CASALIS (Eugène). - Lot 40

CASALIS (Eugène). The Bassoutos, or Twenty-Three Years of Residence and Observations in Southern Africa. Paris: Librairie de Ch. Meyrueis et Cie, 1859. — In-8, 223 x 142: frontispiece, (2 ff.), XVI, 370 pp., (1 f.), 7 plates, 1 map, printed cover. Paperback, untrimmed. A very rare first edition of this work by the Protestant missionary Eugène Casalis (1812–1891), published in the “Nouvelle Bibliothèque des Familles” series. Dated 1859 on the title page, it was listed in the *Bibliographie de la France* on December 31 of that year, though the cover bears the date 1860. Casalis wrote this book after living in Southern Africa for 23 years. Motivated by his experience, he sought to shed light on African peoples—who were often reduced to stereotypes at the time—and to defend their dignity: “I believe [the Black race], despite its degradation, is just as well endowed as our own in terms of the faculties of the heart and the intellect” (p. II). Unlike many travelers fascinated by the flora and fauna, he sought to understand the ideas and aspirations of the Africans who guided him. His approach, both missionary and ethnographic, aimed at the religious and social renewal of the tribes he studied. Casalis divides the peoples of southern Africa into two main groups: the Hottentots (including the Nama, Korana, and Griqua) and the Kaffirs, including the Bechuanas and the Basuto, who are the main focus of the book. For the author, the Basotho embodied the ideal of the Xhosa race. Isolated in the Maluti Mountains, they had preserved their customs and their independence. Casalis describes in detail the customs and traditions of this people, while emphasizing in his preface that his observations applied, with some nuances, to all the Xhosa and Bechuanas tribes. The edition is illustrated with several figures in the text, 8 woodcut plates, and a fold-out map of Southern Africa, specially drawn for the work by Émile Rolland. Paperback copy, largely untrimmed. Cover is discolored. Front cover is detached.