Slavery is by far the most researched, discussed and read topic when it’s comes to Africa and its people. Stories of how Africans were forcefully taken from their homes and thrown on ships only to be sold into slavery that lasted for well over 400 years.
Whiles majority of captured Africans went went through out hell throughout their days, there are a few whose stories are unique and intriguing as they were able to survive or escape the conditions in one way or another to become notable members of Western societies.
Here are 5 enslaved Africans who became rich royals and noble people in the Western societies they found themselves in.
Anton Wilhelm Amo
Anton Wilhelm Amo was born in Gold Coast, present-day Ghana, in a town in the Central Region called Axim. At the age of four, Anton was taken by slavers and transported by the Dutch West Indies Company to Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
There is no accurate date stating when exactly he was born, but research has concluded that he might have been born in 1703 due to the fact that he was just four years old when he was baptized in Germany in 1707.
After being captured by slavers and surviving the long sea journey, Aton was presented as a gift to the Duke of Brunswick -Wolfenbuttel in Saxony called Urlic Anton.
After a while, the Duke became fond of little Anton and later decided to adopt him. In 1707, Anton was baptised in the palace’s chapel and was named Anton Wilhelm; he will later grow to add his original name Amo to his name.
Through his new royalty status, Anton received a sound education, royalty treatment and became one of the first black philosophers and lecturers in Europe in the 18th century.
Dido Elizabeth Belle
She was born a slave in 1761 or 1763 in the British West Indies. Her mother was a black enslaved woman called Maria Belle and her father, Sir John Lindsay was a British naval officer.
She was born a slave because her parents were not married and, at the time, a child born to a slave parent was automatically a slave. It did not matter that Elizabeth’s father was a British or a high-ranking officer because of relationships between whites and enslaved blacks were greatly frowned upon.
After being knighted as an admiral, Sir John Lindsay took his daughter with him to England and sent her to live with his uncle and aunt, William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, and Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Mansfield.
Because of her father’s status, Belle was bestowed with the title of heiress and was given the role of a lady’s companion rather than a servant or slave.
Though Dido Elizabeth Belle was able to have free reigns to a certain extent, she couldn’t partake in activities such as having dinner with guests. She was acknowledged as a member of the family, yet excluded from certain functions but still enjoyed her royalty.
Sarah Forbes
Born into a royal West African dynasty, Sarah Forbes Bonetta was captured by King Gezo of Dahomey during a slave-hunt war in 1848. Her parents were killed in the war, and as a daughter of an African chief, Forbes was kept in captivity as a state prisoner.
In June 1850, when she was around eight years old, Sarah was rescued by Captain Frederick E. Forbes of the Royal Navy whilst he was visiting Dahomey as an emissary of the British Government.
Forbes asked the king for the little girl to be given to Queen Victoria as a gift and she was immediately was received by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
The Queen handed Sarah over to the Church Missionary Society and paid for her education. Her academic prowess won the Queen’s admiration to the extent that she gave her welfare allowance and allowed her to pay regular visits to Windsor Castle.
In 1862, she married James Pinson Labulo Davies, a 31-year-old Yoruba businessman who was living in Britain.
August Sabac el Cher
Before he came to be known as August Sabac el Cher, he was a young Nubian boy growing up in Kurdufan in Ancient Nubia (modern-day Sudan.) from a dynasty that fell during the Egyptian invasion of Nubia.
His father died in the rebellion and his mother died by suicide according to a traditional custom. Cher was then taken to Cairo, where he received an education.
Around 1843, the youngest brother of Prussian King Fredrick Williams IV, Prince Albrecht travelled to Egypt and was given Augustus as a servant gift and named him the only Arabic phrase he knew, ‘Sabac el Cher,’ which means ‘good morning’.
On arrival in Berlin, he stayed at Prince Albrecht’s palace. After the death of Prince Albrecht in 1872, Cher was made the silver administrator of the palace by Albrecht’s eldest son. He served in this position until his retirement in 1876 due to ill health.
Angelo Soliman
Born Mmadi Make around 1721, Soliman was an Afro-Austrian Freemason and a prominent member of the Viennese society.
Soliman was taken captive as a child from a location believed to be modern-day northeastern Nigeria or northern Cameroon and ended up in Marseilles as a slave. After working for a while, he was sold again to a marchioness in Messina.
While there, he got an education, was baptised and given the name ‘Angelo’.
In 1734, he was ‘gifted’ to Prince von Lobkowitz then-governor of Sicily. Soliman worked as his valet and travelling companion. Upon the death of von Lobkowitz, Soliman ended up in the household of Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein.
Soliman married a French woman, Magdalena Christiani and became a nobleman in society and joined the Freemasons. He was a member of the True Harmony Masonic lodge, together with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn and Hungarian poet Ferenc Kazinczy.
