THE KAFIR LANGUAGE: Comprising a Sketch of its History (1850) - former copy of Jameson Raid conspirator Edward Philip Solomon

'The Kafir Language : comprising a Sketch of its History; which includes a general classification of South African dialects, ethnographical and geographical; Remarks upon its Nature; and a Grammar. By the Rev. John W. Appleyard, Wesleyan Missionary in British Kaffraria.'

xxii + 390pp. Original missionary press binding with remnant of the original paper label on spine still present. This is a rare surviving example of early Eastern Province book binding. Marbled endpapers with bookplate of Edward Philip Solomon on front paste down.

Sir Edward Philip Solomon KCMG (1845 – 1914) was a successful lawyer and politician of the Transvaal Colony and the Union of South Africa. He was a senator for the Transvaal from 1910-1914. He practised as a lawyer in the early years on the Witwatersrand gold fields and strongly sympathised with the "Uitlanders", so much so that he became a prominent member of the Reform Committee that sponsored and plotted the infamous Jameson Raid. It is known that many Jameson Raid conspirators lived in the wealthy Johannesburg suburb of Parktown and Solomon's bookplate seems to confirm this.

This copy also has a previous ownership signature of Professor G. S. Nienaber, who was a prominent academic and author of ethnographical and linguistic studies on the Hottentots/Khoi-khoi peoples of South Africa. Undoubtedly he studied this copy and used material from it as this work contains a significant section on Bushman, Hottentot and Damara grammar.

'It is remarked that although the Kaffir [sic] languages "are spoken by tribes confessedly illiterate and uncivilised, yet they are neither irregular in their formation nor barbarous in their construction . . . On the contrary, they are highly systematic and truly philosophical." There is a historical sketch of the native tongues with their dialects, and it is noted that the "Malagasy language, which, from the proximity of Madagascar to the African continent," might be supposed to resemble kaffir [sic], is entirely dissimilar. Among the languages of the natives comprised in the volume are the Kaffir [sic] and its dialects, the Namaqua, Coranna, Bushman, Sechuana, Damara, and many others.' - Mendelssohn Vol.I, page 48

'Contains a historical sketch and a grammar: "a great contribution to Xhosa studies".' - South Africa in Print, 1952, page 130.

The printing press for the Wesleyan Mission in the Eastern Province arrived from England in 1831. Printing was initially done at Grahamstown but moved to D'Urban, near Fort Peddie, in 1840. In 1844 the press was moved to Newtondale mission station but, with the outbreak of the War of the Axe in 1846, was hurriedly moved to Grahamstown. In 1849 the press moved to King William's Town with Appleyard as superintendent. Only two publications were struck off the press at King William's Town (this book and a Xhosa reader, both published in 1850) when the Frontier War of 1851 brought printing activities to a stop. The press was moved to Mount Coke in 1853 and printing resumed.

A very scarce example of Wesleyan Mission printing from the Eastern Frontier in original binding with added colourful provenance!