Adjua Gyapiaba

Adjua Gyapiaba (c. 1820-1880), also known as Ajua Japiaba, Api-jaba and Afi Jaba, was a woman from Elmina in contemporary Ghana, who after a heated argument with a fellow Elminan was expelled by the Dutch colonial authorities to Suriname, where she eventually acquired fame as a herbalist and diviner.

When Kwamena Ankwanda tried to intervene on behalf of his wife, Gyapiaba allegedly swore an oath on the Asantehene that all Elminese were slaves of Asante, as were the inhabitants of Cape Coast.

[4] A year after the argument in Kumasi had taken place, on 7 November 1849, Governor Anthony van der Eb sentenced Gyapiaba "in accordance with African laws and local customs, suitably amended," to lifelong banishment in the East or West Indies for "serious calumnies and diatribes against the Dutch Government, the Elminese African government and the whole population of this place.

[7] In 1868, she petitioned King William III of the Netherlands to let her return to Elmina, but despite the fact that the governors of both Suriname and the Gold Coast had no objections to this, no decision was taken.

[14][6] In 2007, the Surinamese government decided to rename the Nepveustraat in Paramaribo, which was named after a colonial governor of Suriname, to Afi Jabastraat.