Cuffy

Who is Cuffy?

Cuffy, also spelled Kofi or Cuffee, was an enslaved African man who became the leader of the Berbice slave uprising, one of the largest revolts against slavery in the Caribbean and South America before the Haitian Revolution. Believed to have been born in West Africa before being enslaved and brought to the Dutch colony of Berbice, in what is now Guyana, he worked on the Lilienburg plantation before the uprising began in February 1763. Enslaved Africans across Berbice rose up, seized control of much of the colony for several months, and Cuffy was chosen as its leader, governing captured territory and corresponding with the Dutch colonial administration in an attempt to negotiate a divided colony. Dutch and allied forces gradually regained control later in 1763, and Cuffy is said, by long-standing tradition, to have taken his own life rather than be recaptured. When Guyana became a republic in 1970, Cuffy was declared the nation's first National Hero, and a bronze monument to the 1763 uprising stands in Georgetown; Guyana's Republic Day on 23 February is popularly linked to the rebellion he led and is celebrated nationally as Mashramani.

Sources: Rodway, James, History of British Guiana, Vol. II (1893) · Da Costa, Emilia Viotti, Crowns of Glory, Tears of Blood: The Demerara Slave Rebellion of 1823 (1994) — background on Guianese slave rebellions · National Trust of Guyana — 1763 Monument and Berbice Uprising history