Sara Forbes Bonetta

Sara Forbes Bonetta photographed by Camille Silvy in 1862

Sara Forbes Bonetta was a West African Egbado Omoba who was orphaned in inter-tribal warfare at the age of eight. Intended to be 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. He named her Sara Forbes Bonetta.

Victoria was impressed by the young princess' exceptional intelligence, and had Sara raised as her goddaughter in the British middle class. In 1851 she gained a long lasting cough that was caused by the climate transferring from Africa to Great Britain. She was sent to school in Africa and later then returned to England when she became 20. Sara was sanctioned by Victoria to marry Captain James Davies at Nicholas Church in Brighton in August, 1862. Davies was a Yoruba businessman of considerable wealth for the period, and the couple moved back to their native Africa after their wedding. Sara was baptised at a church in the town of Badagry, a former slave port.

She died at the age of 37 in 1880 of tuberculosis. Her husband James had previously been concerned about Sara because she appeared to have had a cough that would not go away; she was eventually diagnosed with the consumption.

References

• Brighton and Hove Black History
• Image archive
• Myers, Walter Dean, At Her Majesty's Request: An African Princess in Victorian England, ISBN 0-590-48669-1 (some information for this article was derived from the editorial reviews of this book as listed here: [1])

Persondata
Name	Bonetta, Sarah Forbes
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1802
Place of birth
Date of death	1880
Place of death