Rare Africana books on auction

Rare Africana books will go on auction in London at Bonhams on 01-02 April. The auction includes early grammar books in Nama, Sotho, Xhosa and Zulu. The collection belonged to an English couple, John and Monica Lawson. Many of the books were written by early missionaries and published in Britain. A very rare copy of Dr. Wilhelm Bleek's "Uber den Ursprung der Sprache", published in Cape Town in 1867, forms part of the auction. Dr. Bleek is famous for the San work he undertook with his sister-in-law, Lucy Lloyd. A Nama textbook written by Hans Christian Knudsen and published in Cape Town in 1845, is also on auction.