Warner M. Montgomery’s Adventure Travel The African Slave Trail The Hotel Niara Bely

After a 12–hour trek on the Slave Trail, we were welcomed as the first guests at the Hotel Niara Bely. The history–making Slave Trail Trek ended at 7 pm on June 13, 2004. During our 12–hour walk, we visited five villages involved in the slave trade between 1800 and 1860. The chiefs told their history and proudly showed historic sites. It was a wonderful and exciting expedition into the history of West Africa.

I was able to connect the slave trade on the Rio Pongo in Guinea to the rice plantations of coastal SC. The virtual trail I had been following in the archives of Charleston, Savannah, Bermuda, Nassau, and London became reality in the people and artifacts of Farenya, Sambaya, Bangalan, Bakoro, and Sanya Pauli.

My room was equipped with a bed, night stand, table, and bath. The bed was a solid platform with a thin mat. American ship captains married into royal families along the Rio Pongo, established slave factories, built forts, fought the British Navy, became involved in tribal wars, and left a legacy in West Africa. They bought slaves from caravans, trained them in the rice fields, and sold them to European and American slave traders. On the other side of the Middle Passage, these slaves were sold on the block in Charleston, Savannah, and Havana.

Comrades in arms, friends forever – Dr. Naby Camara and Dr. Jim Fisher. One of these captains, Stiles Lightburn, was connected by blood to Charleston and Savannah. His brother Francis married into the Charleston elite and operated a rice plantation on Wadmalaw Island. His sister Mary married Thomas Bennett, the mayor of Charleston. His brother Samuel was a leading grocer and shipper in Savannah and welcomed Maj. Gen. Thomas Pinckney to Savannah at the outbreak of the War of 1812.

Capt. Stiles Lightburn married Elizabeth Bailey Gomez, daughter of an African chief. She became a chief (Queen Niara Bely) after her husband disappeared in 1833. Niara Bely and her son, Stiles Jr., established a trading empire on the Rio Pongo and eventually signed the treaty that gave France control of Guinea.

Niara Bely became a legend after her death in 1879. Stories of her mythical powers fill songs at palavers along the Rio Pongo. She could stand up to any man, African or European. She could disappear from her palace and reappear on a stone ship out in the Atlantic. She made the best black soap and the best white rice. She fought the Christian missionaries and their attempts to end slavery. Finally, a year before her death, Queen Niara Bely submitted to baptism by Anglican missionaries.

Dr. Jim Fisher and I have worked for six years with Dr. Naby Camara to write the history of the Rio Pongo, especially the adventures of Capt. Stiles Lightburn and Queen Niara Bely of Farenya. With support from the wife of the president of Guinea, six bungalows were built in Farenya. The night before the trek, Jim and I were the first people to sleep in the bungalows. At the conclusion of the trek, we were honored as the first guests of the brand–new Niara Bely Hotel in Boffa. It became obviously clear – the Ministry of Tourism, the first lady of Guinea, and Dr. Naby Camara had developed a tourist attraction on the Rio Pongo based on the rich history of the slave trade.

We were shown to our rooms, and I immediately took a shower. As I was getting dressed, a beer appeared at my door along with a call for dinner.

African hospitality once again. Roasted chicken and rice with red sauce, salad, and French bread. We toasted our success, us with beer, them with soft drinks. At midnight, we retired to our rooms. Thunder and lightning. Wind ripped at the curtains. I lay without moving. Rain peppered my exhausted body. Queen Niara Bely walked across the river and beckoned me to follow…