Guinea's dictator Francisco Macías, is sent to North Korea along with two of her siblings to be educated in a military school under the surveillance of Kim Il Sung. The young girl never sees his father again (shortly after he is sentenced to death after a military coup which deposed him), meets her mother only a few times, forgets her native tongue and becomes a black Korean. Once she finishes a pampered life as foreign university student in Pyongyang (with access to Western clothes, music, and films), she is given the choice of staying in North Korea or leaving. She chooses to abandon the country and lives in Zaragoza, Madrid, Malabo, Beijing, New York, Seoul, and London, looking for information about her father's regime; comparing notes about the US, North Korea, and South Korea; and in general trying to make sense of her kaleidoscopic identity.
Nothing wrong with that, but her account is either extremely candid or extremely cynical. Yes, people try to go on with their daily lives and may have picnics on parks, but North Korea was and remains a giant concentration camp, so saying that people in the West are also constrained by many limitations, while true, does not make the North Korean regime a comparable political system .
As far as her father's regime, she claims to have interviewed thousands of people about it, but we only get the account of shady characters such as Antonio García Trevijano (a former adviser to his father) or doctor Xavier Llobell, doctor Pipa, a Catalan doctor who stayed in Equatorial Guinea after its independence from Spain in 1968. She claims that her father was a postcolonial leader betrayed by Spain (she even compares him to Patrice Lumumba) and that he was not responsible for all the chaos and violence that happened under his regime. The fact that one third of the population fled the country escaping Macías' terror does not challenge her vision of her father.
All in all, a personal memoir presented as a trendy postcolonial byproduct for Western readers (there was a previous Korean version but it was published ten years ago and probably contains less information) which tries to whitewash two bloody dictatorships, telling half truths, misquoting people (I was surprised to see a respected scholar like Benita Sampedro misused this way) and avoiding facing the truth. As if Hitler had had daughter and she would have written that her father was not a criminal, that Germans were happy under his rule and that the culprits of everything were his collaborators.
In 1979 seven year old Mónica Macías, daughter of Equatorial Guinea's dictator Francisco Macías, is sent to North Korea along with two of her siblings to be educated in a military school under the surveillance of Kim Il Sung. The young girl never sees his father again (shortly after he is sentenced to death after a military coup which deposed him), meets her mother only a few times, forgets her native tongue and becomes a black Korean. Once she finishes a pampered life as foreign university student in Pyongyang (with access to Western clothes, music, and films), she is given the choice of staying in North Korea or leaving. She chooses to abandon the country and lives in Zaragoza, Madrid, Malabo, Beijing, New York, Seoul, and London, looking for information about her father's regime; comparing notes about the US, North Korea, and South Korea; and in general trying to make sense of her kaleidoscopic identity.
Nothing wrong with that, but her account is either extremely candid or extremely cynical. Yes, people try to go on with their daily lives and may have picnics on parks, but North Korea was and remains a giant concentration camp, so saying that people in the West are also constrained by many limitations, while true, does not make the North Korean regime a comparable political system .
As far as her father's regime, she claims to have interviewed thousands of people about it, but we only get the account of shady characters such as Antonio García Trevijano (a former adviser to his father) or doctor Xavier Llobell, doctor Pipa, a Catalan doctor who stayed in Equatorial Guinea after its independence from Spain in 1968. She claims that her father was a postcolonial leader betrayed by Spain (she even compares him to Patrice Lumumba) and that he was not responsible for all the chaos and violence that happened under his regime. The fact that one third of the population fled the country escaping Macías' terror does not challenge her vision of her father.
All in all, a personal memoir presented as a trendy postcolonial byproduct for Western readers (there was a previous Korean version but it was published ten years ago and probably contains less information) which tries to whitewash two bloody dictatorships, telling half truths, misquoting people (I was surprised to see a respected scholar like Benita Sampedro misused this way) and avoiding facing the truth. As if Hitler had had daughter and she would have written that her father was not a criminal, that Germans were happy under his rule and that the culprits of everything were his collaborators.
February 22, 2023
I found this book to be fascinating, since I like to broaden my mind, and learn about how other people look at our world. We all have our own backgrounds and perspectives, and these naturally affect how we look at the world. The author has lead an intriguing life, and has had the possibility to live in so many places, and constantly gain knowledge of different countries and cultures.
Granted, the author comes from a privileged background, and she has not lived the life of a typical Equatoguinean or a North Korean for that matter, but due to this she has shown immense courage and a huge interest in finding out what it means to be a person from her background. Trying to understand the world and finding one's own way are important things, and if you have the chance to do it the way the author did it, then that is just amazing.
I like to remind readers that the author is not trying to show the world the truth and the only truth, but she is giving the reader an opportunity to soak in how other people might see the world. Not everything anyone of us have learned in school and during our upbringing is the ultimate truth. We all need to try to understand other people better, and not simply let everyone know we have the only right knowledge, and everyone else is wrong. Isn't that one of the reasons the world is what it is today?
I like how personal this book is. I felt like I got to know the author. She is not afraid of realizing she is wrong, or that there are things she does not know, and she is not afraid of letting other people know that the way they see the world is not the whole truth either.
I highly recommend this book to people who want to broaden their understanding regrading other people, as well as people who really should get out of their comfortable zone, as well as people who think they know everything and are superior to others (I doubt they get the point of the book though). Some more editing would have been good to ease out some oddities in the storytelling and continuity. I am also wondering how it seems to easy to just move from country to country. I might be wrong, but I would think it would take a lot of time and effort to do this, and especially since the author has not worked in well-paid jobs, she seems to be able to fly a lot. If there is some explanation to this, I want to know! I want to do it too!
Granted, the author comes from a privileged background, and she has not lived the life of a typical Equatoguinean or a North Korean for that matter, but due to this she has shown immense courage and a huge interest in finding out what it means to be a person from her background. Trying to understand the world and finding one's own way are important things, and if you have the chance to do it the way the author did it, then that is just amazing.
I like to remind readers that the author is not trying to show the world the truth and the only truth, but she is giving the reader an opportunity to soak in how other people might see the world. Not everything anyone of us have learned in school and during our upbringing is the ultimate truth. We all need to try to understand other people better, and not simply let everyone know we have the only right knowledge, and everyone else is wrong. Isn't that one of the reasons the world is what it is today?
I like how personal this book is. I felt like I got to know the author. She is not afraid of realizing she is wrong, or that there are things she does not know, and she is not afraid of letting other people know that the way they see the world is not the whole truth either.
I highly recommend this book to people who want to broaden their understanding regrading other people, as well as people who really should get out of their comfortable zone, as well as people who think they know everything and are superior to others (I doubt they get the point of the book though). Some more editing would have been good to ease out some oddities in the storytelling and continuity. I am also wondering how it seems to easy to just move from country to country. I might be wrong, but I would think it would take a lot of time and effort to do this, and especially since the author has not worked in well-paid jobs, she seems to be able to fly a lot. If there is some explanation to this, I want to know! I want to do it too!
May 12, 2023
If you are third cultural, and have been forced to come to terms with the extremes of the circumstances life has thrown your way, this book will speak to your heart. So eloquently written it clearly illustrates the dichotomy existing between the worlds we're told exist and those we may experience ourselves. Frankly if you're not willing to challenge those deep setting prejudices you may have been raised with from infancy, then this book is not for you. You will see little but reason to constantly doubt and question the reality of the words in front of you. Unfortunately, dealing with such suspicions seems fundamental to the life story of most "TCKs." I can attest to that personally. On the other hand, if you're happy to step out of your usual space into another person's you will be exposed to a challenge for open mindedness in a most gentle way. Monica certainly presents one of the best descriptions of the third cultural experience I have encountered.
April 14, 2023
A really interesting insight into the life of the daughter of the infamous Macias of Equitorial Guinea, who spent her childhood in North Korea under the guardianship of Kim Il Sung.
That’s the bit that draws you in, but actually there is much more to the story. Monica is incredibly well traveled, having lived in many different cultures and societies.
It’s a great expose on the importance of seeking first to understand rather than judging based on hyperbole and group think.
A very different and interesting memoir.
That’s the bit that draws you in, but actually there is much more to the story. Monica is incredibly well traveled, having lived in many different cultures and societies.
It’s a great expose on the importance of seeking first to understand rather than judging based on hyperbole and group think.
A very different and interesting memoir.
May 24, 2024
An interesting book that challenges the ideas of where "home" is and what that means. The book also touches on growing up in a different country and having many different nationalities and cultures all blended into one person.
It was interesting to see how my view and the west's view of North Korea got challenged throughout the book and whilst the author was moving to different countries and continents.
It was interesting to see how my view and the west's view of North Korea got challenged throughout the book and whilst the author was moving to different countries and continents.
January 2, 2025
On the one hand, Monica’s story is incredibly unique and her insights on cultural integration are interesting to read. On the other hand, this book fails dramatically in it’s attempt to challenge the popular consensus that Macías Nguema (Monica’s father) was a brutal dictator. Despite claiming to have interviewed 3000 people (admittedly, with mixed views of her father), we only hear the perspective of two: Don Antonio (Nguema’s lawyer) and the former First Lady (Nguema’s wife/Monica’s father). The worst accusations against Nguema (that he killed between 50,000 - 80,000 people) are barely touched upon. She asks Mrs. Nguema and Don Antonio if Nguema was a “killer”, and then closes the case after they both say “no.” The explanation (given by Mrs. Nguema) that all killings were carried out by “enemies” who only claimed to be acting on presidential orders but had been given no such order was unconvincing and not supported by any other evidence. It partially ruins this (otherwise interesting) account of Guinean woman trying to make sense of her own identity after leaving North Korea where she was raised and educated. The lack of critical analysis of Mrs. Nguema and Don Antonio’s statements is especially disappointing considering the conclusion reached in an earlier chapter that freedom can only be achieved when individuals are allowed to think critically and challenge prevailing narratives.
February 20, 2025
This book is a tough one. As a chronicle of a life, it's so engaging and interesting. Macias deserves a lot of praise and is a strong storyteller. Her story is worth engaging with, and she has had an undoubtedly marvelous and tough life.
For an author who puts so much worth on independent investigation and understanding, I cannot help but feel that she fails to acknowledge the complex nature of her father's history. What she does decently well about NK, painting a complex picture, she fails to do about EG,. Regarding the history of EG, where she can be caricatured as suggesting uncritically that her dad was a victim of colonialism and propaganda. Yes, but also a war criminal, who caused untold damage to his country. The allegations and historical records against him are minimized and go unmentioned and unacknowledged in the book, and so to the uninformed this book does little to paint an accurate picture of the true history of EG. One could be forgiven to think that her position on her dad is well documented and established. I think it's defensible, but fails to even document what the actual happenings on the ground where (what laws he passed, who and why he ordered dead).
As such, I cannot really endorse the book. I just don't think it goes far enough in disentangling the history and the complexity there. This is a true pity...
For an author who puts so much worth on independent investigation and understanding, I cannot help but feel that she fails to acknowledge the complex nature of her father's history. What she does decently well about NK, painting a complex picture, she fails to do about EG,. Regarding the history of EG, where she can be caricatured as suggesting uncritically that her dad was a victim of colonialism and propaganda. Yes, but also a war criminal, who caused untold damage to his country. The allegations and historical records against him are minimized and go unmentioned and unacknowledged in the book, and so to the uninformed this book does little to paint an accurate picture of the true history of EG. One could be forgiven to think that her position on her dad is well documented and established. I think it's defensible, but fails to even document what the actual happenings on the ground where (what laws he passed, who and why he ordered dead).
As such, I cannot really endorse the book. I just don't think it goes far enough in disentangling the history and the complexity there. This is a true pity...
March 1, 2023
Thank you to the author, Duckworth Books and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
What a fascinating starting point this is for a memoir - the author is uniquely positioned to give insight into two countries and cultures that are for the most part closed off to scrutiny by outsiders. She herself however also suffers under the burden of what nowadays is called being a third-culture-kid, belonging to neither the culture she was born into nor the culture she grows up in. Unfortunately, the writing in this memoir never really rises above a naive recounting of the author's daily life, with little self-awareness, reflection or critical thinking. While I understand her desire to connect with her father's history and explore the real events behind his time as president (rather than the official version), the fact that history is written by the victors is not new and should not come as a surprise - and discovering anomolies in official accounts does not make a diametrically opposing view the truth. This book may have suffered from being a translation from the original Korean, but I wish the author had done more with the amazing life story she has to tell - and had explored more clearly the troubling history of two corrupt dictators that she portrays as essentially misunderstood benevolent rulers.
What a fascinating starting point this is for a memoir - the author is uniquely positioned to give insight into two countries and cultures that are for the most part closed off to scrutiny by outsiders. She herself however also suffers under the burden of what nowadays is called being a third-culture-kid, belonging to neither the culture she was born into nor the culture she grows up in. Unfortunately, the writing in this memoir never really rises above a naive recounting of the author's daily life, with little self-awareness, reflection or critical thinking. While I understand her desire to connect with her father's history and explore the real events behind his time as president (rather than the official version), the fact that history is written by the victors is not new and should not come as a surprise - and discovering anomolies in official accounts does not make a diametrically opposing view the truth. This book may have suffered from being a translation from the original Korean, but I wish the author had done more with the amazing life story she has to tell - and had explored more clearly the troubling history of two corrupt dictators that she portrays as essentially misunderstood benevolent rulers.
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April 27, 2025I'd be interested to see the difference between the memoir she wrote for a Korean audience in 2013, and this one, both given the audience difference but also her increased personal growth and education since then. She also subtitles this as "search for my identity" but actually does very little searching throughout most of the book. This was interesting for the first half, and luckily it is quick (and had so many random pictures) that it was a quick skim in the second half so I could finish. The pictures of her childhood, her family, and her life in North Korea and Guinea were nice at first but I don't care about her with random friends in Spain and South Korea, and wondered why so many were included.
I wish the dates and/or the chapter titles were more obvious, as she often wrote "after a few years" but some context of world events on those dates would have been nice. The chapters seemed haphazardly divided, and often didn't match the title given.
The book makes a few good points about propaganda and how history is written by the victor and how there are two sides to every political event, but it's not particularly deep or meaningful in the end.
I wish the dates and/or the chapter titles were more obvious, as she often wrote "after a few years" but some context of world events on those dates would have been nice. The chapters seemed haphazardly divided, and often didn't match the title given.
The book makes a few good points about propaganda and how history is written by the victor and how there are two sides to every political event, but it's not particularly deep or meaningful in the end.
November 19, 2022
A memoir is always an intensely personal piece of writing, and in Black Girl from Pyongyang it certainly feels like Macias has thought carefully about her phrasing and how she would like herself and the people she has met to be portrayed. This means it often seems more defensive than insightful, challenging a reader who, one can probably assume, has picked up the book with an open mind.
I liked the clear, simplistic prose and Macias does draw some interesting parallels between the places she's lived. But there is almost a clinical sense of curation in the selective stories she chooses to tell, as if it's an essay with a point to prove.
Given her upbringing as the eponymous black girl from Pyongyang, Macias has an interesting and unique perspective on the world, but I didn't feel that this memoir offered much real insight.
*Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review*
I liked the clear, simplistic prose and Macias does draw some interesting parallels between the places she's lived. But there is almost a clinical sense of curation in the selective stories she chooses to tell, as if it's an essay with a point to prove.
Given her upbringing as the eponymous black girl from Pyongyang, Macias has an interesting and unique perspective on the world, but I didn't feel that this memoir offered much real insight.
*Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review*
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