Tshibrumandzi

Overview

Tshibrumandzi meets a hungry traveller sitting without fire in the bush. Earlier, the man has been refused food by a settlement but aided by a child who defies that refusal. The donor asks why he remains in darkness, provides fire after wood is gathered and gives a red stick that repeatedly kindles it. The stick’s continuing effect is the concrete extraordinary gift. Tshibrumandzi is named, converses with the traveller and is addressed as a father, but the account supplies no bodily appearance or animal form.

He questions the traveller’s chosen identity as a friendless pauper and offers a kingdom with people and livestock, explaining that the recipient will surpass other chiefs. The agreement requires that the future chief not revile his benefactor if Tshibrumandzi visits. He directs the traveller to the settlement where the charitable child lives and instructs him to give that child a household in return for the food. These conditions tie the promised wealth to an earlier act of compassion.

The traveller reaches the settlement and is hailed as chief. Its former ruler is explicitly already dead, so the story does not describe Tshibrumandzi killing him. The new ruler recalls the residents’ refusal and threatens to put them to death, but accepts their plea and spares them. He gives the child the promised household, and others acknowledge the child too. The narrative ends with those recognitions. It does not return to the donor or enact a later test of the promise not to insult him.

This is the named donor of Kidd’s complete thirteenth Gazaland nursery tale. His fire gift and offer establish extraordinary agency without supplying a taxonomy of spirits. No separate person is counted for each member of the promised kingdom, and no first historical date of the tradition is inferred from publication. Douglas Wood’s translation mediation and Kidd’s stated editing remain part of the evidence.

Origins & earliest records

Kidd’s chapter VII publishes this Tshindao-speaking Gazaland tale with translation material credited to Douglas Wood. The inspected episode names no individual narrator; no collector racial-development theory is adopted.

Records & interpretation

VII, Surprise Stories, XIII, The Pauper Who Became a Chief, complete pp. 251–255: hunger and charitable child pp. 251–252; fire gift p. 253; promise and condition p. 254; sparing residents and rewarding child p. 255. Preface p. x and chapter introduction pp. 223–224 identify translation and editorial mediation.

Selected bibliography

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

1. 01

   Savage Childhood: A Study of Kafir Children

   Dudley Kidd, compiler and editor; Douglas Wood, credited translation intermediary · 1906

   VII, Surprise Stories, XIII, The Pauper Who Became a Chief, complete pp. 251–255: hunger and charitable child pp. 251–252; fire gift p. 253; promise and condition p. 254; sparing residents and rewarding child p. 255. Preface p. x and chapter introduction pp. 223–224 identify translation and editorial mediation.

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. Historical collected tale, mediated translation and editorial accountKidd1906 — complete selected Gazaland narrativeResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.