# The extraordinary life of Sarah Forbes Bonetta

> A new biography reveals how a girl captured by an African king became Queen Victoria's protege, but was never truly free.
- Title: The extraordinary life of Sarah Forbes Bonetta · the Guardian
- Summary: A new biography reveals how a girl captured by an African king became Queen Victoria's protege, but was never truly free. A biography of Sarah Forbes…
- Keywords: sarah forbes bonetta, queen victoria, british colonialism, yoruba, henry lovejoy, bayo randle, dahomey, benin, 19th century africa, biography, news, world
- Source: the Guardian — https://theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/18/sarah-forbes-bonetta-biography-queen-victoria
- Published: 2026-10-18T07:00:53+00:00
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: sarah forbes bonetta, queen victoria, british colonialism, yoruba, henry lovejoy, bayo randle, dahomey, benin, 19th century africa, biography, news, world
## A girl called Àìná
Born in eighteen forty-three in Òkè-Òdàn, south-west Nigeria, Sarah Forbes Bonetta was originally named Àìná. Her family was killed in eighteen forty-eight when King Ghezo of Dahomey's forces attacked her town.
## Captured and held at court
At age five, Àìná was captured by the agodjié, the all-female regiment depicted in the Hollywood movie The Woman King, and held at King Ghezo's court in what is now Benin.
## Brought to England by the Navy
In eighteen fifty, Frederick Forbes of the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron petitioned King Ghezo to sign an anti-slavery treaty. The mission failed, but Forbes asked if he could take Àìná to England.
## Renamed and made crown property
Forbes gave her his own name and that of his ship, the Bonetta. He then petitioned for her to be the property of the crown, making her effectively indentured to Queen Victoria until age nineteen.

> the property of the crown
## Victoria's royal protege
Queen Victoria paid for Bonetta's education, approved her marriage to James Pinson Labulo Davies, a merchant and philanthropist, and became godmother to her eldest daughter, Victoria.
## Used as imperial propaganda
Bonetta's image was exploited as imperial iconography to promote the idea that British colonialism of Africa was a civilising mission.
## A life of talent and constraint
Bonetta became a gifted linguist, musician, travel writer and educator, and a leading woman in nineteenth-century Lagos. She died from tuberculosis in Madeira in eighteen eighty, aged thirty-seven.
## A biography challenges the myths
Canadian academic Prof Henry Lovejoy's book Becoming Sarah Forbes Bonetta: A Yorùbá Woman in Queen Victoria's Court challenges myths that Bonetta was a Yoruba princess, Victoria's goddaughter, or spent most of her life in England.
## Her great-great-grandson reflects
Bayo Randle, a British-Nigerian barrister from London, welcomes the research despite its discomfort. He says Bonetta was very capable, courageous and dignified through adversity, and is an early example of Black Britain.

> She is an early example of Black Britain.
## Key takeaway

A biography of Sarah Forbes Bonetta, a Yoruba woman presented to Queen Victoria as a diplomatic gift, challenges myths about her life and exposes how she was used as imperial propaganda despite her talents as a linguist, musician and writer.