Tycho van der Hoog in African Arguments

Former PhD candidate Tycho van der Hoog wrote a blog about his dissertation for the platform African Arguments. In it he talks about his new book Comrades Beyond the Cold War: North Korea and the Liberation of Southern Africa and examines the ways in which African governments benefitted –and keep benefitting in the present– from cooperation with North Korea. 

Tycho starts explaining the reason that led him to focus his research on this topic: about ten years ago, he was peacefully walking around Windhoek, Namibia, when he stumbled upon a North Korean monument introducing a newly open history museum. He was surprised to find out that not only a North Korean art studio had designed the building, but the historical exhibition was also devised by them. Why would North Korea do business in Africa nowadays? That was the beginning of a PhD project that revealed a rich history of African-North Korean relations.  

Three paths illustrate this phenomenon: blood, bullets and bronze. Blood symbolizes the diplomatic ties developed from the shared struggle for independence back in the 1950's, when both powers looked at each other for support. Once diplomacy was established, Bullets, or military cooperation, was the next phase of beneficial exchanges. North Korea helped newly independent states and invested funds in the liberation movements in Africa - a great example is the Fifth Brigade of Zimbabwe, trained and armed by North Korean instructors in the 1980's. Finally, Bronze stands for cultural heritage. Art turned out to be a lucrative business model which helped consolidating the regime, and African governments hired North Korean art studios to construct monuments similar to theirs, giving a sense of nationalism. 

Read the full article.