A rare primer of the Bantu dialect Ndonga or OshiNdonga, spoken by the Ovambo people in the kingdom of Ondonga in what is now northern Namibia and southern Angola, still spoken today by some 1 million people. It was published by the printing office of the Finnish Literature Society in Helsinki and many of the texts are Christian. Finnish Lutherans set up a mission in Ondangwa, seat of the kings of Ondonga, in 1870, and the present primer was probably intended both to help Finnish missionaries preparing for life in Africa learn Ndonga and for them to use in Ondonga to teach the natives to read and write their own language and to promote Christian ideas.
In very good condition, with only very slight browning. Lower corner of the front board chipped. WorldCat (2 copies); not in Mendelssohn.