By Warner M. Montgomery

The African Slave Trail

Dr. Camara (yellow shirt) points to the circle of stones where the first Koranic school on the Rio Pongo once existed. Islam spread along the trade routes from North Africa across the Sahara Desert to West Africa beginning in the ninth century. Gold and slaves moved north as Islamic law, accounting, art, and language moved south. By 850 AD a kingdom on the Senegal River adopted the religion that had begun in Arabia 300 years earlier. They were the first Negro people to accept the teachings of Mohammed.

Over the next 400 years a few tribal leaders in West Africa converted to Islam, went on a hadj (pilgrimage) to Mecca, and returned home to launch their own jihad (conversion of the infidels). They built mosques and integrated Islamic law and customs into the traditions of their own culture as best they could.

The men and the children follow Dr. Camara in Muslim prayers at the site of an ancient mosque. The imams (teachers) found it difficult to persuade the chiefs to limit the number of their wives to four. The sacred turban of Mohammed morphed with the tribal skull cap to become the now prevalent boubou cap, a tonsorial compromise. The traditional animist beliefs yielded only slightly to the strict laws of Islam. Amulets, charms, and jujus (spirits) were somehow justified by the Koran .

Following paths up the Niger River, traders and Moslem missionaries eventually made their way west to the highlands of Guinea. The first people to accept the teachings of Mohammed were the Fula, the herders of the Futa Djallon plateau. By the 17th century the Fula kingdom was a theocracy.

For centuries, the Fula had controlled the paths west to the Atlantic where they bought rice and salt from the Baga on the coast. Between the Fula and the Baga were the Susu, a tribe of farmers and traders who eventually became middlemen in the Fula–Baga commerce. Once the Euro-peans appeared in the 15th century, slaves became the major item of trade, and trading posts were established in Susu territory.

There were few confrontations over religion in Guinea. The early Portuguese did not follow the “Gold, Glory, and Gospel” approach of the Spanish, and the French made only meager attempts to convert their African subjects to Catholicism. The British, however, allowed Protestant missionaries to accompany their gunboats up the rivers to plant churches. The chiefs were offered schools and protection from the British Navy if churches were allowed to be built. The Christians met little resistance from the Fula Muslims who only ventured into Susu territory to keep commerce flowing.

In the 1850s, Susu chiefs allowed Anglican churches to be built in their villages. Two church–affiliated, English–speaking schools were established along the Rio Pongo and quickly filled up with children of the European and American slave traders.

The Susu chiefs exhibited a high degree of religious tolerance. Animists, Christians, and Moslems sat down and shared rice and red sauce at every palaver. Even today, the Muslim majority in Guinea is openly tolerant to Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and traditional African faiths.

The chief of Bangalan was anxious to show us an historic site just outside his village. The Slave Trail Expedition team followed him down the road. At a high curve in the road overlooking the Rio Pongo, he led us across a field and up a stony clay hill.

“This is the site of the first Koranic school on the Rio Pongo,” he said. All that remained was a circle of large stones. “The rocks encircled a fire which represented the Koran . Time and weather has taken it away.” The chief didn’t know, but I think the school was established between 1800 and 1850.

The chief pointed to an open area scattered with stones, “That was a cemetery, and over there was the mosque. Nothing remains, but it is still a holy place.”

Members of the team joined the chief and a group of children who had followed us from the village and stood facing remnants of the mosque. Dr. Camara and the chief led them in prayer. Symbolically, they washed their hands, feet, and faces, then recited verses from the Koran. The chief chanted amen, amen, amen over and over. The faithful repeated the chant in clipped rhythm.

The children lost interest and began to wander away. A cool breeze crept over the hill, brushed by the worshippers, and rustled palm fronds on its way to the river.

My mind turned to the past. A turbaned man on a white horse. Sweaty black men and women with large bundles on their heads. Muscular young men shackled neck to neck. Ignorant of its fate, the caravan marched to the sea.

(Next week: Bakoro, a Lebanese town)