Radar: Read This

Monica Macías, author of Black Girl From Pyongyang, is a brave and complex woman, and hers is a remarkable story.

She was the youngest child of Francisco Macías Nguema, the first president of Equatorial Guinea, who was deposed in 1979 and later executed by firing squad. When she was seven, Macías was sent, along with her siblings, to be the ward of her father’s friend, North Korean leader Kim Il Sung. Upon her father’s death, Macías’ mother, who had accompanied her children to North Korea, returned to Equatorial Guinea leaving behind Macías and her siblings to be educated and raised in North Korea.

Black Girl From Pyongyang is the story of Macías’ life, documenting her upbringing at the military boarding school just outside the North Korean capital, right up until her departure from North Korea. She was driven to go back to Equatorial Guinea, she says, by her desire to see the outside world, to connect with her past, and to find out whether her father really had been a cruel dictator.

Macías grows up to be a complex woman. She self-identifies as “brown” (her father was Equatoguinean, her mother Spanish-Equatoguinean), yet Macías feels culturally Asian, specifically Korean. She also considers she had two fathers, both of whom were reviled by the world. Having been completely dislocated from her father’s culture, and no longer able to speak her mother tongue of Spanish, she hates everything about Equatorial Guinea except for its staple food, plantains.

Macías’ story is fascinating, and it is delightful to read about her childhood although one empathises with her painful circumstances. However, her frequent declamations and the solutions she advances for fixing the world are far less interesting. And, in spite of promising to outline evidence of her father not being as evil as he was portrayed, Macías never gets round to this, only mentioning that propaganda against her father had been created by Equatorial Guinea’s Spanish colonisers and by his enemies.
Nevertheless, this memoir is enjoyable and valuable for its honesty, the insights she provides into life in North Korea, and her perspective as an Equatoguinean migrant travelling around the world.

Black Girl From Pyongyang by Monica Macías (Duckworth) is out now.

By Leila Aboulela
(Saqi Books)

This novel is set in Sudan in the interval between Ottoman and British rule in the late 19th century. Orphaned Akuany (nicknamed Zamzam) is taken in by Yaseen, an upright and honourable merchant, who remains committed to her welfare despite many complications in his own life. Salha, Yaseen’s wife, is a strong, intelligent and forthright woman who always does what’s right. Through their lives, River Spirit tells the story of Sudan and its people, and of the powers, from within and without, fighting for control. Importantly, it’s about two very different, unapologetically complex women expressing agency within the constraints of their time and culture.

By Caro Bello
(David & Charles)

Although crafting as a hobby never really goes away, every so often some technique or tool undergoes a revival when a new generation finds interesting ways to use it. Punch Needle Toys is for crafty people – whether they are new to punch needlework, or just want to try making something different. Author Caro Bello presents 20 characters, stories included, to craft into toys, including Helena Hen, Gaspar Giraffe, Camilo Crocodile, Domingo Dog and Zacarias Zebra, among many others. Instructions are easy to follow, and the book explains everything from tools and materials, to how to use a punch needle proficiently.

By CM Elliott
(Carnelian Heart Publishing)

Described as being for fans of author Alexander McCall Smith, CM Elliott’s novel is full of fun and adventure. Set in south-western Zimbabwe, it tells of the exploits of the handsome Detective Sibanda and his hapless sidekick, Ncube. While entertaining, the problematic portrayal of Ncube – an unflattering stereotype, and reminiscent of McCall Smith’s Mma Ramotswe – rather detracts from the otherwise excellent writing. The novel is enjoyable for its car chase on a rural road, an escape from baddies through a national park full of dangerous animals, and a clever plot built around Zimbabwe’s diamonds; but please can we have better portrayals of African people, and fewer characters like Ncube and McCall Smith’s Mma Ramotswe?

By Novuyo Rosa Tshuma
(WW Norton & Company)

Novuyo Rosa Tshuma’s first novel was the highly acclaimed and wonderful House Of Stone about the Eighties democide in Matabeleland. In Digging Stars, Tshuma tries her hand at Africanfuturism. Frank Siziba has been to space and dreams of stars and new worlds and Bantu geometries – to the exclusion of his family. Rosa, his daughter, chases her father through time and space, even after his death, until she must confront who he really was. The two strands of this character-driven novel are the truly enchanting new worlds and the far less persuasive story of Rosa’s daughterhood and dislocation. Readers from Bulawayo will enjoy reminders of their hometown, a place now truly famous in literature.

DEAR READER