What Is a Black Skin?

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From his north carean teachers, mondume learned to shoot a gun. He studied the differences between capitalism and communism. By the early 19 seventies, about 25 hundred soldiers from across africa had received training much like mondumes in namibia. These soldiers joined a guerilla war against the aparte government. North korea was one of several socialist countries supporting armed liberation movements in africa.

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