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Overview

Fenda Maria reaches the Ma-kishi of Lumba after nursing an old woman who gives her boxes of wealth and attendants. The household has been away hunting. Its members divine the arrival of a guest, rejecting incorrect predictions of a thief and a hunter before accepting the identification of Fenda, daughter of Kinoueza kia Tumb’ a Ndala. When they return, Kishi a Lumba calls her to appear and says that they have long wished to see her.

The passage identifies the father of this Kishi as one person possessing nine thousand heads. That extraordinary numerical description belongs to this particular narrated figure; it is not a head count imposed on all Ma-kishi in the collection. The household strikes a kalubungu on the ground and produces two enslaved women, an iron bed and a mosquito curtain for its guest. Its members dance until dawn, ask her to stay another night and finally give her boxes of food, clothing and music before accompanying her departure.

The episode presents hospitality and gifts alongside the unusual many-headed body, rather than depicting an attack on Fenda. Chatelain’s note 199 compares the many-headed Ma-kishi with other collected figures and proposes identifying them with real populations. That speculation is not used to characterize any living people. The son’s greeting, the father’s explicit head description and the household’s collective actions remain distinguished; the source does not assign every box-producing act personally to the father.

One figure with nine thousand headsFather within Ma-kishi householdGuest welcomed rather than attackedHousehold produces gifts from box
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Origins & earliest records

Chatelain credits the contributor nicknamed Piolho, a rope-maker at Bom-Jesus on the Kuanza River, who dictated the beginning for remuneration. He says the contributor interrupted before the ending, which was later obtained by letter and written down by Domingos de Lemos, a former pupil then working at Bom-Jesus. The dialect is identified with the lower Kuanza; the published completion is therefore not represented as one uninterrupted oral performance.

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Records & interpretation

Complete tale II, Fenda Maria and her Elder Brother nga Nzua, bilingual pp. 52–63; English pp. 53, 55, 57, 59, 61 and 63. Contributor note II p. 265; notes 199–201 pp. 269–270.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Folk-Tales of Angola

    Héli Chatelain, collector, editor and literal English translator; named contributor in origin · 1894

    Complete tale II, Fenda Maria and her Elder Brother nga Nzua, bilingual pp. 52–63; English pp. 53, 55, 57, 59, 61 and 63. Contributor note II p. 265; notes 199–201 pp. 269–270.

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.

  1. Collected Ki-mbundu text with facing English translation and contributor notesChatelain 1894 — Nine-Thousand-Headed Ma-kishi of LumbaResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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