A gift to Victoria
Sarah Forbes Bonetta (1843-1880), born into a royal West African dynasty, was taken to England as a child and given to Queen Victoria as a “gift” . Her parents had been killed in a slave hunt when she was five, after which she was taken prisoner by King Ghezo of Dahomey, which today is part of Benin.
When she was about eight, Captain Frederick E Forbes of England’s Royal Navy visited Dahomey. He convinced the king to give Sarah to Queen Victoria, saying: “She would be a present from the King of the Blacks to the Queen of the Whites.” Sarah was given Forbes’s surname as well as the name of his ship, the Bonetta.
On November 9 1850 she was taken to Windsor Castle and received by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Captain Forbes later wrote of Sarah in his journal: “My extraordinary present, the African child . . . She is a perfect genius; she now speaks English well and has a great talent for music . . . she is far in advance of any white child of her age, in aptness of learning, and strength of mind and affection.”
She married James Pinson Labulo Davies, a 31-year-old Yoruba businessman living in Britain. They moved to Lagos where Davies became a member of Nigeria’s legislative council from 1872-74. They named their eldest daughter Victoria and the queen agreed to be her godmother. Little Victoria Davies was given an annuity by the queen and visited the royal household regularly.
— Sources: www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk and www.royalcollection.org.uk