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Overview
Fenda Maria is the daughter in version A whose greater beauty provokes her mother’s jealousy after a speaking mirror reveals it. Mother and daughter share a name. Confined with her nurse in a blocked-up house, the younger woman eventually obtains sugar-cane through a hole they make in the wall. A passer-by hears her admiring the beauty of her own blood after a cut finger and tells her of Fele Milanda, hidden because of his exceptional beauty. She leaves at night with supplies and undertakes the prolonged journey to him.
Along the way she cares for two old women, one needing nursing and the other assistance pounding cassava. Nzambi later reveals that both were his transformed appearances, testing her endurance. With his instructions and magical box she passes the palace’s sleeping beasts and retrieves twelve keys from a lion’s open mouth. She finds Milanda asleep, carries twelve jugs upstairs and weeps and fans until eleven and a half are full. An enslaved woman bought with tears is named Kamasoxi. Fenda asks her to continue and wake her before the final jug is filled, but Kamasoxi allows Milanda to revive while the rescuer sleeps and takes the credit.
Fenda is reduced to service under the name Kamaria. When Milanda travels to Portugal she requests a self-lighting lamp, self-sharpening razor, truth-telling stone, chain, two dolls and a mirror. Each night, magnificently dressed from her kalubungu, she recounts her suffering before these objects. The lamp lights, razor sharpens and chain hangs itself; the dolls seize the dangerous implements before they injure her. An old woman witnesses three nights and tells Milanda on the fourth morning. He secretly watches the next disclosure and discovers the deception.
The heroine’s retained silver key and full account of the journey establish her claim at the public confrontation. The tale ends with Kamasoxi’s execution and Fenda’s marriage to Milanda, followed by travel to his relatives and return. Version B is separately printed: it begins with three sisters, shortens the journey and changes the self-acting objects and their interruption. Its changes are preserved as an alternative witness, rather than inserted into version A’s divine roadside tests or protective dolls.
Origins & earliest records
Version A was supplied in his own handwriting by João Borges Cezar, an educated official at the Bom-Jesus sugar-cane plantation and distillery on the Kuanza River. Chatelain says he reviewed the wording and meaning with him and identifies his dialect as Loanda, with knowledge of inland speech. The collector’s comparative argument about foreign origins is not a date or proof of a single original source.
Records & interpretation
Complete tale I, Ngana Fenda Maria, version A pp. 29–41; version B pp. 42–51 checked separately. Version A contributor note begins p. 253; comparative discussion pp. 253–254.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Folk-Tales of Angola
Complete tale I, Ngana Fenda Maria, version A pp. 29–41; version B pp. 42–51 checked separately. Version A contributor note begins p. 253; comparative discussion pp. 253–254.
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Collected Ki-mbundu text with facing English translation and contributor notesChatelain 1894 — Fenda Maria in Chatelain’s First TaleResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.