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Unfortunately, Monica\u2019s book is affected severely by her restricted and relatively isolated experience in Pyongyang. Meetings with her \u201cstep-father\u201d were distant, brief affairs from the early years, and accordingly barely make mention in the book. Her observations of life in Pyongyang are similarly plagued by generalizations that, given her undoubted Korean language ability, only confirm her extreme isolation. She does have North Korean friends, but details of conversations with them are absent from the book. If anything, she confirms above all the stifling regimentation of North Korean society.<\/p>\n
Macias’ unique insights, when they come, are into lives of foreigners in the country in the 1980s and early 1990s. She recalls that they lived in a wholly different sphere than ordinary North Koreans: watching foreign movies and listening to South Korean music were both common, for example.<\/p>\n
\u25b2 \u201cViews on North Korea from Abroad\u201d<\/p>\n
After leaving North Korea and while living in Spain, the US and South Korea, Macias attempts to gauge the similarities and differences of her life in North Korea with the outside world. She correctly points out that South Korean perspectives toward North Korea are based on narrow assumptions and that people too often emphasize differences rather than similarities between the two Koreas. Her criticism of the U.S. is strange, however. She asks whether Americans are really afforded more freedom than North Koreans, and says that the U.S. and North Korea are essentially the same, minus the former\u2019s economic prosperity. These observations are obtuse and appear overly broad.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, it is her story of seeking out the truth of her father\u2019s history that takes center stage in the book. She tries to come to terms with his image of a ruthless dictator. She eventually (and perhaps unsurprisingly) chooses a narrative that portrays him in a positive light; essentially, he was the victim of a Spanish-led coup attempt. She interestingly points out that her father did not share ideology with Kim Il Sung, but fails to mention his cult of personality (which mirrored Kim Il Sung\u2019s). Ultimately, readers without a deep knowledge of Equatorial Guinean history, politics and culture will be left wondering what to believe.<\/p>\n
All in all, Monica\u2019s book tells the story of a unique life and one that only she could write. Unfortunately, however, it provides little new insight into North Korea, while her objectivity towards the question of her father\u2019s history produces more questions than answers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Monica Macias\u2019 life almost reads like a movie script. At eight years old she is sent with her two siblings to North Korea by her father, Francisco Macias Ngeuma, then president of Equatorial Guinea. The timing proves to be fortuitous: her father is executed by coup forces some time later. Kim Il Sung and her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":24807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[644],"tags":[1656],"class_list":["post-24805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-analysis-and-opinion","tag-dprk"],"yoast_head":"\n