Slave Trade Expedition to Africa
Part 25: Map of Farenya

No official map of Farenya of Guinea exists. Since 1998, when I first began researching Farenya, I have tracked down several ancient maps. The oldest, found in the British Archives contains a survey by Commander E. Belcher in 1830 and an 1858 sketch by M.Valloy, a lieutenant commanding the Dialmath in the French Navy.

Belcher's depth readings for the mouth of the Rio Pongo, corrected in 1873, show the river to be six fathoms deep around the sand bar at the delta, eight fathoms at its deepest, and less than four close to Farenya.

Valloy's sketch shows the many slave factories (trading posts) on the river listed by factor's name. Farenya (labeled Laybonn for Lightbourn) appears as a rectangular fortress about 15 miles from the ocean. Even though the distances are not exact and the location of factories only approximate, the map is fairly accurate.

The only map of the village of Farenya I have been able to locate was in the Guinea National Library, a University of Conakry thesis by Baldé Mamadou Oury in 1971. The thesis was entitled, La Traite Negriere au Rio Pongo (Slave Trade on the Rio Pongo ). The map was sketched on a yellow legal pad and attached to the thesis.

The village of Farenya is shown on this 1858 sketch by a French naval commander as a fortress labeled Laybonn. At that time Farenya was the site of Queen Niara Bely's (wife of the deceased Capt. Styles Lightbourn) slave factory (trading post).

Baldé's sketch shows the major landmarks of the village such as the port, school, mosque, forge, protestant chapel, two fresh water streams, and five cannon. In an area designated as Queen Niara Bely's compound are the palace, cemetery, ancient soap factory, and path to the port. Trails to Bangalan and Lisso are also drawn in as are the old slave sections, Balandugu and Goré.

In January 2006, I used a GPS to establish the exact location of most of the landmarks. I also conducted a census of the homes and people, so it will be possible to draw an accurate map of the village before Dr. Ken Kelly and his students begin the archaeological dig, hopefully in 2007.

This sketch of the compound of Queen Niara Bely (domaine de N. Bély) in the village of Farenya was included in a 1971 thesis at the University of Conakry. Noted are ruins of the Queen's residence (Palais eu ruine), cemetery with three graves (cimetiere), old soap factory (anciene savonnaire), path to port (sentier menant au port), and four cannon (canon).

(Next week: Flag Expedition Report)

This map was made by a GPS during our expedition to Farenya in January 2006. The large blue body is the Rio Pongo with two streams entering into it. The brown lines are major paths in the village. Waypoints recorded by the GPS include the old hill fort (FORT), northern stream (WATER), the bungalow in which we stayed (BUN1), cannon (CANNONNORH, CANNONCENT, CANNONCEME, AND CANNONSOUTH), Niara Bely's Palace (PALACE), Mosque (MOSQUE), ruins of Anglican Church (CHURCH), Dr. Naby Camara's home (CAMARA), baths on the southern stream for women and men (BATH, BATH2), and ruins of the first Anglican Church (1STCHURCH).