What is "lomboko"

Lomboko refers to a slave factory, a fortress stockade controlled by the infamous Spanish slave trader Pedro Blanco. It consisted of several large holding depots or barracoons for slaves brought from the interior, as well as several palatial buildings for Blanco to house his wives, concubines, and employees.

Lomboko was scattered across several small islands at the mouth of the Gallinas River, near Sulima on the Gallinas coast. Spanish slave merchants controlled the area, within the then-British colony and modern-day country of Sierra Leone. By 1839, about 2,000 slaves a year were coming out of the Gallinas River, despite the slave trade being illegal. In 1849, a British Royal Navy expedition attacked the slave factory: the Royal Marines freed the slaves and then destroyed Lomboko completely.

The fortress plays a prominent part in the Steven Spielberg film Amistad. In the movie, the main character Joseph Cinqué, as well as other slaves, were shown being captured and brought to Lomboko and treated cruelly. The slave liberation and destruction of the fortress is portrayed in the film's climax.