The Tarkar People
The Tarkars was an African Yoruba Community of peoples located in the interior region of the Gulf of Guinea on the west coast of Afrika. The Tarkars were agricultural people raising hogs, goats, sheep, chickens and cows. The Tarkars also planted and harvested beans, yams, bananas, and pineapples. The bountiful agricultural region fed the mouths of the Yoruba Community, as well as established commerce to be sold at the markets where they traded or sold with other communities in the region.
In the late 1860s, several West Afrikan communities were at war or being destroyed because of European’s thirst for free labor. The Tarkar Community was overran by Fulani Warriors. The Tarkar Community was destroyed and a common war tactic employed, that was, kill the elderly and secure the young-abled bodies. From this Yoruba Community, the age ranged from the upper twenties to as young as one years of age who were sold into bondage.
In 1860, several of the able bodied Tarkar Community were held captive in a barracoon (prison) in Ouidah, Afrika. In April or May of 1860, several persons from the Tarkar Community were purchased by an American ship captain, William Foster. Foster and his crew left Mobile, Alabama on March 4, 1860, according to a local Mobile, Alabama newspaper.
Tarkar
This map is a small replication of the depletion of human lives from the West Coast of Africa to the American Enterprise, LLC.
In July 14, 1860, the same local newspaper reported the return of Foster, his crew and the “floating coffin,” loaded with 110 human lives had made its return. There was a sense of jubilee in Mobile, Alabama that the dastardly deed had been accomplished.
The Resistance Was Real. Taken in Ouidah, Africa 2019
On or about July 7, 1860, the floating coffin, disembarked its human cargo along the shores of Mobile, Alabama. This successful illegal act by Foster had been outlawed since 1808. Foster nor any of his cronies were ever held to account or prosecuted for these acts of human bondage, human trafficking, and racketeering.
The 110 souls were distributed to those Mobile, Alabama elites who had financial interest in the coffins journey. 32 of the souls were settled on by Timothy Meaher, a wealthy ship builder of the time. Of the 32 souls, 2 specifically are known to be from the Tarkar Community, KuPollee, Pollee (Allen) and Kazoola, Kossola, Cudjo (Lewis). These Yoruba men from the Tarkar Community were now on the property of Meaher, at Magazine Point, three miles north of Mobile.
Tragedy on top of tragedy. Taken in Ouidah, Africa 2019
The 32 formed what came to be known, and still is known as, Afrika Town, now called Africatown. This site is dedicated to the still living Yoruba Tarkars’, the loved ones who have come before us and to the ones whose names are hidden.