Black Girl from Pyongyang

The extraordinary true story of a West African girl’s upbringing in North Korea under the protection of President Kim Il Sung

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In 1979, aged only seven, Monica Macias was transplanted from West Africa to the unfamiliar surroundings of North Korea. She was sent by her father Francisco, the first president of post-Independence Equatorial Guinea, to be educated under the guardianship of his ally, Kim Il Sung.

Within months, her father was executed in a military coup; her mother became unreachable. Effectively orphaned, she and two siblings had to make their life in Pyongyang. At military boarding school, Monica learned to mix with older children, speak fluent Korean and handle weapons on training exercises.

After university, she went in search of her roots, passing through Beijing, Seoul, Madrid, Guinea, New York and finally London – forced at every step to reckon with damning perceptions of her adoptive homeland. Optimistic yet unflinching, Monica’s astonishing and unique story challenges us to see the world through different eyes.

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**PRAISE FOR BLACK GIRL FROM PYONGYANG**

'Monica's is an evocative memoir of a remarkable childhood followed by a decades-long search around the globe for her identity. But beyond that, it is a stunning treatise on politics, power and culture'
FLORENCE OLAJIDE, bestselling author of Coconut

'You have never read a book like Black Girl From Pyongyang, and you won’t soon forget it'
MARCIA DE SANCTIS, author of A Hard Place to Leave: Stories from a Restless Life

'A fascinating account of a woman’s quest for autonomy, and her bravery and determination to find the truth'
LILY DUNN, author of Sins of My Father

'A testament to the power of survival, and the strength it takes to interrogate the world you're born into, Black Girl from Pyongyang is a beautiful and startling coming of age story'
ALI MILLAR, author of The Last Days

'Monica Macias challenges readers in her remarkable memoir... Hers is a weighty inheritance, one that she explores with grace, compassion, and enormous courage'
LY TRAN, author of House of Sticks