Pikin Spelle-Boekoe [wrapper title]

Paramaribo, Suriname: C. Kersten & Co, 1895. Good.. 16pp. Original printed wrappers. Wrappers a bit chipped and soiled, both detached. First text leaf detached, text toned. An apparently unrecorded children's primer translated into Sranan Tongo, the Creole lingua franca of Suriname. Structurally based on English with significant Dutch vocabulary and some West African influence, Sranan Tongo (Suriname Tongue) is still spoken by at least 80% of Suriname's population as either a first or second language. Dutch civil officials and mainstream Protestants ignored the education of the majority Black population of Suriname until well into the 20th century, possibly because their creole was based on English rather than Dutch. With an eye towards conversion, the Moravian Brethren and Roman Catholics both undertook literacy education and began printing religiously-oriented primers as early as 1800.

The present work is comprised of twelve short chapters, some with a religious bent. In addition to these chapters, the work includes a listing of the Apostles and the books of the New Testament, and somewhat incongruously, the final page prints multiplication tables. The rear wrapper is an advertisement for several other "tractaatjes" published by Kersten, including a book of stories offered in both bound and sewn bindings and two "Missionswroko." The text throughout, including the wrappers, is entirely translated into Sranan Tongo.

The Moravian printed their first A.B.C. Boekoe in 1832 and over the next century it developed through a number of different versions and editions with different titles. In their foundational bibliography of Sranan Tongo publications, Bibliographie de Negro-Anglais du Surinam (1963), Voorhoeve and Donicie catalogue sixteen different editions, with holdings distributed over seven different locations in Paramaribo and the Netherlands. All are rare. For one of the sixteen editions, they locate two copies; for the remainder they cite a single example. Most were printed by C. Kersten & Co. (including the present example), a zealous missionary general mercantile firm that developed into Suriname's largest domestic conglomerate. Before 1898, the work was split into two parts -- the first a very basic ABC reader, and the second a more advanced reader with more catechistic content. The present work is an example of the latter.

OCLC locates only ten of the sixteen editions in Voorhoeve and Donicie, at eight institutions; only two are held by more than one institution. The present work does not appear in the Voorhoeve and Donicie bibliography nor in OCLC. It most closely resembles an item held by the University of Leiden stated as "Tweede stukje. Nieuwe uitgave, 2de druk" (Second part. New Edition, 2nd printing). Leiden dates this second printing circa 1900, as the earliest known "second part" is dated 1898. The present item is designated as "Tweede stukje. Niewue Druk" (Second part. New Printing). The present "New Printing" likely precedes the aforementioned "New Edition." The listing of books on the back wrapper of the "New Edition" includes titles not listed on the present work, including translations of the books of Daniel (published 1897), Isaiah (1898), and Jeremiah (1900). The present work is a well-used example of an unrecorded edition of a notable Surinamese primer. (Inventory #: 5582)