Benkos Biohó, slave leader of an emancipation movement and emblematic Afro-Colombian figure

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Benkos Biohó, born towards the end of the 16th century in present-day Guinea-Bissau and died on March 1621, XNUMX in Cartagena de Indias in New Granada, Colombia was a brown slave leader of an emancipation movement.
After several attempts, he manages to escape and organizes an army of fugitives in the Montes de María, in the south of Cartagena. In 1605, he was recognized as head of Palenque of La Matuna by the viceroy of Spain anxious to restore order.
On July 18, 1605, after several attempts to capture the maroons and inability to beat their army, the governor of Cartagena proposed a peace treaty to Benkos by recognizing the autonomy of the palenque (name of the organized communities of Maroon slaves in the Spanish colonies ) under the name Matuna Bioho. This treaty was just a strategy used by the Spanish. In 1621, he was arrested, hanged and quartered in the public square.
The community he founded survives to this day as the Palenque de San Basilio and among the many palenque that have existed, only San Basilio has survived. It has about 4000 inhabitants, descendants of the Maroon slaves.
Benkos Biohó survives through the image of the resistance fighter who has won the right to be a free man. As such, he is one of the emblematic figures of Afro-Colombian culture.
(In the photo: his statue on the main square of Palenque de San Basilio)

The sons of Benkos are the descendants of a runaway slave who, at the beginning of the 1920th century, founded the very first free village in Colombia. African culture in Colombia seen and told through the prism of their music: the palenquero sound, music from Cuba that arrived in Colombia in XNUMX. La Champeta, exclusive music for the poor and underprivileged who swept away everything in its path.

Benkos Biohó was a cimarrón who fought tirelessly for the liberation of slaves in Colombia. He created the Palenque de San Basilio (Palenque: Village populated by free slaves) by welcoming all the slaves from the region on the run. All over Colombia's Caribbean coast, African drums have resounded since colonial times. First there was the Cumbia y el bullerengue followed by the sound from Cuba.