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15 minutes of fame: Aina Forbes Bonetta, Queen Victoria’s Yoruba goddaughter
Hannah Cusworth introduces Aina Forbes Bonetta, also known as Sara, a Yoruba girl who was transported from West Africa and became a goddaughter of Queen Victoria
It’s the HistoryExtra podcast’s 15th birthday, and to celebrate, we’ve asked 15 historians to nominate a figure from history they think deserves their ‘15 minutes of fame’. In this episode, Hannah Cusworth nominates Aina Forbes Bonetta, also known as Sara. A Yoruba girl transported from West Africa, Aina became a goddaughter of Queen Victoria. Hannah speaks to Elinor Evans about what her story tells us much about the connections between West Africa and Britain during the Victorian era.
Hannah Cusworth is a historian who specialises in black British histories. Formerly a schoolteacher, she is currently completing a PhD with English Heritage looking at mahogany, race and the 18th-century Atlantic world
Elinor Evans is digital editor of HistoryExtra.com. She commissions and writes history articles for the website, and regularly interviews historians for the award-winning HistoryExtra podcast
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