Plazoleta Benkos Bioho

The bronze statue of a man with his hands unbound and chains broken at his wrists marks the center of Plazoleta Benkos Bioho. He represents the leader of the first free African settlement in the Americas, a village called San Basilio de Palenque. Bioho escaped slavery in Cartagena in the early seventeenth century and led others to freedom in the nearby swamps. This plaza honors his fight for autonomy, serving as a gathering point for descendants who still maintain their ancestral language and traditions.