Gaspar Yanga was royalty from Gabon before he was captured and brought to Mexico in chains. He refused to live his life in bondage and did something truly incredible instead.
He liberated his people! Known as the “first liberator of the Americas” by many historians, Yanga was working on a Mexican–then called New Spain–sugar plantation when he gathered and led fellow enslaved people to kill their enslavers before escaping.
He didn’t stop there.
Yanga started a palenque, a small town of free Black folks , who lived among the Veracruz mountains. For nearly forty years, they harvested their food, raised livestock, and strategized raids of Spanish supply caravans.
But things weren’t always easy.
They were a threat to colonial order, which thrived off our enslavement, but Yanga knew the time would come when they’d have to fight. When the Spanish militia tried to run up, he and his people were ready and defeated them quickly.
Yanga offered peace under certain conditions with recognition of their freedom, land ownership, and the prohibition of the Spanish in their community at the top.
After years of negotiations, the town became a free Black settlement, and today it’s named after him. Like Gaspar Yanga, we must not be afraid to fight, leave white supremacy behind and build our separate communities. We don’t need them!