Submitted Name Revision History

Benkos Biohó (died 1621), also known as Domingo Biohó, was said to have been born in either the Democratic Republic of Congo or Angola, where he was seized by the Portuguese slaver Pedro Gomez Reynel, sold to businessman Juan Palacios, and later, after transportation to what is now Colombia in South America, sold again to the Spaniard Alonso del Campo in 1596, in Cartagena de Indias. He established the maroon community of San Basilio de Palenque some time in the 16th century. He was betrayed and hanged by the governor of Cartagena in 1621.

The former African king escaped from the slave port of Cartagena with ten others and founded San Basilio de Palenque, then known as the 'village of the Maroons'. In 1713 it became the first free village in the Americas by decree from the King of Spain, when he gave up sending his troops on futile missions to attack their fortified mountain hideaway.