#BenkosBioho #bissagoislands #cornrows #cartagena #colombia This topic has come up twice in the past couple of months. So again. Were intricate cornrowed hairstyles used as maps. Yes. Was it widespread. No. Benkos Bioho was born into royalty in the 1500s in the Bissago islands off the coast of Guinea Bissau. He was captured by a Portuguese slave trader, Pedro Gomes Reinel. Who then sold him to a businessman named Juan Palacios, & later, after transportation to what is now Colombia in South America, he was sold again to the Spaniard Alonso del Campo in 1596, in Cartagena de Indias. Benkos Bioho escaped twice to free himself. The first time the boat that was transporting him down the Magdalena River sank. He was recaptured but escaped again in 1599 into the marshy lands southeast of Cartagena. He also went on to build San Basilio de Palenque, a village in Northern Colombia in around the 17th century. The village was a walled city that was a refuge for escaped slaves and a place to help them get back on their feet. Within the village they created their own language, formed an army & even created an intelligence network in order to find, organize and get them to the liberated areas. Bioho put together an army that came to dominate all of the Montes de María region. King Bioho also came up with the brilliant idea to have to have the women create maps and even deliver messages through their cornrows. No one would question or think that one could hide entire maps in their hairstyle, so it was easy to circulate them without anyone finding out about it. He also had them use seeds as decoration in their hair, these seeds were then used as a way for the liberated slaves to grow their own crops. After many fights with Bioho's army, July 18, 1605 the Governor of Cartagena, Gerónimo de Suazo y Casasola offered a peace treaty. It was finalized in 1612 by Governor Diego Fernández de Velasco, and broken by the Spanish in 1619 when they captured Bioho. Unfortunately March 16, 1621, they executed him. San Basilio de Palenque still exist today with about 3500 people living there. It was declared "Masterpieces of the Oral & Intangible Heritage of Humanity" by UNESCO in 2005. https://www.instagram.com/p/B5oL922huOs/?igshid=aj519ri1i4wv
