Less than a year ago, this site posted the first Mende – English dictionary. Principles of Mende Grammar was published at the same time and place, in what is now southern Sierra Leone. Long assumed lost, this text was discovered very recently in a rare book collection at Cambridge University. It is the earliest printed grammar of the Mende language group and contains the earliest known example of folktales written in Mende. This tremendously significant book can now be viewed together with its companion volume for the first time in 140 years. It is available here.
Source: Royal Commonwealth Society Library, Cambridge University (Cambridge, UK)