Talk:Lomboko

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Location[edit]

Fort Lomboka was close to a place called Sulima at the Gallinas river, which is apparently today's Moa river[1] According to other sources the Gallinas was, however, a river north of the Moa, which is then far away from Sulima.[2] Who knows more? --Chtrede (talk) 06:54, 10 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

All I can contribute right now would be OR, but Sulima is AT (vs. "near") the mouth of the Moa, and there's ONE island. This is problematic because of the following, from the article: "Lomboko was scattered across SEVERAL small islands at the mouth of the Gallinas River, NEAR Sulima on the Gallinas coast." Of course, who knows how much the river deltas have changed in the 170-ish years since the fort was destroyed? But "several" isn't "one," and "near" isn't "at."
There IS a river "near" Sulima that has "several" islands near its mouth. It's the Mano to the east, and it's the border between Sierra Leone and Liberia. I guess I'm really asking how certain is it that the Moa is the former Gallinas? Might it not be the Mano? That seems to fit the description better.
But I freely admit this is all conjecture, based on this article and the current map of the area. Jororo05 (talk) 23:27, 25 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

References

  1. ^ Rediker, Marcus (2012). The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom. Penguin. ISBN 1-101-60105-1.
  2. ^ Out of the Americas: Sklavenhändler und Hidden Atlantic im 19. Jahrhundert. Universität Köln, S. 43.

I have fixed the Gallinas River (Sierra Leone) page. The Gallinas River is strictly speaking the Kerefe River at (7°0′52″N 11°37′29″W / 7.01444°N 11.62472°W / 7.01444; -11.62472), which is a bit west of the Moa River (and thus west of Sulima). The Kerefe/Gallinas does indeed have several islands at its mouth, formed by a myriad of marshy channels and waterways. However, I have no idea exactly where Lomboko was/is.

The pdf you cite above has a sketched map of the exact location for Pedro Blanco's operation Map, p 43. Lomboka would be where "Dumbakora" is designated on that sketched map (same name). This sketch seems to match the following description from the Rediker book:

"Lomboko was actually a complex of slave-trading factories, all owned by Blanco, and located at the mouth of the Gallinas (Kerefe) River, and on a cluster of seven small islands. A British admiralty chart of 1839 labelled the three largest islands Kamasoun, Kambatin, and Taro, all with small rectangular marks that represent buildings. Across the channel from Kambatin, on the north coast of the Gallinas River, lay Lomboko (here called Dumbacora) - two buildings in a clearing surrounded by coast fort. Nearby are three more buildings and a large rectangle denoted as the "Castle", which was the fortified centerpiece of the slaving operation. On the south side of the Gallinas, at the mouth, is another cleared area with three buildings labeled "Pedro Blanco's House"." (Rediker, 2012: p.45)

I couldn't find the referred to admiralty chart. I did find an admiralty chart of 1880 which does indicate "Pedro Blanco's Point". Which seems to be around where I put my Gallinas marker.

However, I am not sure at what exact coordinates Lomboka's location corresponds to on Geomaps. I presume the river's topography has changed a bit since the 19th Century. Nonetheless, decided to be bold and replaced the erroneous coordinates of Sulima with the better Gallinas River coordinates. May not be exact, but closer than before. Walrasiad (talk) 23:15, 13 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]