Mchaawee (Zanzibar cannibal magician)

Overview

Mchaawee offers to educate a sultan’s three sons, who have defeated previous attempts to teach them. He rejects half the ruler’s property and half his towns, demanding instead one educated boy as his companion. After quickly teaching all three to read and write, he returns them for the sultan to choose two. He takes the remaining son, Keejaanaa, to his large house, gives him all the keys and declares himself the boy’s father.

The young captive first discovers a room of liquid gold. Some adheres to his finger and cannot be rubbed away, so he hides the evidence under a rag and tells Mchaawee he has cut himself. During another absence he opens rooms containing the bones of goats, sheep, oxen, donkeys and horses, followed by human skulls. A living horse in the seventh room explains that the householder eats people and animals and that only they remain alive. This exposure contradicts the supposed father’s promise of companionship.

Guided by Faaraasee, Keejaanaa makes the magician perform the preparations for his own intended cooking. Mchaawee gathers fuel, lights the fire and heats a great pot of butter. He presents a swing above it as a game. The boy asks for a demonstration and pushes him into the boiling pot, killing him, then runs to the waiting horse.

The invited guests cannot find their host and eat the pot’s contents without recognizing him. They remain for a couple of days while consuming the household supplies, then abandon their search and go home. Meanwhile the rescued boy and horse reach a distant town, where their recovered gold establishes a prosperous household and Keejaanaa later marries the local ruler’s daughter. The magician’s death is therefore completed before the guests’ mistaken feast and the protagonists’ separate new life.

Origins & earliest records

Bateman presents these accounts as tales told to him in Zanzibar and translated from Swahili; individual narrators are not named in this edition.

Records & interpretation

IX, The Magician and the Sultan’s Son, complete pp. 183–194: educational bargain pp. 183–184; liquid gold and seven rooms pp. 187–188; reversed trap pp. 189–191; guests and new household pp. 192–194.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Zanzibar Tales

   George W. Bateman, translator · 1901

   IX, The Magician and the Sultan’s Son, complete pp. 183–194: educational bargain pp. 183–184; liquid gold and seven rooms pp. 187–188; reversed trap pp. 189–191; guests and new household pp. 192–194.

2. 02

   Zanzibar Tales: Told by Natives of the East Coast of Africa

   Unnamed Swahili storytellers; George W. Bateman (translator and literary mediator) · 1901

   Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1901; George W. Bateman, translated from the original Swahili. Preface dated 1 August 1901; narrators are not individually named.

Family & connections

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Located primary passages

Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.

References

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1. Historical oral-tale translationThe Magician and the Sultan’s SonResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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