North Korean art spread all over Africa
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Students perform below the African Renaissance Monument to mark Senegal's 50 years of independence during its inauguration ceremony in Dakar (April 2010). Senegal's then president Abdoulaye Wade called for the creation of a United States of Africa, unveiling the controversial bronze work commissioned to North Korea, which at 50 metres (164 feet) stands four metres taller than the Statue of Liberty and depicts a couple rising from the mouth of a volcano. Keystone / Str -
Towering in the middle of a traffic circle in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, is a 25-foot tall statue of Laurent Kabila, who ended the 32-year reign of Mobutu Sese Seko, only to become a despot himself. The statue was built by the Mansudae Overseas Project, and is among dozens of monuments the North Koreans have built throughout Africa. Local anecdotes tell that the body of Kabila is actually molded on the features of Kim Jong-il, the second Supreme Leader of North Korea, and father to Kim Jong-un. Keystone / Schalk Van Zuydam -
Another North Korean commission is the 6th of October War Panorama Museum and Memorial in Cairo, Egypt, celebrating the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. The huge hyper-realist painting, hardly noticed by tourists, receives hundreds of schoolchildren every week. Keystone / Khaled Elfiqi -
Heroes Acre National Monument, Windhoek (Namibia). North Korea built this war memorial in the southern African nation in 2002, for a reported $5 million. Peter Titmuss / Alamy Stock Photo -
A Wall Relief At The Tiglachin Monument (also known as The Derg Monument) Churchill Avenue, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In 1984, when North Korea had a stronger economy with Chinese and Soviet aid, the country donated the "Struggle" monument in Addis Ababa dedicated to Ethiopian and Cuban soldiers who fought against Somalia. Grant Rooney Premium / Alamy Stock Photo -
Three Dikgosi (tribal chiefs) Monument, central business district, Gaborone, Botswana. Built in 2005, the monument features Khama III of Bangwato, Sebele I of Bakwena, and Bathoen I of Bangwaketse, three tribal leaders who helped Botswana gain independence from the British empire. Vadim Nefedov / Alamy Stock Photo -
Mausoleum of Agostinho Neto, Luanda, Angola, Africa. The 120-metre (394-foot) tall obelisk was built in honor of the first president of independent Angola. Michael Runkel
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