A True-Life Odyssey of Survival, Legacy, and Redemption. The name Quamina carries centuries of resistance, dignity, and power. This is the story of one man who refused to let that name die.
From the 1823 Demerara slave revolt led by Quamina Gladstone to the streets of 1980s America, Raising Quamina traces the unbreakable thread of Black defiance and resistance across time and continents. Rev. Duane A. Quamina steps into the legacy of his ancestors—not to romanticize rebellion, but to expose the brutal systems built to erase men like him.
Born into a world of quiet wars and loud betrayals, Quamina endured childhood trauma, military sabotage, encounters with the Turkish and Medellin cartels, and two wrongful imprisonments—in Germany and the United States. His legal battle in the infamous Wells Fargo prosecution—centered around the largest attempted heist in American history—ultimately led him to serve time in the historic Atlanta Penitentiary, a fortress of American punishment once home to some of the nation’s most notorious inmates, including Al Capone, Vincent “The Chin” Gigante, Carlos Lehder, Michael Milken, G. Gordon Liddy, and Frank Abagnale.
But this is not a story of defeat. It is a resurrection.
Guided by ancestral memory, spiritual awakening, and nonviolent leadership, Quamina rises from systemic injustice to reclaim his identity—and his voice. Raising Quamina is both personal and political, spiritual and historical. It is a testimony.
Raising Quamina is more than a memoir—it’s a call to conscience and a mirror held up to history.
With cinematic clarity and poetic truth, Rev. Duane A. Quamina lays bare the realities that others tried to bury. This is a story reclaimed, a legacy reborn, and a truth that refused to be erased. Once you start reading, you won’t walk away the same.
