Sara Forbes Bonetta
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Sarah Forbes Bonetta was a West African Egbado tribal princess 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 girl's exceptional intelligence, and had Sara raised as her goddaughter in the British middle class. Sara was sanctioned by Victoria to marry John Davies at Nicholas Church in Brighton in August, 1862. Davies was a West African businessman, and the couple moved there after their wedding.
She died at the age of 37 in 1880 of tuberculosis.
[edit] 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])
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