North Korea & Namibia – and Ethiopia again

Hello subscribers – and welcome new ones!

Yesterday I uploaded another new piece on to the DT Blog. It continues the recent Namibia thread, only this time it’s not about ghost towns but something very different indeed: the link between Namibia and North Korea. I can imagine that many of you may find it surprising that any such link could exist at all between what is one of the best-functioning democracies in Africa and what many see as the ultimate rogue state, located in the far east of Asia and ruled by an ultra-staunch communist regime under the dictatorial leadership of the Kim dynasty. But there is a link, namely an artistic one.

Like a few other African countries, Namibia turned to the massive Mansudae Art Studio, with its special “Overseas Projects” branch, based in Pyongyang, to commission several buildings and monuments. This includes in particular the Namibian Independence Museum in Windhoek and the similarly grandiose “Heroes’ Acre” memorial complex just outside the city (the links lead to the relevant chapters recently uploaded to my main website).

The photo above shows part of a typically Mansudae-Art-Studio-style bas-relief at the “Heroes’ Acre”. It depicts Namibia’s “founding father” and first president Sam Nujoma victoriously waving a flag in front of marching freedom fighters and cheering civilians. It’s cliched, kitschy and glorifying in a manner that the North Koreans definitely excel at.

The new Blog post has many more examples of such reliefs, statues and paintings in that glorifying “socialist-realist” style” and also pitches the Namibian examples against some of the very similar expressions of that style that I had spotted in North Korea itself, on my trip there many years ago.

Do take a look! There are some unexpected images in there!
  

In the previous DT Newsletter I also mentioned, again, the ongoing plight of the northern province of Tigray in Ethiopia, as currently in the deadliest war zone on the planet. It so happened that later on that same day that I had sent that Newsletter I learned that a kind of ceasefire deal had been achieved between the TPLF (Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front) and government forces after all. See e.g. this article from the same date (external link).

However, just eight days later there was this follow-up article (also external link) that reported how desperately needed humanitarian aid is still not reaching the northern regions where healthcare, banking and communications networks have all collapsed and where hundreds of thousands are facing starvation. Apparently, not all the fighting has stopped yet either. But there is now hope that this nasty war might come to an end. Fingers crossed.
  

So much for this time.

Best wishes

Peter