Our next stop was in the Palenque town square. I’m the middle stands a statue of Benkos Bioho himself. The statue shows him breaking chains and reaching toward freedom. I make sure I teach my students about him and many enslaved Black folks in the American who fought back against the cruelest system of slavery know to man. We fought then and we continue to fight injustice and inequality.
Alex compared Benkos Bioho to Harriet Tubman, in which escaped slaves ran to his protection in Palenque (like how slaves in the US ran to the north and to Canada) and how he and other Palenque residents would raid plantations and bring people to freedom in Palenque. Benkos and the others gave the Spanish so much hell that the Spanish agree to a peace treaty, ensure that Palenque will always remain free as long as they stopped attacking plantations, raiding caravans, and maintained a Catholic Church in the town square. The church still stands bug Palanqueros practice traditional African religions despite its presence.
Appropriately just around the corner from the statue was a Black Lives Matter mural. We were all touched by the solidarity of people who are so far from our struggle... geographically... but are so close to it emotionally and intellectually. Just before coming here a young Black man was shot by police 20 times in his own backyard while minding his business using his cell phone 8 of those bullets were in his back. Black lives matter, in Atlanta, in Palenque, and all over the globe.
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