Maria de Fonseca
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Maria de Fonseca was the great wife of Msiri, the powerful warrior-king of Katanga, at the time when the Stairs Expedition arrived in 1891 to take possession of the territory for the Belgian King Leop
Msiri's favourite wife, Maria de Fonseca, daughter of a Portuguese-Angolan trader.
Stairs Expedition to Katanga
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The Stairs Expedition to Katanga, led by Captain William Stairs, was the winner in a race between two imperial powers, the British South Africa Company BSAC and the Congo Free State, to claim Katanga,
Captain William Stairs, leader of the expedition
The front of Msiri's boma (compound) at Bunkeya. The objects on top of the four poles, below which some of Msiri's warriors are gathered, are heads of his enemies. More skulls are on the palisades forming the stockade.
Msiri's spies; this group led by an interpreter arrived in the expedition's fortified camp with a message. The drummers kept playing, and the expedition only found out later these were talking drums sending back information about the camp's defences.
African members of the Stairs Expedition. The men with rifles are most likely to be askaris, the others are porters, the man in the jacket is probably a nyampara (supervisor or chief). In the background at left are sections of two small boats which they carried for crossing rivers. Next to them, middle background are bales of cloth used for bartering for food and permission to cross chiefs' territories.