Maria de Fonseca

Maria was the daughter of mixed Portuguese-African parents from Angola, 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.

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 nearly a kilometre away.

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.

[1] According to the oral history 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".