By Romona Baxter- Black History Month (Guyana) offers an opportunity to honour the quiet custodians of culture whose contributions live not in monuments but in memory, faith and community healing. Among these enduring figures are Agatha “Mama” Fiffee and her daughter Gloria ‘Fiffee’ Vasconcellos — traditional herbal practitioners whose work in Buxton, East Coast Demerara, has become part of Guyana’s living heritage. Their story reflects the intersection of ancestral knowledge, spirituality and service, revealing how generations of wisdom can shape community health and resilience.
Enduring figures in Guyana’s living heritage — where tradition meets faith, and memory meets healing.
A legend whispered across villages.
A healer whose name travelled by word of mouth.
A matriarch of bush medicine whose legacy crossed generations.
Growing up, I have always heard about this legend. This woman who has the cure-all. Though I have never seen her, she lived five villages from where I lived. I know family, friends and acquaintances who visited her and professed her cure-all or better health. So, who is this woman? She’s the original matriarch of herbal medicine in her village. Born in the 1800s she learned her healing from generations before her.
She became one of Guyana’s most revered traditional herbal practitioners — a woman whose knowledge of the backlands of Buxton was regarded as both rare and remarkable. Gathered from deep within the bushes of the East Coast, she prepared remedies drawn from generations of accumulated wisdom, a family tradition said to stretch back more than two centuries.
Women came.
Families came.
The desperate and the hopeful came.
Many traveled far and wide seeking relief, restoration, and sometimes — when all else had failed — hope. Hope for pregnancy, erectile disfunction, cancer along with numerous other ailments. She was born and raised in Buxton on the East Coast of Demerara and her herbal treatments spanned the reaches local and international people with illnesses.
Those who knew her spoke not only of her skill, but of her discipline. Her practice was firmly rooted in herbal medicine. She rejected obeah. She refused abortion work. And despite the growing demand for her remedies, she maintained a reputation for generosity, often assisting those who could not afford to pay.
From an early age, her daughter was quietly being prepared to carry the torch. Rising before dawn to accompany her mother into the backlands, she absorbed the family’s closely guarded knowledge — plant by plant, remedy by remedy.
When Agatha Fiffee passed away in 2004, one month after celebrating her 100th birthday, the responsibility of preserving the tradition fell fully upon her daughter’s shoulders.
With humility and deep reverence for the inheritance she received, Gloria ‘Fiffee’ Vasconcellos continued the work — maintaining the family’s herbal practice, assisting thousands over the years, and guarding the integrity of a tradition she firmly believes is divinely entrusted.
On this day of Black History Month (Guyana),I present Agatha “Mama” Fiffee and Gloria ‘Fiffee’ Vasconcellos. Traditional healers, community matriarch, and enduring figure in Guyana’s living heritage.
The legacy of Agatha “Mama” Fiffee and Gloria Vasconcellos stands as a testament to the enduring power of traditional knowledge and the role of women as custodians of healing within Guyanese communities. Their commitment to service, discipline and faith has preserved a practice rooted in centuries of inherited wisdom while offering hope to countless families. As Guyana reflects during Black History Month, their story reminds us that heritage is not only preserved in archives but lived daily through those who nurture culture, sustain community bonds and carry forward the healing traditions of their ancestors.
—————————-
