Editing Sarah Forbes Bonetta (section)

=== 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"/>