Commentary No. 062
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Date: 1553
Theme: In 1553, residents of Santo Domingo still remembered how Black maroon leader Sebastián Lemba’s head was exhibited in the city’s public square
Source: Archivo General de Indias, Justicia, 76, fo. 1593v., CUNY Dominican Studies Institute Dominican Colonial Documents Collection.
Sebastián Lemba is possibly the most well-known among the leaders of the enslaved Blacks who in sixteenth century La Española escaped from slavery and became maroons living independently from the Spanish settlers who had brought them as slaves.
Since approximately 1533, Lemba led a group of maroons who roamed different areas of the central regions of La Española’s wilderness, until enough forces were garnered by local authorities and colonists in 1547 to catch up with him and his group and kill them. In 1553, resident Juan de Lepe, gave his testimony on how Lemba’s head had been exposed publicly in the city.
In his deposition Lepe refers to Lemba and his followers using military terminology such as “Captain Lemba and his squad,” and describes the confrontation against the maroons as a “war.”
For many in the Dominican Republic today concerned with social justice and the Black African heritage of Dominican society, Lemba represents a very early symbol of resistance against oppression.