BONTHE

Atlantic seaport, southwestern Sierra Leone. It lies on the eastern shore of Sherbro Island, on the Sherbro River estuary. A 19th-century British control post against the slave trade, it was settled by freed African slaves and grew as a shipping port for agricultural products. Its harbour still exports palm kernels, ginger, piassava, and coffee, but the silting up of the estuary, coastal swamps, and new internal routes have reduced its importance as a port. The town is a trade centre in swamp rice, fish, and piassava among the Mende and Sherbro peoples, who now outnumber the Creoles (descendants of the liberated slaves). Pop. (1985 prelim.) 7,032.