Shortly after she arrived in Pyongyang, aged eight, her father was accused of perpetrating atrocities and executed by firing squad – although nobody told her he was dead. On 18 October 1971, Law 1 imposed the death penalty as punishment for threatening the President or the government.

Francisco Macías Nguema - Wikipedia

She said: ' Although North and South say they want unification, they don't actually know each other as people. Even the presidential guards were forced to survive by scavenging fruits and hunting wild animals, as supply had mostly collapsed.It’s an investigative story to understand her true father, a powerful but controversial figure, the real man behind his many personas. Afterwards, that same friend sat on a copy of the official party newspaper bearing the sacrosanct image of Kim Il-sung. As Macías Nguema was still at his palace, isolated from the rest of the country due to his fear of being overthrown, the coup met no organized opposition. She argued that if he had embezzled funds, her mother would not have ended up selling plantains for a living, nor would she have been scrubbing toilets.

Monica Macias - Duckworth Books

Black Girl from Pyongyang is her first book to be published in English, and she will be the subject of a forthcoming documentary film. Monica Macias challenges readers in her remarkable memoir to interrogate the modalities of truth in our modern world, to closely examine and dismantle what we think we know and what the powers that be would have us believe.

Macías Nguema went on to establish a totalitarian regime with three important pillars: the United National Workers' Party, the Juventud en Marcha con Macías (JMM; English: Youth on the March with Macías) militia/youth group, and the Esangui clan of Río Muni. To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald , The Age and Brisbane Times.