Quassie van Timotibo

Cover of the study by Frank Dragtenstein on Quassie van Timotibo.

Quassie van Timotibo (Guinea (West Africa), 1692 - Paramaribo, March 12, 1787) was an eighteenth-century herbal expert, also gaining fame and infamy as the black hunter of slaves escaping from the colony of Suriname. Biography

Van Timotibo was a "saltwater slave", since he was born in Africa, came from the coast of Guinea and was sent to Suriname at the end of the 17th century, where he was a slave in the "New Timotibo" plantation in Perica. He stood out as lukuman (seer) and connoisseur of the Carib and Arawak languages. He also had a vast knowledge of herbs and discovered the Quassia-bitter or Kwasibita (Quassia Amara) an herb with anti-fever properties that would later be studied by Linnaeus.

In 1730 he was awarded a golden breastplate with the inscription "Quassie, loyal to whites". Governor Mauricius considered that Quassie "had a mind too developed" like to carry out work of slave, and managed to transfer it to the city. From there he played an important role in the detection of fugitive slaves. In 1776 he traveled to the Netherlands, where he was received by the governor.

Scottish captain J.G. Stedman called him Granman Quassie ("Great Chief Quassie"). Bibliography

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