[Interview] Late African leader's daughter recalls life in N. Korea under Kim Il-sung's protection

Monica Macias poses near Tower Bridge in London in this recent photo. She is the fourth and youngest child of Francisco Macias Nguema, the first president of Equatorial Guinea since the country gained independence from Spain in 1968. She was sent to North Korea for education in 1979 at the age of 7. Photo from Duckworth Books

In memoir, Monica Macias delves into her journey from North Korea to the West

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Monica Macias' brown skin, big eyes and curly hair made her stand out wherever she went in North Korea.

She had lived in Pyongyang for 15 years since 1979 when she and two other siblings, Maribel and Fran, were sent there in 1979 by her father, Francisco Macias Nguema (1924-79), the first president of Equatorial Guinea. She was 7 at that time.

In hindsight, Monica Macias, now 50, said living apart from her mother during her childhood and adolescent years made it difficult to adapt to North Korean society, as she spent most of her early days in Pyongyang homesick and missing her mother.

The strict military discipline she was required to undergo at Mangyongdae Revolutionary Military Boarding School was also a setback to adapting to the country.

Her exotic appearance, more than anything else, kept her at the center of attention, another challenge she had to overcome.

Despite the layered obstacles, Macias said she has fond childhood memories about her school life and her classmates.

"They were nice to me," she said during a Korea Times interview on Monday. "We were kids. We laughed. Sometimes we fought… When I returned to school after a month of hospitalization, they were so happy to have me back. Our relationship grew deeper."

Macias, the author of the forthcoming book, titled "Black Girl from Pyongyang: In Search of My Identity," is currently based in London. She finished her master's degree in international relations in 2019 and has lived there since.

In her memoir, she elaborates on her upbringing in Pyongyang, school life and post-North Korea life which took her to Spain, New York, Seoul and London. The book also delves into her decades-long truth-finding mission about her father and his death. Her memoir will be officially released by Duckworth on March 9.

Monica Macias, center, poses with North Korean leader Kim Il-sung, third from right, and her father, Francisco Macias Nguema, third from left, in this 1977 photo taken during a visit to North Korea. Courtesy of Duckworth Books

Like her classmates, Macias was educated in a North Korean way.

She was indoctrinated with the North's unique belief system which demonizes the West. She was taught that the U.S. is North Korea's enemy and South Korea is a puppet of the U.S.

She said she was outraged when she saw her Syrian friend, who was then studying in North Korea, sitting on the state newspaper Rodong Sinmun that featured then North Korean leader Kim Il-sung on the front page.

Deeply disturbed by the Syrian's demeanor, she scolded him and lectured him on not being disrespectful.

"He started laughing and said to me that 'Oh, you say that because you grew up in Pyongyang.' Then, he left the scene," she said.

Back then, Macias said she didn't understand why he reacted like that.

After having explored several different Western countries after her departure from North Korea in 1994, she realized that she had been brainwashed by a cult of personality and that's why she felt extremely uncomfortable about the Syrian's demeanor.

The more she traveled the West, the more doubts she had about North Korea and what she was taught there.

She felt culture shock when she learned that the narratives she was taught in the North were very different from those in other countries. "The truth that I had held as absolute as I grew up in Pyongyang started to teeter," she said.

Monica Macias works on homework in this undated photo. Courtesy of Duckworth Books

Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, looked after her and her two other siblings throughout their stay there.

Macias' father was executed months after he sent his three children to the North. His nephew, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, launched a military coup and removed her father from the presidency. He was put on trial, accused of having perpetrated atrocities and executed by firing squad in September 1979.

Being aware of the situation, Kim Il-sung checked in regularly, over the phone or through an aide, whether the three African children were doing well at school.

"He was kind," Macias recalled. "President Kim Il-sung was always a person whom I was and am thankful to ― not on a political level but on a personal level."

After rising to power, President Obiang of Equatorial Guinea sent an envoy to bring Macias' four children back home from North Korea and Cuba. Macias' eldest brother, Teo, was studying in Cuba at the time.

Then Cuban leader Fidel Castro allowed Obiang's envoy to take Teo back to Equatorial Guinea.
But Kim didn't. The North Korean leader risked his country's diplomatic relations with Equatorial Guinea to protect Macias' three children.

"Unlike Fidel Castro, Kim Il-sung refused to send us back to Equatorial Guinea. He could have just sent us back. Instead, he offered a house to my mother who was visiting Pyongyang for medical treatment to stay and live with us in the North's capital," Macias said.

Monica Macias poses with her classmates in North Korea in this undated photo. Courtesy of Duckworth Books

The family turmoil, meanwhile, has motivated Monique Macias to dig into the facts surrounding her father's death.

She was determined to conduct a research trip to Spain, the former colonizer of Equatorial Guinea, to "right the wrong" in historical narratives.

She claimed her father has a mixed legacy. His supporters describe him as a liberator who saved Equatorial Guinea from Spain's brutal colonization, while opponents labelled him as a mass murderer responsible for atrocities.

In Western media, Francisco Macias Nguema is portrayed as a dictator. Early in his presidency, he established a cult of personality and conducted a massive purge to consolidate power and silence intellectuals and educated people. In 1972, he declared himself president for life after revising the law.

Monica Macias embarked on a journey to Spain in 1994, two years after she graduated from Pyongyang University of Light Industry, to seek out the truth about her father and his legacy.

During a decade living in Spain, she interviewed about 3,000 people familiar with her father and his regime. Many of them preferred to remain anonymous when sharing their opinions. But a few, including lawyer, activist and politician Don Antonio Garcia-Trevijano, consented to Monique Macias quoting them with their names.

Through her extensive interviews, she said she found that there is a gap between the official narratives of her father and his rule in post-colonial Equatorial Guinea and what he was really about.

"My thorough research into Macias began to draw an utterly different picture of him and of historical events of the aftermath of decolonization when he was president of Equatorial Guinea. It was a shock to see how far the official account differs from that picture that was emerging from personal testimonies and the archives," she wrote in her book.

During her travels to Western countries, Monica Macias has been employed in several different industries. She worked as a part-time belly dancer in Spain, a hotel attendant in London, a jewellery designer in New York and a fashion designer in Seoul's posh southern Gangnam District. She lived in Seoul for several years.

She received the media spotlight in 2013 when her memoir, "I'm Monique from Pyongyang," was published in Korean.

Macias' experiences living in the two Koreas helped her develop an insider's view of Korea issues.

She said she didn't find any meaningful cultural differences between the two Koreas.

If there are any, she claimed, the difference might have come from a limited understanding of each other.

"Just as Northerners did not know about the South, Southerners did not know about the North. They had been cut off from each other for several generations and the emotional distance between them grew wider with every passing year," her memoir read.

Monica Macias poses with her classmates in North Korea in this undated photo. Courtesy of Duckworth Books