Bayo Randle, a London-based barrister, has welcomed new academic research exploring the life of his great-great-grandmother, Sarah Forbes Bonetta. Born in 1843 in Òkè-Òdàn, Nigeria, she was originally named Àìná. Her early life was defined by the 1848 destruction of her home by forces loyal to King Ghezo of Dahomey, a conflict that resulted in the death of her family. At five years old, she was captured by the agodjié—the all-female military unit famously portrayed in the filmThe Woman Kingand subsequently held at the court of King Ghezo. According to bonetta would go on to live a life of renown, becoming one of the most artistically represented and widely, African women of her time. Randle saw it last year after Lovejoy had tracked it down to a private family collection in his research. Randle first learned his family history from his father, Adekunle Randle, a retired lawyer. “But it would be a mistake to paint her story as entirely tragic,” he added. “My great-great-grandmother was very capable, courageous and dignified through adversity – through the trauma of losing her family, being displaced, and changing like a chameleon to fit into a culture so alien from what she’d known, she thrived.
Her trajectory changed in 1850 when Frederick Forbes of the Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron arrived in Dahomey to petition the king for an anti-slavery treaty. Though the diplomatic mission did not succeed, Forbes secured the child and brought her to England. By the time she was seven, she was presented to Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, labeled a “diplomatic gift” from the African monarch. Reflecting on this, Randle observes that while the idea of a human with agency being “gifted” is abhorrent, her survival and subsequent path to England are the direct reasons for his own existence today. In 1850, Forbes went to Dahomey – which is now Benin – to petition Ghezo to sign an anti-slavery treaty. Promoting the idea that British colonialism of Africa was a “civilising mission”, in her lifetime her image was exploited as imperial iconography.
A forthcoming biography by Professor Henry Lovejoy of the University of Colorado Boulder examines how Bonetta was not merely a royal ward but also a political tool. “Whether [Lovejoy’s] book is comfortable for me is beside the point,” Randle said. “It’s for the advancement of knowledge and how we learn from the past.
Research by Lovejoy and collaborator Kartikay Chadha for the website liberatedafricans.org reveals that after the formal abolition of the slave trade, hundreds of thousands of Africans were forced into indentured labor, often justified as a means to cover the costs of their freedom. Lovejoy suggests that Bonetta occupied a high-profile position within this system, being educated as a potential missionary to help spread Christianity across Africa. This meant Bonetta was “effectively indentured to Queen Victoria until age 19” under the post-abolition legal structures, Lovejoy said. 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’s research for the website liberatedafricans.org.
The Queen provided funding for Bonetta’s education and later approved her marriage to James Pinson Labulo Davies, a wealthy merchant, though Bonetta wrote that she did not feel “a particle of love for him.” Her public presence served the interests of the British Empire, as seen when she attended the 1858 wedding of the Princess Royal. American abolitionists frequently pointed to her integration into high society as evidence of Queen Victoria’s supposed commitment to racial equality. Approve her marriage to one of west Africa’s wealthiest men, and become godmother to her eldest daughter, victoria would go on to pay for Bonetta’s education. Making the orphan a royal protege and meeting with her over the years, their relationship was part of a bigger agenda, but while Victoria took a genuine interest in Bonetta’s welfare.
The complexity of her life is underscored by a 1851 plaster bust sculpted by Benedetto Pistrucci. While the artifact allows current descendants to view their ancestor’s childhood appearance, it was originally created within a racist phrenological framework that labeled her an “excellent specimen.” Randle, who maintains his family’s connection to Òkè-Òdàn, notes the deep discomfort in realizing what she was used to symbolize during her lifetime. For Randle, a plaster bust of Bonetta sculpted in 1851 by Benedetto Pistrucci, the Royal Mint’s chief engraver, symbolises the story’s “duality”.
Lovejoy’s book works to dismantle persistent myths, including the false claims that Bonetta was a Yoruba princess or that she was the Queen’s official goddaughter.
Despite the systemic exploitation she faced, Randle emphasizes that her life should not be viewed through a purely tragic lens.
As a talented musician, linguist, and educator who became a prominent figure in 19th-century Lagos, she displayed immense resilience and dignity.
Bonetta passed away in 1880 at age 37 from tuberculosis while in Madeira, leaving behind a legacy that Randle describes as an early, profound example of the Black British experience.
