Bayano, also known as Ballano, Balanco or Vaino, was an African enslaved by Spaniards who led the biggest of the slave revolts of 16th century Panama. Captured from the Mandinka tribe in West Africa.

Different tales tell of their revolt in 1552 beginning either on the ship en route, or after landing in Panama's Darien province along its modern-day border with Colombia. Rebel slaves, known as cimarrones, set up autonomous regions known as palenques.

King Bayano's forces numbered between four and twelve hundred Cimarrons, depending upon different sources, and set up a palenque known as Ronconcholon near modern-day Chepo River, also known as Rio Bayano.

They fought their guerrilla war for over five years while building their community. The account written by Dr. Abdul Khabeer Muhammad explains that they created democratic councils and built mosques.

Bayano gained truces with Panama's colonial governor, Pedro de Ursua, but Ursua subsequently captured the guerrilla leader and sent him to Peru and then to Spain, where he died.

El Negro Miguel, Commanded an insurrection in 1533 in and around the mines of Buría, it is considered the first black rebellion in the history of Venezuela. By the middle of century XVI, during the government of Juan de Villegas Maldonado, there was a necessity to intensify the acquisition of enslaved manual labor, after the discovery an important gold vein in the margins of the Buría river, near the city Nueva Segovia de Barquisimeto, founded on 1552 by Villegas.

Among the slaves who arrived at the Real of Mines of San Felipe de Buría, there was one native one of San Juan Puerto Rico, which was distinguished by its rebellious personality, El Negro Miguel (Miguel the Black), who was property of Pedro del Barrio, son of Damián del Barrio. Due to his indomitable character, in 1553 Miguel fled with some friends to mountains, from where he prepared an offensive against the Real of Mines, where several miners were killed during the dark of the night. From this successful assault, El Negro Miguel became strong in the mountains and its fame grew day after day, he was followed by Indians and other Cimarron to what he considered his kingdom, because he proclaimed himself  king and crowned his wife Guiomar as Queen. He also named his baby son as his heir to the thrown. He also made named one of his friends a bishop and formed a community similar to the Spaniards, with authorities and employees. After a while, King Miguel and his followers became a nightmare for the region, and their presence began to disrupt the mine operations.

Queen Nzingah, also known as Ann Nzingha, was overlord of portions of both Angola and Zaire. 

She has been called the "Greatest Military Strategist that ever confronted the armed forces of Portugal." Nzingha's military campaigns kept the Portuguese in Africa at bay for more than four decades. 

Her objective was nothing less than the complete and total destruction of the African slave trade. 

Nzingha sent ambassadors throughout West and Central Africa with the intent of enlisting a huge coalition of African armies to eject the Portuguese.

Queen Nzingha died fighting for her people in 1663 at the ripe old age of eighty-one.  Africa has known no greater patriot.

Zumbi also known as Zumbi dos Palmares (1655 - November 20, 1695) was the last and most important of the leaders of the Quilombo dos Palmares, in the present-day state of Alagoas, Brazil. A quilombo was a Palenque or refuge of runaway slaves.

An African known only as Zumbi was born free in Palmares in 1655, but was captured by the Portuguese and given to a missionary, Father Antonio Melo when he was approximately 6 years old.

Baptized Francisco, Zumbi was taught the sacraments, learned Portuguese and Latin, and helped with daily mass. Despite attempts to "civilize" him, Zumbi escaped in 1670 and, at the age of 15, returned to his birthplace.

Zumbi became known for his physical prowess and cunning in battle and was a respected military strategist by the time he was in his early twenties.

San Martín de Porres (Lima, December 9, 1579 - November 3, 1639) St. Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru, in 1579. His father was a Spanish gentleman and his mother a colored freed-woman from Panama. At fifteen, he became a lay brother at the Dominican Friary at Lima and spent his whole life there-as a barber, farm laborer, almoner, and nurse among other things.

Martin had a great desire to go off to some foreign mission and thus earn the palm of martyrdom. However, since this was not possible, he made a martyr out of his body, devoting himself to ceaseless and severe penances. In turn, God endowed him with many graces and wondrous gifts, such as, aerial flights and bilocation.

St. Martin's love was all-embracing, shown equally to humans and to animals, including vermin, and he maintained a cats and dogs hospital at his sister's house.

He was the first Black Saint of the Americas. A close friend of St. Rose of Lima, this saintly man died on November 3, 1639 and was canonized on May 6, 1962. His feast day is November 3.

Barûle, was the slave, who leaded the greatest insurrection in Chocó, Colombia. He was imported from Jamaica along with a load of rebel slaves which the Britannic Crown wanted to get rid of. According to oral tradition and other studies, is presumed that Barûle originated from a West African Royal Family and more in-depth researches about his African ascendance give us a few of hypothesis, but one in special: Yoruba.

By 1727 the slaves of the Mungarrá Ranch organized a committee represented by Barûle and the Mina brothers (Antonio & Mateo). Thus, an unexpected day of November, they initiated their War action to freedom, as they killed their “master” and fourteen more Spaniards.

After dominating the Territory, the Maroons from Tadó proclaimed HM, Barûle as Sovereign and King, and the palisade structured an authoritarian government with a military organization. It is believed that HM, King Barûle's Royal African ascendance could be from the: Yoruba, chamba, mandinga, mina, or carabalí; due to the integration and communication that he had with the minas and his tendency to revolt, known of these groups.

On February 18 of 1728, the “War for Freedom” breaks out between Maroons and the Spanish Army for the domination of the area, but the deficient logistics and lock of communication among the Maroons, originated a great disadvantage from which the Spanish Army took advantage to win the confrontation. On February 19 of 1728, HM, King Barûle is executed together with the Mina brothers, by the Spanish Lieutenant Trespalacios Mier, alter being betrayed.

Today, one of his descendants – HM, Giunëur Bomani Barûle Môsi – is continuing along with the fight in favor of the black community and the 'Cultural Restoration' of all AfroColombians through his Movement of Cultural Restoration Barûle.

For more info about HM, King Barûle: www.Barule.org

Nanny of the Maroons, also known as Queen Nanny and Granny Nanny, a National Hero of Jamaica, was a well-known leader of the Maroons of Jamaica in the eighteenth century. Contemporary documents refer to her as the "rebels (sic) old obeah woman," and they legally grant "Nanny and the people now residing with her and their heirs . . . a certain parcel of Land containing five hundred acres in the parish of Portland..." (Campbell 177, 175). By 1720, Nanny and Quao had organized and gained control of this town of Maroons located in the Blue Mountains. Nanny Town was founded on this land. Most of what we know about Nanny comes from the oral tradition, and many claims about her cannot be verified with traditional historical evidence of the textual or empirical sort.

The government of Jamaica declared Queen Nanny a National Heroine in 1975. Her portrait is on the $500 Jamaican dollar bill, which is colloquially referred to as a "Nanny".

Jamaican Maroons originally included former slaves who ran away from the Spanish and intermarried with the native islanders in the rugged, mountainous region of the Jamaican interior. Under British rule, some more slaves were able to escape from plantations to join the two main bands of Maroons in Jamaica: Leeward and Windward Maroons, headed respectively by Nanny of the Maroons and her brother Captain Cudjoe.

Olaudah Equiano, (1745 – 31 March 1797), also known as Gustavus Vassa, was one of the most prominent people of African heritage involved in the British debate for the abolition of the slave trade.

He wrote an autobiography that depicted the horrors of slavery and helped influence British lawmakers to abolish the slave trade in 1807.

In addition to being a slave as a young man, he was also a slaver, seaman, merchant, and explorer in South America, the Caribbean, the American colonies, and Britain.

Jean Saint Malo, in French (died in June 19, 1784), also known as Juan San Malo in Spanish, was the leader of a group of runaway slaves in colonial Louisiana, then under rule by Spain. Saint Malo and his band encamped to a marshy area of Lake Borgne, with weapons obtained from freed persons of color and plantation slaves. The runaways lived in the swamps east of New Orleans and made their headquarters at Galliard from 1780-1784. The Spanish had mostly suppressed the slave revolts by 1783, and more than a hundred of the runaways were captured.

Saint Malo was condemned to death by hanging, on charges of murder. The execution was carried out by the Mayor Mario de Reggio on June 19, 1784, in front of St. Louis Cathedral (the present Jackson Square, New Orleans). The town of Saint Malo, Louisiana, one of the oldest communities in this state, is named after him.

June 19, the day of San Malo's execution, is also recognized by many African Americans as the day that slavery officially ended in several southern states - though the identity of days is purely coincidental. In some circles, he is still a controversial figure, described in such terms as "leader of the most notorious band of runaway slaves to have terrorized colonial Louisiana."

       

Denmark Vesey
(USA)

Nathaniel "Nat" Turner, commonly called Nat Turner, (October 2, 1800 – November 11, 1831) was an American slave whose slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, was the most remarkable case of black resistance to enslavement in the southern United States.

His methodical slaughter of white civilians during the uprising makes his legacy controversial, but he is still considered by many to be a heroic figure of black resistance to oppression. At birth he was not given a surname, but was recorded solely by his given name, Nat. In accordance with a common practice, he was often called by the surname of his owner, Samuel Turner.

Sengbe Pieh, (1813 – 1879), later known as Joseph Cinqué, was a West African man of the Mende tribe who was the most prominent defendant in the Amistad case, in which it was proved that he and 52 others had been victims of the illegal Atlantic slave trade.

Cinqué was born around 1813 in what is now Sierra Leone, but his exact date of birth is unknown. He was a married rice farmer with three children until he was captured by African slave traders illegally, violating many treaties, in 1839 and imprisoned on the Portuguese slave ship Tecora. He was taken to Cuba where he was sold with 52 others to the Spaniards José Ruiz and Pedro Montez.

In March 1840, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Africans mutinied to regain their freedom after being kidnapped and sold illegally. This was in large part due to the advocacy of former U.S. President John Quincy Adams, who served as the Africans' defense counsel.

Giunëur Bomani Barûle Môsi, also known as King Giunëur (Born in Bogotá, Colombia  on July 01, 1975) Founding member of the Barûle Foundation, Barûle Museum - African Heritage and Barûle Gazette as well as current President & CEO of the Board of Directors in both organizations. King/Oba Giunëur is an entrepreneur and a United States Marine Corps Honorable Veteran. From a very early age, he has dedicated himself to the fight for the Afro-Descendants' equal rights.

On July 1^st, 1990, HM King Giunëur, declared Independence of the Kingdom of Barûle "in a Virtual Manner" and autoproclaimed himself by Divine Grace - Sovereign Monarch and Grand Oba of the Kingdom of Barûle. With this approach HM, King Giunëur begun his fight against the socio-cultural disproportion suffered by the AfroDescendant people, especially in Colombia.

Giunëur is Graduated in Arts and Graphic Design, as well as Leader and Founder of the Reforming Movement Barûle Regnum in honor of his Maroon ancestor King Barûle.

Keeping the distance and with all due respect to the remaining remarkable personalities found in this site, by reading the contents of this website Designed by HM, King Giunëur, he is connecting one more link in the enlightening chain of fight and freedom.

Currently, this young Writer, Poet, Entrepreneur and Activist for the AfroDescendant’s Civil Rights, as well as Leader and Founder of the Movement of Cultural Restoration Barûle, is residing in southern Florida (US), where he continues with the struggle in favor of his AfroDescendant people, especially in Colombia.

Information is the most powerful weapon there is.

For more info about HM, King Giunëur: www.Barule.org