Cuffy

Cuffy, also known as Kofi, was an Akan man who was captured in West Africa, in what is now southern Ghana, and sold into slavery in the Dutch colony of Berbice, in present-day Guyana. The date of his birth is unknown; Kofi is an Akan name meaning born on a Friday. In Berbice he lived at the Lilienburg plantation, working as a house slave for a cooper, a barrel maker.

In February 1763 an uprising began on plantations in the upper Berbice and Canje river area and spread rapidly, with rebels seizing guns and gunpowder as they overran estates. Sources differ on the exact start date, with 23 February commemorated in Guyana and 27 February given in some accounts, and on the number of rebels, which estimates place between 2,500 and 5,000.

Cuffy was soon accepted as the rebels' leader and declared himself Governor of Berbice, appointing Captain Accara as his deputy for military affairs and trying to establish discipline and food production among the rebel forces. The revolt came close to ending Dutch rule in the colony, and the Dutch governor, Wolfert Simon van Hoogenheim, appealed for help from neighbouring colonies and from Europe.

On 2 April 1763 Cuffy wrote to the governor proposing a partition of Berbice, with the Dutch holding the coastal areas and the Black population controlling the interior. The proposal was not accepted, and his authority began to weaken, as Accara, who had attacked colonists without his permission, formed a rival faction and the rebels fell into civil war.

Reinforced by troops from abroad, the Dutch regained control, and by October 1763 it was reported that Cuffy had taken his own life. The rebellion lasted until 1764. Cuffy is remembered as the leader of one of the largest slave revolts in the Americas. Guyana has celebrated 23 February, the anniversary of the rebellion, as Republic Day since 1970, and the 1763 Monument in Georgetown's Square of the Revolution honours him.