Mónica Macías is an

Equatoguinean Demographic features of the population of Equatorial Guinea include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. Population According to ...

author. She is the daughter of the country's first president,

Francisco Macías Nguema Francisco Macías Nguema (born Mez-m Ngueme, later Africanisation, Africanised to Masie Nguema Biyogo Ñegue Ndong; 1 January 1924 – 29 September 1979), often referred to as Macías Nguema or simply Macías, was an Equatoguinean politician w ...

and cousin of incumbent president

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (; born 5 June 1942) is an Equatoguinean politician, former commissioned officer, military officer and dictator who has served as the second president of Equatorial Guinea since 1982. Previously, he was the Chairm ...

. She lived in

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

Early life and education

Mónica Macías was sent at the age of seven to

to study and reside under the care of the then-leader of the country,

Kim Il Sung Kim Il Sung (born Kim Song Ju; 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was a North Korean politician and the founder of North Korea, which he led as its first Supreme Leader (North Korean title), supreme leader from North Korea#Founding, its establishm ...

. However, just months after her arrival, her father, the then-president of Equatorial Guinea,

, was ousted in a bloody

coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...

by her cousin,

. Following her father's trial and execution by firing squad, Macías, her mother, and her two siblings were left stranded in North Korea. Soon afterwards, her mother left North Korea, abandoning her children. Despite this,

continued to fulfil his promise to take care of her and sent her to the Mangyondae Revolutionary Military Boarding School in

Pyongyang Pyongyang () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is sometimes labeled as the "Capital of the Revolution" (). Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. Accordi ...

. The North Korean leader regularly spoke with her by phone, and helped her complete her university education at Pyongyang University of Light Industry. Macías stayed in Pyongyang until 1994, when she travelled to Spain, Equatorial Guinea's former colonial power and the birthplace of her maternal grandfather to learn more about herself and investigate the death of her father.

Career as an author

In 2013, Macías gained media attention following the publication of her memoir, ''I'm Monique from Pyongyang'' (), which was written in Korean. In this book, she recounted her experiences in North and South Korea and how they shaped her perspectives on the issues of the two countries. In March 2023, Macías released her second memoir, ''Black Girl from Pyongyang'', which was published by Duckworth Publishers. The book attracted even more recognition and attention, as Macías shared the results of her interviews with about 3,000 people who knew her father, and concluded that he was not guilty of the crimes for which he was executed. Macías also revealed in her book that she has come to take pride in Kim Il Sung as her second father, and that she had to hide her origins when she moved to the West because she was raised by two men known as brutal dictators. The statement from Macías' recent book summarizes her position on the controversial figures of Macías and Kim Il Sung, as well as her broader philosophical view on the morality of nations. She firmly rejects calls to denounce these figures, seeing Kim Il Sung as her rescuer and being seemingly unaware of his

human rights abuses Human rights are universally recognized moral principles or norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both national and international laws. These rights are considered inherent and inalienable, meaning t ...

. She also argues that no country can be deemed inherently "good" or "evil," and questions whether any nation has the moral authority to admonish others.

References

External links

Interview with Mónica Macías
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macias, Monica 1972 births Living people Equatoguinean women writers Women memoirists Equatoguinean emigrants Immigrants to North Korea Equatoguinean people of Spanish descent Equatoguinean writers 21st-century women writers 21st-century memoirists