tribal confederation · West Africa
Condo Confederation
Origins
In the early 19th century Sao Boso, a Mandingo warrior and trader known to Europeans as King Boatswain, built a coalition around Bopolu in the hinterland of what is now north-western Liberia. Linking Gola, Vai, Dei and other communities, the Condo Confederation aimed to keep the trade routes between the interior and the coast open and safe.
Rule and society
Bopolu was a market town where caravans exchanged slaves, cattle, cloth and ivory for salt and European goods from the coast at Cape Mount and Monrovia. Sao Boso and his Muslim Mandingo allies dominated the confederation, though its members kept their own chiefs. Its relations with the settlers of the Colony of Liberia mixed trade with occasional conflict.
Decline and legacy
After Sao Boso's death in 1836 the confederation was weakened by succession quarrels among its leaders and wars between member peoples. By the 1870s its lands came under the claims of Liberia, which absorbed them into the republic's interior.
Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.
On the connections map
Open the full map →Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Condo Confederation. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/condo-confederation
- MLA
- “Condo Confederation.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/condo-confederation. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Condo Confederation.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/condo-confederation.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Condo Confederation’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/condo-confederation (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻