Niara Bely

Niara Bely (c.1790 - 1879), also known as Elizabeth Bailey Gomez, was a Luso-African queen who became a prominent businesswoman in nineteenth century Guinea. She was active in the slave trade in Farenya, Guinea.

Biography

Niara Bely was the daughter of Emmanuel Gomez, the Luso-African ruler of Bakia, Guinea. She studied in Liverpool.[1] At some point, she also adopted the westernised name of Elizabeth Bailey Gomez.[2]

In 1809 she married the slave trader Stiles Edward Lightbourn who spent much of his time on voyages across the Atlantic.[1] The couple originally lived in Bangalan. Bely subsequently maintained a trading settlement located in Farenya, Guinea.[3] While there, she became a prominent businesswoman involved in the slave trade.[1] She resided in the fortified settlement, in a two-storey building she described as a "palace". Archaeological evidence suggests that the area became a village only after Bely set up her trading outpost. It was the destination for trading routes from the Fouta Djallon highlands.[3]

Lightbourn was lost at sea in 1833. Two years later both Bely and her son Stiles Jr were made chiefs. Over the course of the following 30 years, the family would fight for control of the local area.[4] The children of Bely and Lightbourn did not reside in Farenya, but instead at Gnanya, which at the time was the port for the region.[3] In 1841, when Benjamin Campbell was investigated for involvement in the slave trade, he freely admitted that he had done business with "Mrs Lightbourn", but said that he had only bought legitimate goods such as ivory, hides, wax, gold and coffee.[5]:21

Death

In 1878 she was baptised as an Anglican,[4] later archaeological investigations discovered the remains of the original Anglican church at Farenya.[3] She died on 14 April 1879, with the news commemorated by the firing of the settlement's cannon the morning after. A mission who was present at the time wrote "The infirmities of age had pressed heavily upon her ever since her baptism, and at last she died somewhat suddenly". She was initially buried in a hole under a Cheese tree in the middle of the village. In 1966, a graveyard was built around the location and her remains were re-interred in a cement grave. Additional, empty, graves were built for her husband and her son.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Mouser, Bruce L. (2013). American Colony on the Rio Pongo. Trenton: Africa World Press. ISBN 978-1592219292.
  2. ↑ Sparks, Randy J. (2016). Africans in the Old South. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 79. ISBN 978-0-67449-516-6.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Kelly, Kenneth G. (June 2006). "Preliminary Archaeological Reconnaissance of Sites Related to the Slave Trade Era Along the Upper Rio Pongo, Guinea". Nyame Akuma (65): 24–32. Retrieved 22 November 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 "Slave Trade Expedition to Africa Part 7: The Queen's Graveyard". Columbia Star. Retrieved 22 November 2016.
  5. ↑ Correspondence with the British Commissioners, at Sierra Leone, the Havana, Rio de Janeiro, and Surinam: Relating to the Slave Trade, from January 1 to December 31, 1842, Inclusive. London: William Clowes and Sons. 1843. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
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