Editing Sarah Forbes Bonetta (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Sara Forbes Bonetta by Frederick E. Forbes.jpg|thumb|left|Lithograph of Forbes Bonetta, after a drawing by Frederick E. Forbes, from his 1851 book ''Dahomey and the Dahomans; being the journals of two missions to the king of Dahomey, and residence at his capital, in the year 1849 and 1850'']]

Originally named Aina (or Ina),<ref name = "BonettaODNB"/> she was born in 1843 in [[Yewa South|Oke-Odan]], an [[Egbado]] [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]] village in West Africa which recently became independent from the [[Oyo Empire]] (present-day southwestern Nigeria) after its collapse.<ref name="auto1">{{Harvp|Elebute|2013|pp=41–42}}</ref> The [[Kingdom of Dahomey]] was under subjugation by Oyo, and it was a historical enemy of the [[Yoruba people]]. Oyo and Dahomey began to engage in a war in 1823 after [[Ghezo]], the new [[King of Dahomey]], refused to pay annual tributes to Oyo. During Oyo's war with Dahomey, Oyo was weakened and destabilised by the Islamic jihads launched by the growing [[Sokoto Caliphate]].<ref name=Akinjogbin>{{cite book|last=Akinjogbin|first=I.A.| author-link = Isaac Adeagbo Akinjogbin | title=Dahomey and Its Neighbors: 1708-1818|year=1967|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> The Oyo Empire began to disintegrate by the 1830s, fragmenting [[Yorubaland]] into various small states. Dahomey's army began to expand eastwards into Oyo's former and defenseless [[Egbado]] territory, capturing Egbado slaves in the process.<ref name="auto1"/>

In 1848, Oke-Odan was invaded and captured by the army of Dahomey. Aina's parents died during the attack and other residents were either killed or sold into the [[Atlantic slave trade]]. Aina ended up in the court of King Ghezo of Dahomey as a young child slave. Dahomey was a major West African power that immensely profited from the [[Atlantic slave trade]]. After the British abolition of slavery, King Ghezo fought against British attempts to curtail Dahomey's exportation of slaves. Biographer and historian of Africa [[Martin Meredith]] quotes King Ghezo telling the British, "The slave trade has been the ruling principle of my people. It is the source of their glory and wealth.  Their songs celebrate their victories and the mother lulls the child to sleep with notes of triumph over an enemy reduced to slavery."<ref name="Martin">{{cite book |last1=Meredith |first1=Martin | author-link = Martin Meredith | title=The Fortunes of Africa |date=2014 |publisher=PublicAffairs |location=New York |isbn=9781610396356 |pages=193}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Story of Africa{{!}} BBC World Service |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/9chapter2.shtml |access-date=2023-12-09 |website=www.bbc.co.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Thomas |first=Hugh | author-link = Hugh Thomas, Baron Thomas of Swynnerton |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lzuEzmO81GwC&dq=The+slave+trade+has+been+the+ruling+principle+of+my+people.+It+is+the+source+of+their+glory+and+wealth.+Their+songs+celebrate+their+victories+and+the+mother+lulls+the+child+to+sleep+with+notes+of+triumph+over+an+enemy+reduced+to+slavery&pg=RA1-PA695 |title=The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440-1870 |date=2013-04-16 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4767-3745-4 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Captain Forbes at Dahomey ===
In July 1850, Captain Frederick E. Forbes of the [[Royal Navy]] arrived to West Africa on a British diplomatic mission, where he unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate with King Ghezo to end Dahomey's participation in the Atlantic slave trade.<ref>{{cite web |title=Black and Asian History and Victorian Britain / Sarah Forbes Bonetta and Family |url=https://www.rct.uk/collection/themes/trails/black-and-asian-history-and-victorian-britain/sarah-forbes-bonetta-and-family |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111154015/https://www.rct.uk/collection/themes/trails/black-and-asian-history-and-victorian-britain/sarah-forbes-bonetta-and-family |archive-date=11 November 2020 |access-date=9 October 2020 |website=Royal Collection Trust}}</ref> As was customary, Captain Forbes and King Ghezo exchanged gifts with each other. [[Ghezo|King Ghezo]] offered Forbes a footstool, rich country cloth, a keg of rum, ten heads of [[cowry]] shells, and a caboceers stool.<ref name="auto2">{{Cite web |title=Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Queen Victoria's African Protégée |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/osborne/history-and-stories/sarah-forbes-bonetta/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210604045910/https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/osborne/history-and-stories/sarah-forbes-bonetta/ |archive-date=4 June 2021 |access-date=4 June 2021 |website=English Heritage}}</ref>

[[Ghezo|King Ghezo]] made it clear that he would not stop the slave trade. He believed that [[palm oil]] had some profit but little power. Commander Forbes was frustrated and angry. The Dahomian holiday ceremonies continued concurrently with Commander Forbes's continuous discussions with King Ghezo. Forbes started to count the number of soldiers under King Ghezo. He felt that the Dahomian monarch was attempting to show his power and give the impression that his army was larger and more powerful.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Myers |first=Walter Dean | author-link = Walter Dean Myers |url=http://archive.org/details/athermajestysreq0000myer |title=At her majesty's request : an African princess in Victorian England |date=1999 |publisher=New York : Scholastic Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-590-48669-9}}</ref>

Commander Forbes then heard a scream and then looked to a group of Dahomans who were waving their guns and carrying people in little baskets. Forbes was informed by an interpreter that those he saw being taken in little baskets were going to be executed. The ceremony was called the “Ek-onee-noo-ah-toh” or "watering of the graves."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kujawinski |first=Bethany |date=2020-10-23 |title=Princess Omoba Aina (Sarah Forbes Bonetta) of Nigeria |url=https://editions.covecollective.org/content/princess-omoba-aina-sarah-forbes-bonetta-nigeria |access-date=2023-12-10 |website=editions.covecollective.org |language=en}}</ref> The people in the baskets were dressed in white garments, were to be slaughtered and their blood dripped on the graves of high ranking Dahomans. Some of the intended victims had been held in captivity for over two years for this tradition. They were being carried while their hands and feet were tied together. As the victims were dragged through the ranks, the Dahomans poked and jabbed them with knives and spears.<ref name=":0"/>

Commander Forbes watched in horror as a man from the basket tipped over to a pit and the man viciously fell down. As he hit the ground, he was instantly attacked and his head cut off. Forbes tried but failed to make King Ghezo stop the ritual. Forbes then offered him money. The King eventually allowed him to bargain for some of the victims. However, King Gezo's interpreters clarified that the custom of watering the ancestors' graves was an ancient one and could not be discontinued without dishonouring the Dahomey people.<ref name=":0"/>

He had never witnessed a ritual this vicious and violent. He was certain that this was the worst moment he had ever encountered in all the years fighting the slave trade. He then noticed the girl, Aina. She was so tiny, so still. As they carried her closer to the pit, the drums became more intense. Forbes was appalled. He found it hard to comprehend how a king could ritually murder a child. However, Gezo found it extremely easy to sacrifice the girl. It was explained that she was an Egbado, a Dahoman enemy. Her blood on the King's ancestors' tombs would be a tribute to them.<ref name=":0"/>

Forbes panicked and assured King Ghezo that Queen Victoria wouldn't honor a king that would kill a child, so the king offered Aina to be a gift for Queen Victoria. Forbes estimated that Aina was enslaved by King Ghezo for two years. Although her actual ancestry is unknown,<ref>''Picture World: Image, Aesthetics, and Victorian New Media'', Rachel Teutolsky, Oxford University Press, 2020, p. 267</ref> Forbes came to the conclusion that Aina was likely to have come from a [[high status]] background because of the tribal markings on her face and that she had not been sold to European slave traders.<ref name="auto2"/> Describing Aina in his journal, he wrote: "one of the captives of this dreadful slave-hunt was this interesting girl. It is usual to reserve the best born for the high behests of royalty and the immolation on the tombs of the deceased nobility…".<ref name="museyon2">{{Cite web |last=Chiba |first=Akira |title=Queen Victoria and the African Princess &#124; MUSEYON BOOKS |url=http://www.museyon.com/queen-victoria-and-the-african-princess/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210604055920/http://www.museyon.com/queen-victoria-and-the-african-princess/ |archive-date=4 June 2021 |access-date=4 June 2021}}</ref>

Dahomey was notorious for mass executing its captives in spectacular [[human sacrifice]] rituals as part of the [[Annual Customs of Dahomey]]. Forbes was aware of Aina's potential deadly fate in Dahomey, and as he wrote in his journal, refusing Aina "would have been to have signed her death-warrant, which probably would have been carried into execution forthwith."<ref name="museyon2"/><ref name="auto2"/> Captain Forbes accepted Aina on behalf of Queen Victoria and embarked on his journey back to Britain.<ref name="museyon2"/>

=== Queen Victoria ===
Captain Forbes renamed her Sarah Forbes Bonetta, after himself and his ship HMS ''Bonetta''. Forbes initially intended to raise her himself. However, Sarah was later taken to meet Queen Victoria and she told her majesty about her horrible life, that for a couple of years she was kept in a small cage next to other unfortunate prisoners who she watched from time to time be taken out and slaughtered in rituals of the King of Dahomey. Her jailers often taunted her with the truth that she was being saved for ceremonial purposes too, and when it suited him, King Gezo intended to sacrifice her as a gift to his royal ancestors' tomb.<ref name=":0"/>

Queen Victoria was touched by her story and she requested that Sarah have her photo taken after their visit, Sarah was taken to the English-based studio of American photographer John J. Mayall. Sarah was afraid of the photographer because she had no idea what he intended. When she noticed a portrait of a man with a sword hanging on the wall, her fear turned into panic. She yelled, "Cut head off!" as she quickly ran her hand down her narrow throat. "Cut head off!" Sarah knew from her years in captivity that swords were meant for head cuts. It was necessary to reassure the trembling girl that the man brandishing the sword was not real and would not hurt her.<ref name=":0"/>

Queen Victoria was impressed by the young princess's "exceptional intelligence", and had the girl, whom she called Sally,<ref name="queen" /> raised as her [[goddaughter]] in the British middle class.<ref name="queen">{{Cite book
 | title = Queen Victoria: A Biographical Companion
 | last = Rappaport | first = Helen | author-link = Helen Rappaport 
 | year = 2003
 | publisher = ABC-CLIO Biographical Companions
 | page = 307
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=NLGhimIiFPoC&pg=PA307
 | isbn = 9781851093557
}}</ref><ref name="history">{{Cite book
 | title = A History of Modern Britain: 1714 to the Present
 | last = Wasson | first = Ellis
 | year = 2009
 | publisher = John Wiley & Sons
 | page = 235
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=J5spbTRMfo8C&pg=PA235
 | isbn = 9781405139359
}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book
 | title = Black Victorians: Black People in British Art 1800–1900
 | last = Marsh
 | first = Jan | author-link = Jan Marsh
 | publisher = Lund Humphries, University of Michigan
 | pages = 62, 86
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=HSLqAAAAMAAJ&q=Sarah+Forbes+Bonetta
 | date = 19 November 2009
 | isbn = 9780853319306
 | access-date = 25 November 2016
 | archive-date = 23 April 2022
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220423003542/https://books.google.com/books?id=HSLqAAAAMAAJ&q=Sarah+Forbes+Bonetta
 | url-status = live
 }}</ref> In 1851, Sarah developed a chronic cough, which was attributed to the climate of Great Britain. Her guardians sent her to school in Africa in May of that year, when she was aged eight.<ref name="queen" />  She attended the [[Annie Walsh Memorial School]] (AWMS) in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The school was founded by the [[Church Missionary Society]] (CMS) in January 1849 as an institution for young women and girls who were relatives of the boys in the [[Sierra Leone Grammar School]] founded in 1845 (at first named CMS Grammar School). In the school register, her name appears only as Sally Bonetta, pupil number 24, June 1851, who married Captain Davies in England in 1862 and was the ward of Queen Victoria. She returned to England in 1855, when she was 12. She was entrusted to the care of Rev. [[James Schön|Frederick Scheon]] and his wife Elizabeth,<ref>[https://blackpresence.co.uk/sarah-forbes-bonetta/ Black Presence website, ''Sarah Forbes Bonetta'']</ref> who lived at Palm Cottage, Canterbury Street [[Gillingham, Kent|Gillingham]]. The house survives.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Jordan |first1=Nicola |title=Queen Victoria adopted my great-great grandma |url=https://www.kentonline.co.uk/medway/news/victoria-adopted-my-great-great-grandma-104132/ |access-date=6 October 2020 |work=Kent Online |date=16 October 2016 |language=en |archive-date=29 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180529000931/http://www.kentonline.co.uk/medway/news/victoria-adopted-my-great-great-grandma-104132/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In January 1862, she was invited to and attended the wedding of Queen Victoria's daughter [[Princess Alice of the United Kingdom|Princess Alice]].<ref>{{cite web |work=Church Missionary Quarterly Token |number=101 |page=6 |title=Queen Victoria's African Protégée |publisher=Church Missionary Society |via=Google Books |year=1881 |first=Annie C. |last=Higgen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xi8EAAAAQAAJ&q=%22Church%20Missionary%20Quarterly%20Token%22&pg=PP76 |access-date=10 October 2020 |archive-date=19 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230919204936/https://books.google.com/books?id=xi8EAAAAQAAJ&q=%22Church%20Missionary%20Quarterly%20Token%22&pg=PP76 |url-status=live }}</ref>