Sara Forbes Bonetta
| Sara Forbes Bonetta Davies | |
|---|---|
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Sara Forbes Bonetta photographed by Camille Silvy in 1862
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| Born | 1843 Oke Odan Ogun State |
| Died | 15 August 1880 (age ~37) Funchal, Madeira Island, Portugal |
| Cause of death | Tuberculosis |
| Resting place | Funchal, Madeira Island, Portugal |
| Residence |
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| Nationality | Nigerian-British |
| Other names | Aina |
| Home town | Abeokuta |
| Spouse(s) | James Pinson Labulo Davies (m. 1862–80) |
| Children |
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| Relatives | John K. Randle (son-in-law) |
Sara Forbes Bonetta (1843 – 15 August 1880) was a West African Egbado of Yoruba royalty who was orphaned in intertribal warfare, sold into slavery, and in a remarkable twist of events, was liberated from enslavement and became a goddaughter to Queen Victoria. She was married to Captain James Pinson Labulo Davies, a wealthy Victorian Lagos philanthropist.
Originally named "Aina", Sara was born in 1843 at Oke-Odan, an Egbado village. In 1848, Oke-Odan was raided by a Dahomeyan army; Sara's parents died during the attack and she ended up in the court of King Ghezo as a slave at the age of five. Intended by her captors to become a human sacrifice, she was rescued by Captain Frederick E. Forbes of the Royal Navy, who convinced King Ghezo of Dahomey to give her to Queen Victoria; "She would be a present from the King of the Blacks to the Queen of the Whites," Forbes wrote later.
Forbes named her Sara Forbes Bonetta, Bonetta after his ship the HMS Bonetta. Victoria was impressed by the young princess's exceptional intelligence, and had Sara raised as her goddaughter 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 eight, and she returned to England in 1855, when she was 12. In January 1862 she was invited to and attended the wedding of the daughter of Queen Victoria.
She was later given permission by the Queen to marry Captain James Pinson Labulo Davies at St Nicholas' Church in Brighton in August 1862, after a period that was to be spent in the town in preparation for the wedding. During her subsequent time in Brighton, she lived at 17 Clifton Hill in the Montpelier area.
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Wikipedia