Maria de Fonseca was the

great wife Great Wife, otherwise appearing in West Africa as Senior Wife, is an honorific applied to contemporary royal and aristocratic consorts in states throughout modern Africa (e.g., Mantfombi Dlamini of eSwatini, who once served as the chief consort of ...

Msiri Msiri (c. 1830 – December 20, 1891) founded and ruled the Yeke Kingdom (also called the Garanganze or Garenganze kingdom) in south-east Katanga (now in DR Congo) from about 1856 to 1891. His name is sometimes spelled 'M'Siri' in articles in Fr ...

, the powerful warrior-king of Katanga, at the time when the

Stairs Expedition The Stairs Expedition to Katanga (1891−92), led by Captain William Stairs, was the winner in a race between two imperial powers, the British South Africa Company BSAC and the Congo Free State, to claim Katanga, a vast mineral-rich territory ...

arrived in 1891 to take possession of the territory for the

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

King Leopold II, with or without Msiri's consent.Joseph A. Moloney: ''With Captain Stairs to Katanga''. S. Low, Marston & Company, London, 1893. Msiri typically cemented alliances with trading partners by marriage. Maria was the daughter of mixed Portuguese-African parents from

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

, and was also the sister of Coimbra, the first trader to supply him with gunpowder from the west coast, the key to Msiri's power. In 1891, Maria was about forty-five years old and Msiri, about sixty, and had been ruler of Katanga for thirty years. When treaty negotiations with Msiri reached stalemate,

Christian de Bonchamps The Marquis Christian de Bonchamps (15 June 1860 – 9 December 1919) was a French explorer in Africa and a Colonialism, colonial officer in the French colonial empire, French Empire during the late 19th- early 20th-century epoch known as the ...

, third officer of the expedition, proposed capturing Msiri and holding him hostage. Msiri typically had 300 armed warriors at his stockade, but de Bonchamps had discovered that every night, he would leave with just a handful of guards to visit Maria at her

compound Compound may refer to: Architecture and built environments * Compound (enclosure), a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall ** Compound (fortification), a version of the above fortified with defensive struct ...

nearly a kilometre away.René de Pont-Jest: ''L'Expédition du Katanga, d'après les notes de voyage du marquis Christian de BONCHAMPS'', in: Edouard Charton (editor): ''Le Tour du Monde'' magazine, also published bound in two volumes by Hachette, Paris (1893). Available online a
www.collin.francois.free.fr/Le_tour_du_monde/
Captain Stairs rejected the idea of the ambush in favour of an

ultimatum An ultimatum (; ) is a demand whose fulfillment is requested in a specified period of time and which is backed up by a threat to be followed through in case of noncompliance (open loop). An ultimatum is generally the final demand in a series o ...

, and this led to a confrontation in which Captain

Omer Bodson Omer Bodson (5 January 1856 – 20 December 1891) was the Belgian officer who shot and killed Msiri, King of Garanganze ( Katanga) on 20 December 1891 at Bunkeya in what is now the DR Congo. Bodson was then killed by one of Msiri's men. Milit ...

shot Msiri dead, and was himself fatally shot. Maria and Coimbra appear to have come to terms with this development, and took part in talks with Stairs on the acceptance by Msiri's successor of Leopold's sovereignty over Katanga. Coimbra returned to Angola but Maria remained in Katanga as she enjoyed her position at the king's court. According to the

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...

of the Mwami Mwenda chieftainship which succeeded Msiri, Maria had "betrayed Msiri to the Belgians" and so his adopted son and successor Mukanda-Bantu beheaded Maria with a machete while standing behind her and shouting to the crowd: "I am Mukanda-Bantu, the one who walks over his foes".''Mwami Msiri, King of Garanganze: Mwami Kalasa Mukanda-Bantu''
website accessed 7 May 2007.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fonseca, Maria de Year of birth missing Year of death missing 19th-century women Angolan emigrants to the Democratic Republic of the Congo Angolan people of Portuguese descent History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo People from Katanga Province Deaths by decapitation

See also

References