By Brunno Braga, Travel Noire — 16 February 2022
Haiti is one of the most emblematic countries in the Americas for being the first to constitute a republic of formerly enslaved Black people, after a bloody revolution in 1791. However, 150 years earlier, in the neighboring Dominican Republic, a man emerged who would also go down in Dominican Black history, becoming known as one of the greatest anti-slavery leaders in the Americas.
Sebastian Lemba Calembo was a former slave who led a rebellion against slavery on the island of Hispaniola, becoming one of the first to start the fight against slavery in the Americas. Born in Africa — probably a member of the Lemba tribe on his mother’s side and the Calembo tribe of the Kongo people on his father’s side — he was captured and taken to Hispaniola in approximately 1525 to work in the region’s crops. From the moment he arrived in the Americas, Lemba refused to accept life as an enslaved person. He and a group of other enslaved Africans called Cimarrones rose up against the Spanish colonists in 1532, fleeing to the mountains of the island.
For fifteen years (1532–1548), he fought against the Spanish authorities, moving at night, raiding and looting towns while freeing other enslaved Africans. His rebellion grew to 400 formerly enslaved Black people who followed him as their liberating leader. Lemba died on 25 September 1548, after a bloody battle against the Spanish colonisers. He was decapitated and his head was taken to Santo Domingo and hung from one of the gates of the city walls. Today, this place is called La Puerta de Lemba Calembo, where he is remembered as a national hero in the Dominican Republic — one of the first Black leaders to initiate the fight against slavery across the Americas. A bronze statue stands in his honour in Santo Domingo City.