It seems to find it when I tried with py2cairo, as pycairo is now for python 3.
root@box:/home/py2cairo-1.10.0# ./waf configure
./options()
Setting top to : /home/py2cairo-1.10.0
Setting out to : /home/py2cairo-1.10.0/build_directory
./configure()
Checking for 'gcc' (c compiler) : ok
Checking for program python : /usr/local/bin/python
Checking for python version : (2, 7, 1, 'final', 0)
Checking for library python2.7 : yes
Checking for program python2.7-config : /usr/local/bin/python2.7-config
Checking for header Python.h : yes
Checking for program pkg-config : /usr/local/bin/pkg-config
Checking for 'cairo' >= 1.10.0 : yes
Configuration:
PREFIX : /usr/local
LIBDIR : /usr/local/lib
'configure' finished successfully (0.621s)