Kofi or Cuffy was Akan (tribe of Ghana) who was captured and taken to Guyana. He became famous thanks to the revolt of more than 3000 slaves he led in 1763 against the colonial regime. He is a national hero in Guyana. Kofi lived on a plantation in Lilienburg, a plantation on the Canje River in northeast Guyana where he worked for a cooper.
A slave insurrection broke out at the Madgalenenburg plantation north of the Canje river in February 1763 and advanced into neighboring plantations, where slaves attacked the owners. When Governor Van Hogenheim sent military forces to the region, the rebellion had already reached the Berbice river and was advancing very quickly towards the capital of the time: Fort-Nassau (the governor preferred to burn the fort so that they would not fall not in the hands of the rebels). The rebels had a lot of firearms that they had taken from the plantation owners they had attacked and were taking control of several areas quickly. Kofi was accepted by the rebels as a leader and proclaimed himself governor of Berbice (former name of Guyana, when it was a Dutch colony). The rebels numbered around 4000 and threatened to take over all of Guyana. Kofi appointed a certain Akara as his deputy. He tried to establish discipline among his troops. There were arguments between the two rebels as Akara became stubborn and attacked areas without Kofi's permission.
On April 2, 1763, Kofi wrote to Governor Van Hogenheim saying he did not want more wars between white and black. He proposed that Berbice be divided into two parts, that the whites occupy the coasts and the blacks the interior of the country. Van Hogenheim was slow to respond while waiting for help from the British and French. Kofi having understood the tactics of the governor ordered his troops to attack the whites on May 13, 1763, a battle in which there were heavy losses on both sides. The defeat had created an atmosphere of less and less brotherhood among the troops and had weakened their organization.
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