Nemibia After Independence

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It's hard not t come away from these images with a sense of the incredible price that nemibia paid to be free. But as we move through the museum, the north korean connection also starts to get more and more obvious. There are ten people in this mural, very important imag is a very important image for namevia after independence. This is how our people have been looking up. Can see all walks of life, our farmers, our brothers and sisters, our children, all going past us. The architects man wakes. They are all facing a rainbow sun, which is emanating rays in the colors of the nemibian flag, red, green and blue. Hovering above the

In downtown Windhoek, Namibia -- at the intersection of Fidel Castro Street and Robert Mugabe Avenue -- there's an imposing gold building with an affectionate nickname: the Coffee Maker. This notable structure was built to commemorate Namibia’s fight for independence from apartheid South Africa, which it achieved in 1990. And for many of the visitors, the museum feels like a huge achievement. But for a museum that commemorates throwing off the chains of colonialism and forging a new era of self-determination, it has one pretty strange feature. It wasn't designed by a Namibian architect. It wasn't even designed by an African architect. It was built by North Korea's state-run design studio, which has long been a prolific maker of statues around the world. North Korea has left a distinct visual stamp across Africa in particular, with museums and monuments erected in more than a dozen African countries since the 1970s.

Monumental Diplomacy