Forgotten Books: The African girl that became goddaughter of Queen Victoria

Sara Forbes Bonetta. Photo taken in 1862 by the London photographer Camille-Léon-Louis Silvy.
Photo taken in 1862 when she was around 19 years old by the London photographer Camille-Léon-Louis Silvy.

Aina or Ina was born free in her Yorubaland in West Africa circa 1843, but at short age was captured by the army of the Kingdom of Dahomey and became a slave under King Ghezo. She was reserved for a future sacrifice to the ancestors of the royal family - probably in the Annual Customs of Dahomey. 

The destiny of the girl changed when King Ghezo gave her as a present to Captain Frederick E. Forbes of the British Royal Navy. Forbes took her to England and presented with the sad story of the girl, Queen Victoria supported her education. The African girl became a goddaughter of the Queen.

Image of the African girl in the book of Captain Frederick E. Forbes, 1851.
Image of the African girl from the book of Captain Frederick E. Forbes, 1851. 

Captain Frederick E. Forbes wrote about this in Dahomey and the Dahomans: The Journals of Two missions to the King of Dahomey and Residence at his Capital in the Years 1849 and 1850.

I have only to add a few particulars about my extraordinary present, " the African child." In a former portion of these journals I have mentioned the Okeadon war: 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. For one of these ends she had been detained at court for two years; proving, by her not having been sold to the slave-dealers, that she was of a good family.

So extraordinary a present would have been at least a burden, had I not the conviction that, in consideration of the nature of the service I had performed, the government would consider her as the property of the Crown. To refuse, would have been to have signed her death-warrant; which, probably, would have been carried into execution forthwith.

Immediately on arriving, I applied through the Secretary of the Admiralty, and received for answer that Her Majesty was graciously pleased to arrange for the education and subsequent fate of the child. 

About her capture by the Dahomey Army, he wrote:

Of her own history she has only a confused idea. Her parents were decapitated; her brothers and sisters, she knows not what their fate might have been. 

She was baptized and named Sarah Forbes Bonetta.

(The book of Frederick E. Forbes is available in Amazon - this link is affiliate. The original version has two volumes. The references to Sarah Forbes Bonetta are in the Second Volume.)

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