Mónica Macías

Monica Macias (born 1972) is a North Korean author who was born in Equatorial Guinea. She is the daughter of the country's first president, Francisco Macias Nguema.

Early Life and education

Monica Macias was sent at the age of seven to North Korea to study and reside under the care of the then-leader of the country, Kim Il-Sung. However, just months after her arrival, her father, the then-president of Equatorial Guinea, Francisco Macias Nguema, was ousted in a bloody coup d'état by her cousin, Teodoro Obiang Nguema. Following her father's trial and execution by firing squad, Monica, her mother, and her two siblings were left stranded in North Korea. Despite this, Kim Il-Sung continued to fulfill his promise to take care of her, and sent her to the Mangyondae Revolutionary Military Boarding School in Pyongyang. The North Korean leader regularly checked in on her by phone and helped her complete her university education at Pyongyang University of Light Industry. Monica stayed in Pyongyang until 1994, when she traveled to Spain, a former colonizer of her native country and the birth place of her maternal grandfather to learn more about herself and investigate the death of her father.

Career as an Author

In 2013, Macias 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, Macias released her second memoir, Black Girl from Pyongyang, which was published by Duckworth Publishers. The book attracted even more recognition and attention, as Monica 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. Monica 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 Macias's recent book summarizes her position on the controversial figures of Macias 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. 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.