Sara Forbes Bonetta, otherwise known as Sarah Forbes Bonetta, (born Aina or Ina; 1843 – 15 August 1880), was ward and goddaughter of Queen Victoria. She was believed to have been a titled member of the Egbado clan of the Yoruba people in West Africa, was orphaned during a war with the nearby

Kingdom of Dahomey The Kingdom of Dahomey () was a West African kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. Dahomey developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in the early 17th century and became a region ...

as a child, and later became enslaved to King Ghezo of Dahomey. In a remarkable twist of events, she was "liberated" from slavery by being given as a "gift" to Captain Frederick E. Forbes of the British Royal Navy and became a goddaughter of Queen Victoria. She was married to Captain

James Pinson Labulo Davies James Pinson Labulo Davies (14 August 1828 – 29 April 1906) was a Nigerian businessman, merchant-sailor, naval officer, farmer, pioneer industrialist, statesman, and philanthropist who married Sara Forbes Bonetta in colonial Lagos. Early li ...

, a wealthy Lagos philanthropist.

Early life

Originally named Aina (or Ina), she was born in 1843 in Oke-Odan, an Egbado

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba consti ...

village in West Africa which recently became independent from the Oyo Empire (present-day southwestern Nigeria) after its collapse. The

was under subjugation by Oyo, and it was a historical enemy of the Yoruba people. Oyo and Dahomey began to engage in a war in 1823 after Ghezo, the new King of Dahomey, refused to pay annual tributes to Oyo. During Oyo's war with Dahomey, Oyo was weakened and destabilised by the Islamic jihads launched by the growing

Sokoto Caliphate The Sokoto Caliphate (), also known as the Fulani Empire or the Sultanate of Sokoto, was a Sunni Muslim caliphate in West Africa. It was founded by Usman dan Fodio in 1804 during the Fulani jihads after defeating the Hausa Kingdoms in the Ful ...

. The Oyo Empire began to disintegrate by the 1830s, fragmenting Yorubaland into various small states. Dahomey's army began to expand eastwards into Oyo's former and defenseless Egbado territory, capturing Egbado slaves in the process. In 1848, Oke-Odan was invaded and captured by the army of Dahomey. Aina's parents died during the attack and other residents were either killed or sold into the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...

. Aina ended up in the court of King Ghezo of Dahomey as a young child slave. Dahomey was a major West African power that immensely profited from the

. After the British abolition of slavery, King Ghezo fought against British attempts to curtail Dahomey's exportation of slaves. Biographer and historian of Africa Martin Meredith quotes King Ghezo telling the British, "The slave trade has been the ruling principle of my people. It is the source of their glory and wealth. Their songs celebrate their victories and the mother lulls the child to sleep with notes of triumph over an enemy reduced to slavery." In July 1850, Captain Frederick E. Forbes of the Royal Navy arrived to West Africa on a British diplomatic mission, where he unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate with King Ghezo to end Dahomey's participation in the Atlantic slave trade. As was customary, Captain Forbes and King Ghezo exchanged gifts with each other. King Ghezo offered Forbes a footstool, rich country cloth, a keg of rum, ten heads of cowry shells, and a caboceers stool. King Ghezo also offered him Aina, who was intended to be a gift for Queen Victoria. Forbes estimated that Aina was enslaved by King Ghezo for two years. Although her actual ancestry is unknown, Forbes came to the conclusion that Aina was likely to have come from a

high status Social status is the level of social value a person is considered to possess. More specifically, it refers to the relative level of respect, honour, assumed competence, and deference accorded to people, groups, and organizations in a society. St ...

background since she had not been sold to European slave traders. Describing Aina in his journal, he wrote: "one of the captives of this dreadful slave-hunt was this interesting girl. It is usual to reserve the best born for the high behests of royalty and the immolation on the tombs of the deceased nobility…". Dahomey was notorious for mass executing its captives in spectacular human sacrifice rituals as part of the Annual Customs of Dahomey. Forbes was aware of Aina's potential deadly fate in Dahomey, and as he wrote in his journal, refusing Aina "would have been to have signed her death-warrant, which probably would have been carried into execution forthwith." Captain Forbes accepted Aina on behalf of Queen Victoria and embarked on his journey back to Britain. Captain Forbes renamed her Sara Forbes Bonetta, after himself and his ship HMS ''Bonetta''. Forbes initially intended to raise her himself. However, Queen Victoria was impressed by the young princess's "exceptional intelligence", and had the girl, whom she called Sally, raised as her

goddaughter In infant baptism and denominations of Christianity, a godparent (also known as a sponsor, or '' gossiprede'') is someone who bears witness to a child's christening and later is willing to help in their catechesis, as well as their lifelon ...

in the British middle class. In 1851, Sara developed a chronic cough, which was attributed to the climate of Great Britain. Her guardians sent her to school in Africa in May of that year, when she was aged eight. She attended the

Annie Walsh Memorial School The Annie Walsh Memorial School is an all-girls secondary school in Freetown, Sierra Leone. It was established in 1849 originally in Charlotte, Sierra Leone, Charlotte, a newly established village for recaptives. It is claimed to be the oldest g ...

(AWMS) in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The school was founded by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in January 1849 as an institution for young women and girls who were relatives of the boys in the

Sierra Leone Grammar School The Sierra Leone Grammar School was founded on 25 March 1845 in Freetown, Sierra Leone, by the Church Mission Society (CMS), and at first was called the CMS Grammar School. It was the first secondary educational institution for West Africans with ...

founded in 1845 (at first named CMS Grammar School). In the school register, her name appears only as Sally Bonetta, pupil number 24, June 1851, who married Captain Davies in England in 1862 and was the ward of Queen Victoria. She returned to England in 1855, when she was 12. She was entrusted to the care of Rev Frederick Scheon and his wife, who lived at Palm Cottage, Canterbury Street Gillingham. The house survives. In January 1862, she was invited to and attended the wedding of Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Alice.

Marriage and children

A portrait of James Pinson Labulo Davies and Sarah Forbes Bonetta, photographed in London in 1862

She was later commanded by the Queen to marry Captain James Pinson Labulo Davies at St Nicholas' Church in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...

, in August 1862, after a period spent in the town preparing for the wedding. During her subsequent time in Brighton, she lived at 17 Clifton Hill in the Montpelier area. Captain Davies was a

businessman of considerable wealth, and after their wedding the couple moved back to their native Africa, where they had three children:

Victoria Davies Victoria Davies (born 7 August 1972) is a British former professional tennis player. Davies, who comes from Bridgend, South Wales, played college tennis in the United States for the University of South Carolina. She was a doubles semifinali ...

(1863), Arthur Davies (1871), and Stella Davies (1873). Sara Forbes Bonetta continued to enjoy such a close relationship with Queen Victoria that she and Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther were the only Lagos ''indigènes'' the Royal Navy had standing orders to evacuate in the event of an uprising in Lagos. Victoria Matilda Davies, Bonetta's first daughter, was named after Queen Victoria, who was also her godmother. She married the successful Lagos doctor Dr. John Randle, becoming the stepmother of his son, Nigerian businessman and socialite

J. K. Randle Chief Joseph Kosoniola Randle MVO MBE (28 July 1909 – December 1956) was a Nigerian businessman and socialite from Lagos. He was Chef de Mission of the Nigerian Olympic team to Melbourne and was connected to various public activities in Lagos. Ran ...

. Bonetta's second daughter Stella Davies and Herbert Macaulay, the grandson of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, had a daughter together: Sarah Abigail Idowu Macaulay Adadevoh, named after her maternal grandmother Sara and her paternal grandmother Abigail. A descendant of Sara's through her line was the Ebola heroine Ameyo Adadevoh. Many of Sara's other descendants now live in either Britain or Sierra Leone; a separate branch, the Randle family of Lagos, remains prominent in contemporary Nigeria.

Death and legacy

Sara Forbes Bonetta died of tuberculosis on 15 August 1880 in the city of Funchal, the capital of

Madeira ) , anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira") , song_type = Regional anthem , image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg , map_alt=Location of Madeira , map_caption=Location of Madeira , subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...

Island, a Portuguese island in the Atlantic Ocean. In her memory, her husband erected an over-eight-foot granite obelisk-shaped monument at

Ijon This is a list of places mentioned in the Bible, which do not have their own Wikipedia articles. See also the list of biblical places for locations which do have their own article. A Abana Abana, according to 2 Kings 5:12, was one of the "river ...

in Western Lagos, where he had started a cocoa farm. The inscription on the obelisk reads:

IN MEMORY OF PRINCESS SARAH FORBES BONETTA WIFE OF THE HON J.P.L. DAVIES WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE AT MADEIRA AUGUST 15TH 1880 AGED 37 YEARS

Her grave is number 206 in the British Cemetery of Funchal near the Anglican Holy Trinity Church, Rua Quebra Costas Funchal, Madeira. A plaque commemorating Forbes Bonetta was placed on Palm Cottage in 2016, as part of the television series '' Black and British: A Forgotten History''. A newly commissioned portrait of Forbes Bonetta by artist

Hannah Uzor Hannah Uzor (born 1982) is a British-Zambian painter. Early life and education Hannah Hasiciimbwe was born in Lusaka, Zambia. As an infant, she and her parents moved to England, returning to Zambia when she was two years old. She became intere ...

went on display at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight in October 2020 as part of an effort by English Heritage to recognise black history in England. Forbes Bonetta was portrayed by Zaris-Angel Hator in the 2017 British

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

television series ''Victoria''. Forbes Bonetta's life and story formed the basis for the novel
Breaking the Maafa Chain
' by Anni Domingo, published by Jacaranda Books in 2021.

Gallery

Sarah Davies (née Forbes Bonetta).jpg, Sara Forbes Bonetta by Camille Silvy Sketches of Funchal, Madeira - The English Cemetery, ILN 1866.jpg, The English Cemetery in Funchal, Madeira Sarah Forbes Bonettas gravestone, Madeira, 2021.jpg, Sarah Forbes Bonetta's gravestone, Madeira

References

External links

"In focus: Sarah Forbes Bonetta"
Kamal Simpson talks to Clare Gittings about Sarah Forbes Bonetta, who was photographed by Camille Silvy and featured in the

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...

. YouTube.
The Lost Child (BBC documentary)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonetta Forbes, Sarah 1843 births 1880 deaths 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis 19th-century Nigerian women 19th-century slaves Annie Walsh Memorial School alumni Black British history Burials in Madeira Island English people of Nigerian descent English people of Yoruba descent History of women in Lagos Kidnapped Nigerian children Nigerian princesses People from Ogun State People of colonial Nigeria Queen Victoria Randle family Saro people Tuberculosis deaths in Portugal Women in 19th-century warfare Yoruba princesses Yoruba slaves