Cuffy guyana biography

Guyanese slave uprising leader

Cuffy, also known as Kofi Badu,^[1]also spelled as Coffy, Cuffy, Kofi, or Koffi (died in 1763), was an Akan man who was captured in his native West Africa and stolen for slavery to work on the plantations of the Dutch colony of Berbice in present-day Guyana.

Cuffy guyana biography

In 1763, he led a major slave revolt of more than 3,800 slaves against the colonial regime. Today, he is a national hero in Guyana.^[2]

Berbice Rebellion

Main article: Berbice Rebellion

Cuffy lived in Lilienburg, a plantation on the Berbice River, as a house-slave for a cooper (barrel maker).

He was owned by the widow Berkey. On 23 February 1763, slaves on plantation Magdalenenberg on the Canje River rebelled, protesting harsh and inhumane treatment. They torched the plantation house,^[4] and made for the Courantyne River where Caribs and troops commanded by Governor Wigbold Crommelin [nl] of Suriname attacked, and killed them.^[5