BOFFA

town and fishing port, western Guinea, West Africa, on the Pongo Estuary formed by the Fatala River on the Atlantic coast. The surrounding region is drained by the Fatala River and is mainly inhabited by the Baga and Susu (Soussou) peoples. The town is the chief trading centre for fish, swamp rice, bananas, and palm oil and kernels. Once a collecting point for slaves, it became a French trading post in the 1860s and was an important exporter (18701914) of wild rubber. Its wharf, 10 miles (16 km) upstream, can accommodate vessels of 16-foot (5-metre) draft at high tide, but the development of Conakry's port (50 miles south-southeast) and shifting sandbars and mangrove swamps in the Pongo Estuary greatly reduced Boffa's importance as a port. Boffa was the site of Guinea's first Catholic (Holy Ghost Fathers) mission (1877) and its first French school (1878). Pop. (1983 prelim.) 28,885.