The first African printing of a Pacific-language - printed at the Cape of Good Hope

Ko Nga Waiata Māori: He Mea Kohikohi Mai Na Sir George Grey

 “Māori Songs: A Collection “

-Printed at Pike’s Machine Printing Office, St. George’s Street, Cape Town 1857

-Unbound and uncut copy in 8vo. 57 pp comprised of 56pp (7 signatures of 4 leaves each), followed by p57 printed c1950 on a 2 leaf sheet.

This fascinating example of South African printing is a collection of Māori waiata (songs or hymns). It is the first example of Māori (and indeed any Pacific) language printing in Africa. 

The Nga Waiata Māori was printed in Cape Town in 1857, under the direction of Sir George Grey. Grey had collected the songs while he was the Governor of New Zealand, before he moved postings to become governor of Cape Colony in South Africa from 1854-61. 

The text preserves traditional Māori poetry including laments for the dead, songs of love, and battle chants. The songs were drawn from oral histories that Grey had collected during his time in New Zealand. Grey had a deep, albeit paternalistic at times, love for Māori culture and oral histories. Many of the surviving texts we have are due to his work compiling them.

Only 56 pages were printed in Grey’s lifetime before the project was abandoned. Later rediscovered in the Auckland Public Library in 1949, the publication was completed by the Polynesian Society with a final printed leaf (p.57), and issued in limited form in 1950.

The work is a remarkable example of Māori printing in South Africa, and the earliest known example of a Polynesian-language text printed on the African continent. This copy is unbound and uncut, surviving in its original and unsophisticated condition.

Bagnall G860; Williams 283.

No copies in North America on Worldcat with only 3 copies recorded outside of Australia and New Zealand (Gottingen, Rome and  South Africa)

£950