Sarah Forbes Bonetta

Sarah Forbes Bonetta (born c. 1843, Yoruba states [now in Nigeria]—died August 15, 1880, Funchal, Portugal) was a Yoruban woman who was captured as a child by a neighboring kingdom and later taken from western Africa to the United Kingdom by an abolitionist. She had her welfare and education funded by Queen Victoria, with whom she developed a close relationship.

Background and capture

There is very little information definitively known about Sarah Forbes Bonetta’s early life. She was most likely born in the Yoruba states (now in Nigeria) in western Africa, and her name might have been Aina or Ina. She appears to have been orphaned at about five years of age when, in 1848, her parents were killed in a raid on their village by warriors from the kingdom of Dahomey (now in Benin). Dahomey’s king, Ghezo (also spelled Gezo or Gezu), was a prominent 19th-century slave trader who enslaved the captives from such raids. As she apparently came from a highly ranked family, she was kept as a political prisoner, likely to be used as a human sacrifice, rather than sold into slavery.

Passage to Britain

In 1850 the HMS Bonetta anchored in Dahomey, where she was being held. The ship’s commander, Frederick E. Forbes, was a representative of Queen Victoria on a mission to suppress the African slave trade, an operation in line with Britain’s recent abolition of slavery. During a meeting between Forbes and Ghezo, she was given to Forbes, who accepted her on behalf of the crown. She was baptized and renamed Sarah Forbes Bonetta (incorporating Forbes’s own name and the name of the ship he commanded). On the voyage back to Britain, Forbes noted in his journal that she became “a general favourite” with the crew and quickly picked up their language.

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Education

Upon their arrival in England, Forbes brought Bonetta to his family home, where she was given a brief education in English customs. On November 9, 1850, she was presented to Queen Victoria, who decided to fund her education and living expenses. Bonetta continued to live with the Forbes family and to be granted visits with the queen. She quickly became familiar with the royal family, who often called her Sally, and she grew close with Queen Victoria’s daughter, Princess Alice. Bonetta was, however, subject to frequent illness, and in 1851 the queen, believing that the English climate was detrimental to Bonetta’s health, decided that she should return to Africa. Bonetta arrived in Sierra Leone in June 1851 and continued her education; while there, Bonetta received a continuous stream of presents, books, and communications from Queen Victoria. When Bonetta was about 12 years old, the queen ordered her return to England and made arrangements for her to live with the Rev. James Schoen, who had done missionary work in Africa; his wife, Elizabeth Schoen; and their children in Gillingham and to attend to her education until she came of age. British newspapers closely observed and published Bonetta’s educational progress in various attempts to confirm or contradict racial stereotypes.

Family life

As she came of age, Bonetta was proposed to by James Pinson Labulo Davies, a wealthy, older Yoruban businessman. She initially rejected his proposal. Davies then sought and received the queen’s approval, and, under much pressure, Bonetta accepted. On August 14, 1862, Davies and Bonetta married in St. Nicholas Church in Brighton in a lavish ceremony. The couple returned to Africa and settled in Sierra Leone, where Bonetta taught at the school she had herself attended years earlier. They later moved to Lagos, where Bonetta also taught. The couple had four children, the first of whom was named Victoria (1863) and for whom Queen Victoria assumed the role of godmother. She was followed by a sister, Alice, who died before she turned two; a brother, Arthur; and a sister, Stella.

Illness

Bonetta struggled with weak health that eventually progressed into tuberculosis. Despite traveling to the Portuguese Madeira Islands in 1880 in the hopes that its climate would restore her health, she died in August at 37 years of age. Davies commissioned an 8-foot (2.4-meter) granite obelisk monument in her memory at his cacao farm near Lagos. The queen, who saw her goddaughter soon after Bonetta’s death, reflected in her journal, “saw poor Victoria Davies, my black godchild, now 17, who heard this morning of the death of her dear mother.” Upon Bonetta’s death, the queen provided Victoria Davies with an annuity.