In the What's New section of 3.8 (https://docs.python.org/3.8/whatsnew/3.8.html#changes-in-the-c-api) it indicates that:

> On Unix, C extensions are no longer linked to libpython except on Android and Cygwin. When Python is embedded, libpython must not be loaded with RTLD_LOCAL, but RTLD_GLOBAL instead. Previously, using RTLD_LOCAL, it was already not possible to load C extensions which were not linked to libpython, like C extensions of the standard library built by the *shared* section of Modules/Setup. (Contributed by Victor Stinner in bpo-21536.)

So if you are embedding python by dlopen'ing libpython.so you should use RTLD_GLOBAL to make sure everyone is using the same symbols. You have more information on the rationale and decisions in bpo-21536.

Is your use-case not cover by the arguments in bpo-21536? What is the problem of embedding by dlopening libpython using RTLD_GLOBAL?