Kwasimukamba or Graman Quassi (also spelled Quacy; Kwasi and Quasi) (ca. 1690 - ca. 1780) was a Surinamese healer; botanist; slave and later freedman of the 18th century; who is today best known for having given his name to the plant species quassia.
Kwasi's roots were among the Kwa speaking Akan people of present day Ghana; but as a child he was enslaved and brought to the New World. As a slave in Suriname; a Dutch colony in South America; he participated in the wars against the Saramaka maroons as a scout and negotiator for the Dutch; and he lost his right ear during the fighting. For this reason the Surinamese maroons remember him as a traitor.
Kwasi worked as a healer of some renown; and fared so well that he was able to get his freedom and travel to the Netherlands. One of his remedies was a bitter tea that he used to treat infections by intestinal parasites; this concoction was based on the plant Quassia amara which Carolus Linnaeus named after him; as the discoverer of its medicinal properties. Quassia continues to be used in industrially produced medicines against intestinal parasites today. Pictures From History
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