Forbes promised Gezo, “She would be a present from the King of the Blacks to the Queen of the Whites.”įrederick E. Gezo resisted, but Forbes convinced the ruler to hand over the 7-year-old orphan princess. Two years later, a British captain named Frederick Forbes visited Dahomey, hoping to persuade King Gezo to outlaw slavery. King Gezo, a rival ruler from Dahomey, slaughtered Aina’s family and took her captive, bringing the child back to the Dahomey court.
Born Omoba Aina, the child would lose her entire family before her sixth birthday.
The Yoruba people of West Africa welcomed a new princess in 1843. The queen welcomed the former princess into the royal household - but the West African princess’s life among white colonial royalty left behind a complicated legacy. Victoria was struck by young Bonetta’s intelligence and declared the orphan her goddaughter. And, at 7 years old, she arrived in England at the court of the world’s most powerful queen. Sarah Forbes Bonetta had watched as invaders slaughtered her parents and siblings in West Africa. A few months after giving birth to the seventh of her nine children, Victoria met a young orphan girl who’d been born into royalty. In 1850, Queen Victoria reigned over the largest empire in the world. Today, it’s at the National Portrait Gallery. Camille Silvy/Wikimedia Commons Photographer Camille Silvy snapped a portrait of Sarah Forbes Bonetta in 1862.
0 kommentar(er)
