The Adopted Goddaughter of Queen Victoria: Sara Forbes Bonetta
Sara was originally named Aina and was born in 1843 into the West African Egbado clan. When she was a young child, Sara’s village was raided by soldiers from the kingdom of Dahomey. After both of her parents were killed in the raid, the five-year-old Sara was captured as a slave and was possibly intended as a human sacrifice. But Captain Frederick Forbes of the Royal Navy took notice of the little girl and persuaded King Gehzo of the Dahomey to offer Sara as a gift to the English Queen Victoria.It was then that she was given her name of Sara Forbes Bonetta. Forbes, the last name of the Captain; and Bonetta, the name of the Captain’s ship.
Queen Victoria was delighted by Sara and found her very intelligent. It was at this time that Victoria adopted Sara as her goddaughter and arranged for her to be comfortably brought up in the British middle class. Although Sara was sent to school in Africa for a short while, she grew homesick and returned to finish her education in England. In 1862, she was present at the wedding of Victoria’s daughter Alice. In the same year, Sara married James Pinson Labulo Davies, an African merchant and businessman.
Sara and Davies returned to Africa, specifically to Lagos,Nigeria, where they would have three children. In 1880, Sara died of tuberculosis on the island of Madeira. A monument was erected to Sara in Lagos by her husband after her death. Today, her descendants still live in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and England.