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Her birth name, historians believe, was Aina, but in 19th century England high society she was Sarah Forbes Bonetta, an enslaved girl from what is now the West African country of Benin who became in the goddaughter of Queen Victoria.
Bonetta’s extraordinary life is being highlighted by curators at English Heritage who, on Wednesday, will unveil a new portrait of her by artist Hannah Uzor, part of a project to commission and display paintings of black figures whose stories have passed through. high above.
Where do you start? Their story is extraordinary, ”said Anna Eavis, English Heritage’s curatorial director. “Throughout her life we can also see a number of interesting and quite uncomfortable things surrounding colonial attitudes towards her.”
Bonetta was born into a West African royal family in 1843. Her father died in war when she was five years old and was captured and enslaved by Gezo, the king of Dahomey, present-day Benin.
In 1850, British naval captain Frederick Forbes arrived in Dahomey on a failed mission to persuade Gezo to abandon the slave trade. Forbes requested the little girl as a diplomatic gift, taking her to England on his ship HMS Bonetta.
Bonetta was introduced by Forbes to Victoria, who was delighted with her, describing her as “sharp and intelligent.”
The queen met the girl several times, including at her seaside home, Osborne, on the Isle of Wight, where Uzor’s portrait will be displayed. She clearly felt genuinely affected by Bonetta, becoming her godmother and paying for her education in Sierra Leone and Gillingham, Kent.
Later, Bonetta lived in Brighton, where she married a wealthy Sierra Leone-born merchant, James Davies, whose own parents were freed slaves. It was a wedding of national and international interest with people in the streets to see the bride and groom and the attending dignitaries.
Historian David Olusoga has described Bonetta as a symbol in the sense that “she became the biographical abbreviation for the perceived achievements of the British civilizing mission.”
At one point, Bonetta was photographed by society photographer Camille Silvy, a picture found in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.
It is on this photograph that Uzor has based his portrait of Bonetta, in a sparkling cream wedding dress against a vibrant background of dark turquoise.
Uzor said she was drawn to Bonetta because of the parallels with her own family and children, who share her Nigerian heritage.
“Through my art, I am interested in exploring those forgotten blacks in British history, people like Sarah,” said Uzor. “What I find interesting about Sarah is that she challenges our assumptions about the status of black women in Victorian Britain.
“Seeing Sarah return to Osborne, her godmother’s home, is very satisfying and I hope my portrait means more people discover her story.”
Bonetta lived the rest of her life in Lagos and later in Madeira, where she died of tuberculosis. She named her daughter Victoria, who also became the queen’s goddaughter.
Eavis said that Bonetta’s story was fascinating and that it also shed light on the more uncomfortable sides of colonialism, such as how she was “seen as a specimen of what a black woman could become with the right patronage.”
The portrait is the first step in an English Heritage project to commission and display black figure paintings with links to historical sites whose stories have previously been overlooked.
“We are eager to make sure that we are thinking about those historical figures in a more complete way; they are not just a footnote in the stories of the places we care, ”Eavis said. “We think that visualizing the past in this way is a good trigger to think about it.”
Other figures on the list will be James Chappell, a 17th century servant at Kirby Hall in Northamptonshire who saved the room’s owner’s life from a fire. Another is the African-born emperor Septimus Severus of ancient Rome, who fortified Hadrian’s Wall.
“African American history is part of English history and while we know we have more to do, English Heritage is committed to telling the history of England in its entirety,” said Eavis.
Bonetta’s portrait will go on display in Osborne starting Wednesday, October 7.
