An extraordinary life: descendant welcomes biography of woman ‘gifted’ to Queen Victoria

Sarah Forbes Bonetta foi trazida para a Inglaterra por Frederick Forbes, do Esquadrão da África Ocidental da Marinha Real. Fotografia: William Bambridge (1819‑79)/Royal Collection TrustVisualizar imagem em tela cheia Sarah Forbes Bonetta foi trazida para a Inglaterra por Frederick Forbes, do Esquadrão da África Ocidental da Marinha Real.

Prefer the Guardian on GoogleWhen she was seven years old, Bayo Randle’s great-great-grandmother Sarah Forbes Bonetta was presented to Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle as a “diplomatic gift” from an African king.

Victoria would go on to pay for Bonetta’s education, approve her marriage to one of west Africa’s wealthiest men, and become godmother to her eldest daughter.

Mas enquanto Victoria demonstrava um interesse genuíno pelo bem‑estar de Bonetta, tornando a órfã uma protetora real e se encontrando com ela ao longo dos anos, o relacionamento deles fazia parte de uma agenda maior.

Now, as a biography is published – Becoming Sarah Forbes Bonetta: A Yorùbá Woman in Queen Victoria’s Court – Randle has spoken of his family history.

View image in fullscreenBayo Randle, Bonetta’s great-great-grandson, is a barrister in London. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The GuardianThe new book, by a Canadian academic, Prof Henry Lovejoy, charts how Bonetta was brought to England by Frederick Forbes, of the Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron, which was set up to enforce the abolition of the transatlantic trade.

Nascida em 1843 em Òkè-Òdàn, sudoeste da Nigéria, Bonetta era originalmente chamada Àìná. Sua família foi morta em 1848 quando sua cidade foi atacada pelas forças do Rei Ghezo de Dahomey.

Bonetta, then five, is believed to have been captured by the agodjié – the all-female regiment depicted in the Hollywood movie The Woman King – and held at King Ghezo’s court.

View image in fullscreenThe book by Henry B Lovejoy. Photograph: suppliedIn 1850, Forbes went to Dahomey – which is now Benin – to petition Ghezo to sign an anti-slavery treaty.

A missão falhou, mas Forbes perguntou a Ghezo se ele poderia levar Bonetta para a Inglaterra.

Bonetta would go on to live a life of renown, becoming one of the most artistically represented and widely reported African women of her time. But she was never truly free.

O livro de Lovejoy descreve como, antes de Forbes chegar à Inglaterra com ela – dando-lhe seu próprio nome e o da embarcação, a Bonetta – ele pediu que ela fosse “the property of the crown”.

This meant Bonetta was “effectively indentured to Queen Victoria until age 19” under the post-abolition legal structures, Lovejoy said. Bonetta was then married off to James Pinson Labulo Davies, a merchant and philanthropist, of whom she would write: “I don’t feel a particle of love for him.”.

Lovejoy’s research for the website liberatedafricans.org, developed with Kartikay Chadha, documents how, after abolition, more than 700,000 Africans “liberated” from enslavers were forced into indentures of up to 14 years “to pay for the cost of their own freedom” by governments including Britain’s.

Lovejoy afirma que Bonetta estava no extremo mais elitista desse sistema de trabalho forçado, “educada para ser uma missionária que iria cristianizar a África”.

Durante sua vida, sua imagem foi explorada como iconografia imperial, promovendo a ideia de que o colonialismo britânico na África era uma “civilising mission”.

View image in fullscreenBonetta was a famous figure in 19th-century England. Photograph: AlamyLovejoy, of the University of Colorado Boulder, said: “Sarah’s imagery was used to project the idea of the queen’s benevolence – at a time when ‘liberated’ Africans are being forced into indentures.”.

Nonetheless, when Bonetta attended the 1858 wedding of Queen Victoria’s daughter, the Princess Royal, American abolitionists saw it as proof that Victoria, then the most powerful woman on Earth, believed in equality.

Para Randle, um busto de gesso de Bonetta esculpido em 1851 por Benedetto Pistrucci, o principal gravador da Royal Mint, simboliza a “duality” da história. Randle o viu no ano passado depois que Lovejoy havia rastreado até uma coleção familiar privada em sua pesquisa.

Lovejoy’s book challenges the myths that Bonetta was a Yoruba princess, that she herself was Queen Victoria’s goddaughter, and that she spent most of her life in England.

Randle, 37, who maintains his family’s ancestral ties with Òkè-Òdàn, welcomes research into Bonetta, who was a gifted linguist, musician, travel writer, educator and leading woman in 19th-century Lagos, until her death from tuberculosis in Madeira in 1880, aged 37.