Freedom is an unstoppable force. It may be delayed or diverted, blocked or shunted down dark alleyways but it emerges always to strike down tyranny. This, I think, is worth remembering because I forget it too often. Striking down tyranny is no guarantee of final victory: there is always the need for further blows at new tyrants. Kenya is in the grip of a political class dominated by tyrants that pretends it is unassailable as pessimism and hopelessness rises by the day. But it also serves to remember that even darker times have been overcome by those with less weapons than we possess. And that freedom’s greatest advances have not always come from the incrementalists among us; very often the mightiest blows have been thrown by men and women who hold to a radical utopian ideal even as they take on the day to day practical work of making freedom real to people. One such was Benkos Bioho the founder of the San Basilio de Palenque in Colombia. (You can read more about him here.) The picture is of a statue of Benkos that still stands on San Basilio de Palenque’s main square.
benkos-bioho 