Women in History

Sarah Forbes-Bonetta

Born Omoba Aina, in Oke Odan, Ogun state of Nigeria, in 1843. Sarah was a Egbado princess of the Yoruba people of West Africa. In 1848, Oke Odan was raided by a Dahomeyean army & both of Sarah's parents were killed. She was sold to King Ghezo of Dahomey, at the age of 5. Her captors intended to use her as a human sacrifice, but she was rescued by Captain Frederick Forbes, of the British Royal Navy, who convinced King Ghezo, to give Sarah as a "gift" to Queen Victoria. Forbes renamed her Sarah Forbes-Bonetta, Bonetta after his ship, HMS Bonetta. In 1850, Sarah finally met Victoria, who was immediately taken with the young girl & impressed by her exceptional intelligence. Sarah was raised by Victoria as her goddaughter. In 1851, she developed a chronic cough, which was attributed to the climate of Great Britain. So was sent by her guardians to Africa in May, when she was 8. She returned to England in 1855, at the age of 12.

In August 1862, Sarah was given permission to marry, Captain James Pinson Labulo Davies, at St. Nicholas' Church, in Brighton, Sussex. Captain Davies was a Yoruba businessman of considerable wealth. After the wedding, Sarah & James moved back to Nigeria, where they settled in the capital, Lagos. Together they had 3 children, Victoria, Arthur & Stella. Sarah continued to have a close relationship with Queen Victoria. A descendant of the couple, Victoria Matilda Davies was also a goddaughter to the queen, she married the prominent Lagosi doctor, John K. Randle & many of her descendants now live in Sierra Leone & England, while another branch of the family, the aristocratic Randle family of Lagos, are very influential members of contemporary Nigerian society.

Sarah passed away at age 37, from tuberculosis on August 15, 1880; in Funchal, the capital of Madeira Island, which is a Portuguese island in the Atlantic. Her husband, Captain Davies, erected a over 8ft tall granite obelisk in her honor, in western Lagos, where he had started a cocoa farm. The inscription on the monument reads: "In Memory of Princess Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Wife of the Hon. J.P.L. Davies, Who departed this life at Madeira, August 15, 1880, Aged 37 years."