Trade centres · fl. c. 1800–1870s

Bopolu (Bokoma)

Capital of the Condo Confederation and the principal inland entrepôt of western Liberia.

Biography

Bopolu sat where the interior caravan road met the paths down to the Mesurado coast. Caravans from Musardu and the Mande markets brought cattle, horses, leatherwork, kola and captives; coastal traffic brought salt, iron bars, cloth, tobacco and firearms.

The town held a resident Muslim community with Arabic literacy, a market under the ruler's peace, and quarters for strangers — the classic institutional apparatus of a West African commercial city.

Historical significance

Demonstrates urban commercial institutions in the Liberian interior a generation before the settlers.

Timeline

c. 1800Becomes the Condo capital
1834Receives a settler delegation
1868/1870Visited and described by Benjamin Anderson

On the map

Associated with Bopolu. Open the historical atlas.

References

Holsoe (1971).
Anderson (1870).