Etnomatemática e Educação Na África

Copyright ©2014 by Paulus Gerdes
www.lulu.com
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/pgerdes
2
Paulus Gerdes
Second edition:
ISTEG
Belo Horizonte
Boane
Mozambique
2014
3
First Edition (January 1995):
Institutionen för Internationell Pedagogik
(Institute of International Education)
Stockholms Universitet
(University of Stockholm)
Report 97
Second Edition (January 2014):

Instituto Superior de Tecnologias e Gestão (ISTEG)
(Higher Institute for Technology and Management)
Av. de Namaacha 188, Belo Horizonte, Boane, Mozambique
Distributed by:
www.lulu.com
Author: Paulus Gerdes

African Academy of Sciences & ISTEG, Mozambique
C.P. 915, Maputo, Mozambique (paulus.gerdes@gmail.com)
Photograph on the front cover:

Detail of a Tonga basket acquired, in January 2014, by the author in
Inhambane, Mozambique
4
CONTENTS
page
Preface (2014) 11
Chapter 1: Introduction 13
Chapter 2: Ethnomathematical research: preparing a 19
response to a major challenge to mathematics
education in Africa
Societal and educational background 19
A major challenge to mathematics education 21
Ethnomathematics Research Project in Mozambique 23
Chapter 3: On the concept of ethnomathematics 29
Ethnographers on ethnoscience 29
Genesis of the concept of ethnomathematics among 31
mathematicians and mathematics teachers
Concept, accent or movement? 34
Bibliography 39
Chapter 4: How to recognize hidden geometrical thinking: 45
a contribution to the development of an anthropology
of mathematics
Confrontation 45
Introduction 46
First example 47
Second example 51
Third example 52
A method for recognizing hidden geometrical thinking 54
Cultural and pedagogical value 55
References 56
5
Chapter 5: On culture, geometrical thinking and 57
mathematics education
Some social and cultural aspects of mathematics education in 58
Third World countries
Towards a cultural-mathematical reaffirmation 61
Examples of ‘cultural conscientialization’ of future 63
mathematics teachers
Study of alternate axiomatic constructions of Euclidean 63
geometry in teacher training
An alternate construction of regular polygons 67
From woven buttons to the ‘Theorem of Pythagoras’ 72
From traditional fish traps to alternate circular functions, 75
football and the generation of (semi)regular polyhedra
a. Tiling patterns and the formulation of conjectures 76
b. An alternate circular function 78
c. Footballs and polyhedra 79
Concluding remarks 81
References 82
Chapter 6: A widespread decorative motif and the 85
Pythagorean theorem
A widespread decorative motif 85
Discovering the Pythagorean Theorem 88
A first proof 91
An infinity of proofs 93
Pappos’ theorem 95
Example 96
References 97
Chapter 7: ‘Pythagoras’, similar triangles and the 99
“elephants’-defence”-pattern of the (Ba)Kuba
(Central Africa)
Introduction 99
A particular case of the Pythagorean proposition 100
The Mongo and Mwoong patterns 100
6
To arrive at the Pythagorean proposition 102
An ornamental variant and a generalization of the Pythagorean 104
proposition
A combination of the Pythagorean proposition with its 105
generalization
A geometrical alternative 106
Other geometrical alternatives 110
Once more ‘Pythagoras’ 112
Final considerations 112
References 112
Chapter 8: On possible uses of traditional Angolan sand 113
drawings in the mathematics classroom
Introduction 113
The drawing tradition of the Tchokwe 114
Arithmetical relationships 117
First example 117
Arithmetical progressions 117
A Pythagorean Triplet 123
Geometrical ideas 124
Axial symmetry 124
Double bilateral and point symmetry 124
Rotational symmetry 126
Similarity 126
Geometrical determination of the greatest common 129
divisor of two natural numbers
Towards the Euclidean algorithm 133
Euler graphs 133
Postscript 140
Acknowledgements 140
References 141
7
Chapter 9: Exploration of the mathematical potential of 145
‘sona’: an example of stimulating cultural awareness
in mathematics teacher education
Introduction: necessity of culture-oriented education 145
Ethnomathematical research and teacher education 146
The (lu)sona tradition 147
Didactical experimentation 149
Further exploration of the mathematical potential of sona in 151
teacher education
Composition rules 151
Systematic construction of monolinear drawings 152
How many lines 154
First example 154
Second example 157
Underlying black-and-white designs 163
Chapter 10: Technology, art, games and mathematics 175
education: An example
Chapter 11: On mathematics in the history of Africa south 181
of the Sahara
Introduction 182
Why study the history of mathematics in Africa south of the 183
Sahara?
The beginnings 185
Numeration systems and number symbolism 186
Games, riddles and puzzles 189
Geometry 192
Art and symmetries 192
Networks, graphs or ‘sand drawings 195
Geometry and architecture 197
Uncovering ‘hidden’ geometrical ideas 198
Studies in related disciplines 200
Africa south of the Sahara, North Africa and the outside world 202
8
Slave trade and colonisation 205
Post-Independence 206
Acknowledgements 207
References 207
Appendices 231
Chapter 12: Conditions and strategies for emancipatory 233
mathematics education in underdeveloped countries
Point of departure: mathematics education cannot be neutral 233
Mathematics education for emancipation. How? 234
Problemising reality in classroom situations 235
Creating confidence 239
A. Cultural strategies 239
B. Social strategies 245
C. Individual-collective strategies 245
References 249
Chapter 13: African slave and calculating prodigy: 251
Bicentenary of the death of Thomas Fuller
Appendix 1: “Account of a wonderful talent for arithmetical 263
calculation, in an African slave, living in Virginia”
(1788)
Appendix 2: “Died – NEGRO TOM, the famous African 265
Calculator, aged 80 years” (1790)
References 266
About the author 271

Books in English authored by Paulus Gerdes 273
Books in Portuguese authored by Paulus Gerdes 279
9
Cover of the original edition by the University of Stockholm
10
Preface
PREFACE
The book Ethnomathematics and Education in Africa was

originally concluded in 1992 and published in January 1995 by the
Institute of International Education (IIE) of the University of
Stockholm (Sweden) within the framework of the institutional
cooperation that had started in 1991 between the IEE and the Higher
Pedagogical Institute / Pedagogical University (Instituto Superior
Pedagógico / Universidade Pedagógica) in Mozambique. The book
contained a collection of papers presented at conferences in Brazil,
Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Norway, and Spain and/or published in
international journals such as For the Learning of Mathematics,
Educational Studies in Mathematics and Historia Mathematica. The
papers date from the period 1986-1992.
The book has been out of print for many years. Many colleagues
contacted me to know if the book was still available.
The realisation of the 5th International Conference on
Ethnomathematics in Mozambique in July 2014 constitutes another
motif for re-editing the book, that dates from the years of the
emergence – in various continents – of ethnomathematics as a research
field.
The new edition of the book Ethnomathematics and Education in
Africa reproduces the eleven chapters of the original edition and
contains two chapters not included in the first edition. The new
chapters are entitled “Conditions and strategies for emancipatory
mathematics education in underdeveloped countries” and “African
slave and calculating prodigy: Bicentenary of the death of Thomas
Fuller.”
11
Paulus Gerdes: ETHNOMATHEMATICS AND EDUCATION IN AFRICA
The first of these two papers is the revised version of an invited

paper presented at the Caribbean Conference on Mathematics for the
Benefit of the Communities and its Reflection in the Curriculum,
organised by the Inter-American Committee on Mathematical
Education, Paramaribo, Suriname, October 18-21, 1982. It was
published in For the Learning of Mathematics, Montreal, Vol. 5, No.
1, 15-20 (February 1985) and reproduced in the book Mathematics
Education: Major Themes in Education, Routledge, London, 2010,
Volume 1, 179-189, edited by Alan J. Bishop from Monash
University, Melbourne, Australia.
The second paper, on Thomas Fuller (1710-1790), was written
1
together with the late John Fauvel (1947-2001), and published in
Historia Mathematica, New York, Vol. 17, 141-151 (1990).
The new edition of Ethnomathematics and Education in Africa
will be available both in printed form and as an eBook.
Paulus Gerdes
(paulus.gerdes@gmail.com)
ISTEG, Boane, Mozambique
January 2014
1 Faculty of Mathematics, The Open University, Milton Keynes,

England; President of the British Society for the History of
Mathematics (1991-1994); Chair of the International Study
Group on the Relations between History and Pedagogy of
Mathematics (HPM) (1992-1996).
12
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
The Secretary of the International Study Group on

Ethnomathematics, Patrick Scott (University of New Mexico, USA)
explained during the hearing ‘What can we expect from
Ethnomathematics?’ (6th International Congress on Mathematics
Education, Budapest, 1988) that there are “two major models in
ethnomathematics: the D’Ambrosio–Gerdes model (ethnomathematics
in Third World Countries to bridge the gap between the home culture
and ‘modern’ science) and the Zaslavsky–Ascher model
(ethnomathematics in First World countries to bring the world into the
classroom and to have an appreciation of the mathematics of other
1
cultures).” Both models may be considered as complementary: both
industrialised and Third World countries see themselves nowadays
confronted with the need to ‘multi-culturalise’ their mathematics
curricula.
In general, ethnomathematics is the study of the interrelationship
between (the) mathematics and (the) culture(s) of a given people or
population group. Ethnomathematical studies in Third World countries
and in Africa, in particular, look for and analyse
* Mathematical traditions that survived colonization and
mathematical activities in people’s daily life and ways to
incorporate them into the curriculum;
* Culture elements that may serve as a starting point for
1 See K. Keitel, A. Bishop, P. Damerow, P. Gerdes (eds.) (1989):

Mathematics, Education and Society, UNESCO, Science and
Technology Education Document Series, No. 35, Paris, p. 192-
193.
13
doing and elaborating mathematics in the classroom.

The ultimate goals of these studies are to improve the quality of
mathematics education, to make it more interesting, to enhance the
(cultural) confidence of the pupils in their individual and collective
mathematical abilities, to improve the pupils’ motivation, and to
accelerate the access of the people of Mozambique (and other Third
World countries) to ‘World Mathematics’, the common heritage of
mankind, as a (possibly) useful instrument to improve the quality of
life.
In Mozambique, ethnomathematical research has taken place
since the end of the 1970s. In 1988 it became organized as the
2
‘Ethnomathematics in Mozambique’ research project that envisages
the following general objectives:
1. To reconstruct and to analyse mathematics in African
cultures in general and in Mozambican cultures in
particular;
2. To contribute to the elaboration of the methodology for
this reconstruction;
3. To analyse and to experiment (with) the possibilities of
‘embedding’ or ‘incorporating’ African cultural elements
into mathematical education;
4. On the basis of the reconstructed mathematics, to reflect
on:
4.1 didactical alternatives;
4.2 the (early) history of mathematics;
4.3 philosophical problems of mathematics;
4.4 the involved mathematics.
Most ‘mathematical’ traditions that survived colonization and
most ‘mathematical’ activities in the daily life of the Mozambican
people are not explicitly mathematical. The mathematics is ‘hidden’.
The first aim of the project is to ‘uncover’ some of this ‘hidden’
2 Supported by SAREC (Sweden)

14
Chapter 1
mathematics. As many traditions are nowadays rather obsolete, the

‘uncovering’ often also meant a tentative reconstruction of past
knowledge.
In my Ph.D thesis On the awakening of geometrical thinking
3
(1985) and in my books Ethnogeometrie and Cultura e o despertar
do pensamento geométrico (Culture and the awakening of geometrical
4
thinking) some anthropological research methods were developed in
order to ‘uncover’ and reconstruct ‘hidden’ mathematical thinking.
In a series of papers presented at regional and international
conferences I described my experiences with the cultural embedment
of mathematical education in an African context. Nine of these
educational papers have been included in this collection
Ethnomathematics and Education in Africa.
In chapter 2 ‘Ethnomathematical research: preparing a response
to a major challenge to mathematics education in Africa’ the societal
and cultural background of mathematical education in Africa is
summarized in order to explain the urgency of ethnomathematical
research. It presents also a short review of the realized and ongoing
investigations in Mozambique. Chapter 3 ‘On the concept of
Ethnomathematics’ discusses different notions of ethnoscience and
ethnomathematics. With chapter 4 ‘How to recognize hidden
geometrical thinking: a contribution to the development of an
anthropology of mathematics’ the questions of who sets the standards
in mathematics and mathematics education and of who decides what
mathematics is, are posed, and it reflects about the implications for
education in an African context. In chapter 5 ‘On culture, geometrical
thinking and mathematics education’ a summary of our
experimentation with the incorporation of traditional African cultural
3 Franzbecker Verlag, Bad Salzdethfurth, Germany, 1992, 360 pp.

4 Instituto Superior Pedagógico, Maputo, Mozambique, 1992, 146
pp. and: Universidade Federal de Paraná, Brazil, 1992, 150 pp.
[Latest edition in English: Ethnogeometry: Awakening of
Geometrical Thought in Early Culture, ISTEG, Boane and Lulu,
Morrisville NC, 2013].
15
elements into mathematics education is presented. The paper confronts

a widespread prejudice about mathematical knowledge, that
mathematics is ‘culture-free’, by demonstrating alternative
constructions of Euclidean geometrical ideas developed from the
traditional culture of Mozambique. As well as establishing the
educational power of these constructions, the paper illustrates the
methodology of ‘cultural conscientialization’ in the context of teacher
training. In chapter 6 ‘A widespread decorative motif and the
Pythagorean Theorem’ concrete examples are given of multi-
culturalising the mathematics curriculum, using a well-known African
and also Scandinavian ornamental motif as a starting point for doing
and elaborating mathematics in the classroom. This line is continued in
chapter 7 ‘Pythagoras, similar triangles and the “elephants’-
defence”-pattern of the (Ba)Kuba’ where it is shown how ornaments
from the (Ba)Kuba (Congo) may be used to re-invent the famous
Pythagorean Theorem in an educational context. In chapter 8 ‘On
possible uses of traditional Angolan sand drawings in the mathematics
classroom’ some examples of using the Tchokwe (Cokwe) sand
drawings (‘sona’) in the mathematics classroom are suggested. They
range from the study of arithmetical relationships, symmetry,
similarity, and Euler graphs to the determination of the greatest
common divisor of two natural numbers. In chapter 9 ‘Exploration of
the mathematical potential of SONA’ an elaborated example of
stimulating cultural awareness in mathematics teacher education is
presented. In chapter 10 an example of the relationship between
mathematics education and technology, art and games is presented. In
chapter 11 ‘On the history of mathematics in Africa south of the
Sahara’ I give an overview of mathematics and of other African
traditions with mathematical ingredients like numeration systems,
riddles, puzzles, art and symmetries, games, architecture, ‘sand
drawings’, string figures, etc., that may be incorporated into or be used
as a starting point for doing, inventing and elaborating mathematical
ideas and methods within and outside the formal school context.
At this point my thanks go to Vinayagum Chinapah and Holger
Daun for their invitation to publish a volume with the aforementioned
papers as an edition of the University of Stockholm’s Institute of
International Education, under the title Ethnomathematics and
Education in Africa.
16
Chapter 1
I am grateful to SAREC (Swedish Agency for Research

Cooperation with Developing Countries), and in particular to Berit
Olsson, for the financial support to the ‘Ethnomathematics in
Mozambique’ and ‘Archive for the History of Mathematics in Africa’
research projects.
I am indebted to many colleagues all over the world for their
critiques and encouragement.
To the many generations of nameless African artisans, artists and
scientists who inspired my research and experimentation, I wish to
dedicate this volume.
I record my gratitude to my family, in particular to my wife
Marcela and to my daughter Lesira for the inspiration they gave me
and for the patient support and tolerance they have shown.
Paulus Gerdes
Higher Pedagogical Institute / Instituto Superior Pedagógico)
Maputo, Mozambique, September 1992
17
18
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
ETHNOMATHEMATICAL RESEARCH:
PREPARING A RESPONSE TO A MAJOR
CHALLENGE TO MATHEMATICS EDUCATION IN
AFRICA *
Societal and educational background
Three important publications on the challenges to the South in

general and to education in Africa in particular appeared in 1990:
* “The Challenge to the South”, The Report of the South
Commission, led by the former President of Tanzania, Julius
1
Nyerere ;
* “African Thoughts on the Prospects of Education for All”,
selection from papers commissioned for the Regional
Consultation on Education for All, Dakar, 27-30 November 1989
2
;
* “Educate or Perish: Africa’s Impasse and Prospects”, study
3
directed by Joseph Ki-Zerbo.
* Updated version of an invited paper presented at the Symposium

on ‘Mathematics Education in Africa for the 21st Century’ (24
August 1991) held during the Third Pan-African Congress of
Mathematicians (Nairobi, 20-28 August, 1991)
1 Oxford University Press, Oxford, 325 pp.
2 UNESCO-UNICEF, Dakar / Abidjan, 193 pp.
3 UNESCO-UNICEF, Dakar / Abidjan, 109 pp.
19
These profound studies delineate the societal and educational

background that certainly has to be taken into account in any reflection
on “Mathematics Education in Africa for the 21st Century”.
“The challenge to the South” criticizes development strategies
that minimize cultural factors. Such strategies only provoke
indifference, alienation and social discord. The development strategies
followed until today “have often failed to utilize the enormous reserves
of traditional wisdom and of creativity and enterprise in the countries
of the Third World”. Instead, the cultural wellsprings of the South
should feed the process of development (p. 46).
An important feature of “African thoughts...” is the fact that two
themes keep recurring in all contributions: the focus on the crisis in
African contemporary culture and the theme of African languages (as
vehicles of culture and media of education). The crux of the crisis of
African cultures is the issue of African cultural identity (p. 9). A
people’s cultural identity (including their awareness of such an
identity), is seen as the springboard of their development effort (p.10).
Africa needs culture-oriented education that would ensure the survival
of African cultures, if it emphasized originality of thought and
encouraged the virtue of creativity (p.15). Scientific appreciation of
African cultural elements and experience is considered to be “one sure
way of getting Africans to see science as a means of understanding
their cultures and as a tool to serve and advance their cultures” (p.23).
“Educate or Perish ...” shows that today’s African educational
system favours foreign consumption without generating a culture that
is both compatible with the original civilization and truly promising.
Unadapted and elitist, the existing educational system feeds the crisis
by producing economically and socially unadapted people, and by
being heedless of entire sections of the active population. Education
for all, as discussed by Ki-Zerbo, should be an attempt to encourage
the development of initiative, curiosity, critical awareness, individual
responsibility, respect for collective rules, and a taste for manual work.
Africa needs a “new educational system, properly rooted in both
society and environment, and therefore apt to generate the self-
confidence from which imagination springs” (p.104).
Reminding us of the apt African proverb “When lost, it’s better
to return to a familiar point before rushing on”, Ki-Zerbo underlines
20
Chapter 2
that “Africa is in serious trouble, not because its people have no

foundations to stand on, but because ever since the colonial period,
they have had their foundations removed from under them” (p. 82).
Probably this is particularly true in the case of mathematics. Here lies
one of the principal challenges to African mathematics educators.
A major challenge to mathematics education
African countries face the problem of low ‘levels’ of attainment

in mathematics education. Math anxiety is widespread. Many children
(and teachers too?) experience mathematics as a rather strange and
useless subject, imported from outside Africa.
4
The African mathematical heritage, traditions and practices
5
have to be ‘embedded’ or ‘incorporated’ into the curriculum. More
4 Cf. P.Gerdes, ‘On the history of mathematics in Africa South of

the Sahara’, paper presented to the Third Pan-African Congress
of Mathematicians, Nairobi, 1991 [reproduced as chapter 11].
5 Cf. e.g.:
* Ale, S. (1989): Mathematics in rural societies, in: C.Keitel,
P.Damerow, A.Bishop, P.Gerdes (eds.), Mathematics,
Education, and Society, UNESCO, Paris, 1989, 35-38;
* Doumbia, S. (1989): Mathematics in traditional African
games, in: C.Keitel, P.Damerow, A.Bishop, P.Gerdes
(eds.), Mathematics, Education, and Society, UNESCO,
Paris, 174-175;
* Eshiwani, G. (1979): The goals of mathematics teaching in
Africa: a need for re-examination, Prospects, UNESCO,
Paris, Vol. IX, No. 3, 346-352;
* Jacobsen, E. (1984): What goals for mathematics teaching
in African schools?, Educafrica, UNESCO, Dakar, Vol. 10,
118-134;
21
generally, both in the North and in the South, it is becoming more and
more understood that it is necessary to multi-culturalise the
mathematics curriculum in order to improve its quality, to augment the
cultural and social self-confidence of all pupils (cf. e.g. D’Ambrosio,
6
Bishop, Mellin-Olsen, Zaslavsky). How to respond to this challenge?
* Langdon, N. (1989): Cultural starting points for

mathematics: a view from Ghana, Science Education
Newsletter, British Council, London, No. 87, 1-3;
* Musa, M. (1987): The mathematical heritage of the Hausa
people: a resource guide for mathematics teaching, M.Ed.
thesis, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (Nigeria)
* Njock, G. (1985): Mathématiques et environnement socio-
culturel en Afrique Noire, Présence Africaine, New
Bilingual Series, No. 135, 3rd Quarterly, 3-21;
* Mmari, G. (1978): The United Republic of Tanzania:
mathematics for social transformation, in: F.Swetz (ed.),
Socialist Mathematics Education, Burgundy Press,
Southampton PA, 301-350;
* Shirley, L. (1988): Historical and ethnomathematical
algorithms for classroom use, Ahmadu Bello University,
Zaria (Nigeria), 12 pp. (mimeo);
* Touré, Saliou (1984): Preface, in: Mathématiques dans
l’environnement socio-culturel Africain, Institut de
Recheches Mathématiques d’Abidjan, Abidjan, 1-2;
* Zaslavsky, C. (1973): Africa counts: number and pattern
in African culture, Prindle, Weber and Schmidt, Boston,
328 pp.;
* Zaslavsky, C. (1980): Count on your finger: African style,
Harper and Row, New York.
6 Cf. e.g.:
* D’Ambrosio, U. (1985): Socio-cultural bases for
mathematics education, University of Campinas, Campinas
(Brazil), 103 pp.;
22
Chapter 2
Ethnomathematics Research Project in Mozambique
Ki-Zerbo stresses (p. 87) that all educational renovation in

Africa has to be based on research. This appeal is indeed necessary, as,
according to Hagan in “African thoughts..”, “In Africa, there is
generally a surprising lack of research to back up proposals for
educational reforms” (p. 24). It is in the context of trying to respond to
this challenge to mathematics education in Africa, that
7
ethnomathematical research started in Mozambique.
* Bishop, A. (1988a): Mathematical enculturation, a cultural

perspective on mathematics education, Kluwer Academic
Publishers, Dordrecht, 195 pp.;
* Bishop, Al. (ed.) (1988b): Mathematics Education and
Culture, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 286 pp.;
* Frankenstein, M. & Powell, A. (1989): Mathematics
education and society: empowering on-traditional students,
in: C.Keitel, P.Damerow, A.Bishop, P.Gerdes (eds.),
Mathematics, Education, and Society, UNESCO, Paris,
157-159;
* Mellin-Olsen, S. (1986): Culture as a key theme for
mathematics education, in: Mellin-Olsen, S. & Hoines, M.
(ed.), Mathematics and culture, a seminar report, Radal,
99-121;
* Zaslavsky, C. (1989): Integrating mathematics with the
study of cultural traditions, in: C.Keitel, P.Damerow,
A.Bishop, P.Gerdes (ed.), Mathematics, Education, and
Society, UNESCO, Paris, 14-15.
7 On the development of mathematics education in Mozambique,
see e.g.
* Draisma, J. (1985): Curriculum development in the
People’s Republic of Mozambique - the case of
mathematics, INDE, Maputo, 12 pp.;
23
8
Ethnomathematical studies analyse
* Mathematical traditions that survived colonization and
* Cultural elements that may serve as a starting point for doing and
elaborating mathematics in and outside school.
As most ‘mathematical’ traditions that survived colonization and
most ‘mathematical’ activities in the daily life of the Mozambican
people are not explicitly mathematical (i.e. the mathematics is
‘hidden’), the first aim of our Ethnomathematics Research Project is to
‘uncover’ this ‘hidden’ mathematics. The first results of this
‘uncovering’ are included in book On the awakening of geometrical
9
thinking (1985) and slightly extended in Ethnogeometry: Cultural-
* Draisma, J. et al. (1986): Mathematics Education in

Mozamique, Proceedings SAMSA 4, Kwaluseni
(Swaziland), 56-96;
* Gerdes, P. (1981): Changing mathematics education in
Mozambique, Educational Studies in Mathematics,
Dordrecht / Boston, Vol. 12, 455-477;
* Gerdes, P. (1984): The first mathematics Olympiads in
Mozambique, Educational Studies in Mathematics,
Dordrecht / Boston, Vol. 15, No. 2, 149-172.
8 Cf. Gerdes, P. (1989): Mathematics education and culture in
Third World countries, Namnären, Göteborg (Sweden), Vol. 16,
No. 4, 24-27; and: The use of ethnomathematics in the classroom
(partial transcription), in: Proceedings of a Conference on the
Politics of Mathematics Education, NECC Mathematics
Commission, 1989, Cape Town, 26-36.
9 Zum erwachenden geometrischen Denken, Maputo / Dresden,
260 pp. Cf. also Gerdes, P.: How to recognize hidden
geometrical thinking? A contribution to the development of
anthropological mathematics, For the Learning of Mathematics,
Montreal, 1985, Vol. 6, No. 2, 10-12, 17 [reproduced as chapter
4]. Cf. also the following two papers where we analyse why
24
Chapter 2
anthropological contributions to the genesis and didactics of geometry

10
(1992).
In “On culture, mathematics and curriculum development in
11
Mozambique” (1986) and “On culture, geometrical thinking and
12
mathematics education” (1988), we summarized our
experimentation with the incorporation of traditional African cultural
elements into mathematics education. The second paper confronts a
widespread prejudice about mathematical knowledge, that
mathematics is ‘culture-free’, by demonstrating alternative
constructions of Euclidean geometrical ideas developed from the
traditional culture of Mozambique. As well as establishing the
educational power of these constructions, the paper illustrates the
methodology of ‘cultural conscientialization’ in the context of teacher
training. In the papers “A widespread decorative motif and the
13
Pythagorean Theorem” (1988) and “How many proofs of the
basket weavers ‘prefer’ certain symmetries: Fivefold Symmetry

and (basket)weaving in various cultures, in: I.Hargittai (ed.),
Fivefold symmetry in a cultural context, World Scientific
Publishing, Singapore, 1992, 243-259, and On
ethnomathematical research and symmetry, in: Symmetry:
Culture and Science, Budapest, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1990, 154-170.
10 Gerdes, P.: Ethnogeometrie. Kulturanthropologische Beiträge
zur Genese und Didaktik der Geometrie, Verlag Franzbecker,
Bad Salzdetfurth (Germany), 360 pp. [Latest edition in English:
Ethnogeometry: Awakening of Geometrical Thought in Early
Culture, ISTEG, Boane & Lulu, Morrisville NC, 2013].
11 In: S.Mellin-Olsen & M.J.Hoines (eds.), Mathematics and
Culture, a seminar report, Caspar Forlag, Radel, 15-42.
12 Educational Studies in Mathematics, Dordrecht /Boston, Vol. 19,
No. 3, 137-162; and in: Bishop, A. (ed.), Mathematics Education
and Culture, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht / Boston,
137-162 [reproduced as chapter 5].
13 In: For the Learning of Mathematics, Montreal, Vol. 8, No. 1,
35-39 [reproduced as chapter 6].
25
14
Pythagorean Proposition do there exist?” and more elaborated in the
book African Pythagoras. A study in culture and mathematics
15
education: cultural starting points (1992) we show how diverse
African ornaments and artefacts may be used to create a rich context
for the discovery and the demonstration of the so-called Pythagorean
Theorem and of related ideas and propositions.
In SONA Geometry: Reflections on a Drawing Tradition in
16
Africa south of the Equator (1993), it is tried to reconstruct
mathematical components of the Tchokwe drawing-tradition (Angola)
and to explore their educational, artistic and scientific potential. In an
earlier article “On possible uses of traditional Angolan sand drawings
17
in the mathematics classroom” (1988) we analysed already some
possibilities for educational incorporation of this tradition. In the paper
18
“Find the missing figures” (1988) and in the book Lusona:
14 Namnären, Göteborg (Sweden), Vol. 15, No. 1, 38-41.

15 Mozambique’s Higher Pedagogical Institute, 1992, 102 pp.
[English language edition in colour: Lulu, Morrisville NC,
2011].
16 Geometria SONA, Mozambique’s Higher Pedagogical Institute,
Maputo, Vol. 1, 200 pp., Vol. 2, 156 pp. Vol. 3 to be published
in 1994 [Latest English language editions: Sona Geometry from
Angola: Mathematics of an African Tradition, Vol. 1,
Polimetrica, Monza, 2006; Vol. 2, Lulu, Morrisville NC, 2013].
17 First version, in: Abacus, the Journal of the Mathematical
Association of Nigeria, Ilorin (Nigeria), Vol. 18, No. 1, 107-125;
second more elaborated version in: Educational Studies in
Mathematics, Dordrecht / Boston, Vol. 19, 3-22; Portuguese
language version in: Bolema, Rio Claro (Brazil), 1989, Special
No. 1, 51-77 [reproduced as chapter 8].
18 In: Namnären, Götenborg (Sweden), Vol. 15, No. 4, 51-53;
Portuguese language version in: Bolema, Rio Claro (Brazil),
1989, Special No. 1, 79-97.
26
Chapter 2
geometrical recreations of Africa (1991) 19 mathematical amusements

are presented that are inspired by the geometry of the sand drawing
tradition. For children (age 10-15) the booklet Living mathematics:
Drawings from Africa (1990) 20 has been elaborated. A overview of
this research is given in “On mathematical elements in the Tchokwe
‘sona’ tradition” (1990) 21.
In recent years more lecturers and in particular young lecturers,
who returned home after having studied abroad became interested in
and started ethnomathematical research. At the 3rd Pan-African
Congress of Mathematicians (Nairobi, 1991) Abdulcarimo Ismael
presented a communication on “The origin of the concepts of ‘even’
and ‘odd’ in Macua culture (Northern Mozambique)” and Marcos
Cherinda delivered a paper on “Mental Arithmetic and the Tsonga
language (Southern Mozambique)”. At the 8th Symposium of the
Southern Africa Mathematical Sciences association (Maputo, 1991)
Daniel Soares presented a communication on “Popular counting
practices in Mozambique”. At the 1st Conference on Mathematics
Education in Africa (Cairo, 1992) Marcos Cherinda presented a paper
on “A children’s ‘circle of interest in ethnomathematics” and Jan
19 Portuguese, English and French language editions,

Mozambique’s Higher Pedagogical Institute, Maputo, 120 pp.
[Expanded English language edition in colour: Lulu, Morrisville
NC, 2013].
20 Gerdes, Paulus: Vivendo a matemática: desenhos da África,
Editora Scipione, São Paulo (Brazil), 64 pp. [English language
editions: Drawings from Angola, Living Mathematics, Lulu,
Morrisville NC, 2007, 2012].
21 In: For the Learning of Mathematics, Montreal, Vol. 10. No. 1,
31-34, and slightly adapted versions in: Afrika Matematika,
Benin City (Nigeria), Series 2, Vol. 3, 1991, 119-130 and in:
Discovery and Innovation, Nairobi (Kenya), Vol. 3, No. 1, 1991,
29-36. In French: A propos d’éléments mathématiques dans les
‘SONA’ de la tradition Tchokwe, in: Plot, Poitiers (France), No.
54, 1991, 5-9.
27
Draisma a communication on “Mental addition and subtraction in

22
Mozambique”.
Also a series of students at Mozambique’s Higher Pedagogical
Institute (Maputo and Beira) became interested in ethnomathematical
research. Two students completed already a master’s thesis in the field
of ethnomathematics: “Symmetries of ornaments on baskets of the
‘khuama’ type” (Evaristo Uaila) and “Symmetries of ornaments on
metallic window gratings in the city of Maputo” (Abílio Mapapá).
Ethnomathematical research training will be included in both
M.Ed. programmes in Mathematics Education: Mathematics Education
for Primary Schools (Beira) and Mathematics Education for Secondary
Schools (Maputo). With the expansion of this research it is hoped to
contribute to the preparation of a curriculum reform that guarantees
that mathematics education in the 21st century in Mozambique is
indeed “in tune with African traditions and socio-cultural
23
environment”.
22 Doctoral theses:
Abdulcarimo Ismael (2001): An ethnomathematical study of
Tchadji – about a Mancala type board game played in
Mozambique and possibilities for its use in Mathematics
Education, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg,
South Africa;
Marcos Cherinda (2002): The use of a cultural activity in the
teaching and learning of mathematics: The exploration of twill
weaving in Mozambican classrooms, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa;
Jan Draisma (2006): Teaching gesture and oral computation in
Mozambique: four case studies, Monash University, Clayton,
Australia;
Daniel Soares (2010): The incorporation of geometry involved in
the traditional house building in mathematics education in
Mozambique: The cases of the Zambézia and Sofala provinces,
University of the Western Cape, South Africa.
23 “African Thoughts…”, p. 14
28
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
ON THE CONCEPT OF ETHNOMATHEMATICS *
The concept of ethnomathematics is relatively new among

mathematicians and teachers of mathematics. The Brazilian U.
D’Ambrosio is often called the ‘father of ethnomathematics’ [Cf. e.g.
Ferreira, 1988, 3; Borba, 1988, 24]. In many lectures and conferences
since 1975 he has stressed the necessity of having an
ethnomathematics. On the other hand ethnographers since the end of
the last century have used the more general concept of ethnoscience
and related notions, like ethnolinguistics, ethnobotany, ethnozoology,
1
ethnochemistry, ethnoastronomy, ethnopsychology and ethno-logics.
The usual meaning given by specialists of the social sciences to
ethnoscience does, however, generally not correspond to the dominant
interpretation of the concept of ethnomathematics by mathematicians,
as will be shown in the following.
Ethnographers on ethnoscience
In the ethnological dictionary of Panoff and Perrin are presented

two definitions of the concept of ethnoscience. In the first case, it is a
“branch of ethnology that dedicates itself to the comparison between
* Translation of the first part of the introduction to the book

Ethno-mathematical Studies [in German], Higher Pedagogical
Institute, Maputo, 1989. French version published in: Plot,
Orléans, 1992, No. 59, 41-47.
1 Cf. ISGEm-Newsletter, 1985, Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 2: ethnoscience,
ethnobiology, ethnobotany, ethnochemistry, ethnoastronomy;
Harris, 1969, 568: ethnoscience, ethnolinguistics, ethno-
semantics; Campos, 1987: ethnoscience, ethnoastronomy.
29
the positive knowledge of exotic societies and the knowledge that has
been formalized in the established disciplines of western science”
2
[Panoff & Perrin, 1973, 68]. This definition raises immediately some
questions, like: ‘What is positive knowledge?’, ‘In what sense
exotic?’, ‘Does there exist a western science?’ In the second case,
“each application of one of the western scientific disciplines to natural
phenomena which are understood in a different way by indigenous
thinking” is called ethnoscience [Panoff & Perrin, 1973, 68]. Both
definitions belong to a tradition that traces back to the colonial time
when ethnography was born in the most ‘developed’ countries as a
‘colonial science’, that studied almost exclusively the cultures of
subjected peoples, also a ‘science’ that opposed the so-called
‘primitive’ thinking to the ‘western’ thinking as somehow absolutely
different. M. and R. Ascher, mathematician and ethnographer, did not
succeed in liberating themselves completely from this tradition, as they
define ethnomathematics as “the study of mathematical ideas of
nonliterate peoples”. “We recognize as mathematical thought those
notions that in some way correspond to that label in our culture”
[Ascher & Ascher, 1986, 125; cf. Ascher, M., 1984]. ‘Our culture’
means ‘western culture’, and they state furthermore that the ‘western’
mathematics did not pass through a nonliterate pre-history:
“Ethnomathematics is not a part of the history of Western
mathematics” [Ascher & Ascher, 1986, 139]. “The category of
mathematics is – in their opinion – ours” (= western [Ascher &
Ascher, 1986, 132]. We may question, however, if the ‘oriental’ and
‘eastern’ and ‘southern’ peoples of Asia and Africa, did not contribute
3
to the development of that mathematics considered ‘western.’
Among ethnographers there exists also another current that
2 Cf. the definition of Lévi-Strauss of ethnozoology: “... the

positive knowledge which the natives (of this part of the world)
possess concerning animals, the technical and ritual uses to
which they put them, and the beliefs they hold about them”
[Lévi-Strauss, 1962, 133].
3 Cf. Bishop, 1989, 3: “In a sense that term [western mathematics,
pg] is ... inappropriate since many cultures have contributed to
this knowledge...”
30
Chapter 3
considers ethnoscience in a very different way. E.g., C. Favrod

characterizes ethnolinguistics in his introduction to social and cultural
anthropology as follows: “Ethnolinguistics tries to study language in
its relationship to the whole of cultural and social life” [Favrod, 1977,
90]. When we transfer this characterization of ethnolinguistics to
ethnomathematics, we obtain by analogy: “Ethnomathematics tries
to study mathematics (or mathematical ideas) in its (their)
relationship to the whole of cultural and social life.” In this sense
ethnomathematics comes near to the sociology of mathematics of D.
Struik [See Struik, 1986].
Genesis of the concept of ethnomathematics among

mathematicians and mathematics teachers
Colonial education presented mathematics generally as

something rather ‘western’ or ‘European’, as an exclusive creation of
‘white men’. With the hasty curriculum transplantation – during the
1960’s – from the highly industrialized nations to ‘Third World’
countries there continued, at least implicitly, the negation of African,
Asian, American-Indian, ... mathematics [Cf. Gerdes, 1985b, #0].
During the 1970’s and 1980’s there emerged among teachers and
mathematics educators in developing countries and later also in other
4
countries a growing resistance to this negation [Cf. Njock, 1985],
4 See, e.g., Harris, 1987, 26: “ ‘Ex Africa semper aliquid novi’
Pliny is supposed to have written: ‘There is always something
new from Africa.’ Part of the newness of Paulus Gerdes’ work in
Mozambique [Gerdes 1986a] is that he offers ‘non-standard
problems’, easily solved by many illiterate Mozambican artisans,
to members of the international mathematics education
community, who cannot (at first) do them. They have trouble in
constructing angles of 90o, 60o and 45o and regular hexagons
out of strips of paper, problems which are no trouble at all to
people for whom the intellectual and practical art of weaving is a
necessary part of life. Recently I have been offering to
31
against the racist and (neo)colonial prejudices, that it reflects, against

the Eurocentrism in respect to mathematics and its history [Cf. the
studies of Joseph, 1984, 1986, 1987a, 1987b, 1991]. It was stressed
that beyond the ‘imported school mathematics’ there existed and
continues to exist ‘indigenous mathematics’ [Cf. e.g. Gay & Cole,
1967]. In this context various concepts have been proposed to contrast
with the ‘academic mathematics’ / ‘school mathematics’ (i.e. the
school mathematics of the transplanted, imported curriculum):
* Sociomathematics of Africa [Zaslavsky, 1973]: “the applications
of mathematics in the lives of African people, and, conversely, the
influence that African institutions had upon the evolution of their
mathematics” [Zaslavsky, 1973, 7];
* Spontaneous mathematics [D’Ambrosio, 1982]: each human
being and each cultural group develops spontaneously certain
experienced teachers and teachers in training some of the ‘non-

standard problems’ that are easily solved by any woman brought
up to make her or her family’s clothes. Many of the male
teachers are so unfamiliar with the construction and even shape
and size of their own garments that they cannot at first perceive
that all you need to make a sweater (apart from the technology
and tools) is an understanding of ratio and all you need to make a
shirt is an understanding of right-angled and parallel lines, the
idea of area, some symmetry, some optimisation and the ability
to work from 2-dimensional plans to 3-dimensional forms. What
makes the problems non-standard is the viewpoint of those who
set the standards. Gerdes’ work, and the work of others in the
field of ethnomathematics offer a rather threatening
confrontation to the traditional standard setters. Gerdes is up
against a number of factors that until recently have tried to
determine the education, or previous lack of it, in his country.
The freshness of his work is his illustration of the mathematics
that already exists in Mozambican culture and how he is setting
about ‘defrosting’ it. It is interesting to take Gerdes’ analysis and
his energy and commitment and to apply them worldwide and in
the different context of women’s culture ... ”
32
Chapter 3
5
mathematical methods ;
* Informal mathematics [Posner, 1982]: mathematics that is
transmitted and one learns outside the formal system of education;
* Oral mathematics [Carraher et al., 1982; Kane, 1987]: in all
human societies there exists mathematical knowledge that is
transmitted orally from one generation to the next;
* Oppressed mathematics [Gerdes, 1982]: in class societies (e.g., in
the countries of the ‘Third World’ during the colonial occupation)
there exist mathematical elements in the daily life of the
populations that are not recognized as mathematics by the
dominant ideology;
* Non-standard mathematics [Carraher, 1982; Gerdes, 1985;
Harris, 1987]: beyond the dominant standard forms of ‘academic’
and ‘school’ mathematics there develops and developed in the
whole world and in each culture mathematical forms that are
distinct from the established patterns;
* Hidden or frozen mathematics [Gerdes, 1982, 1985]: although,
probably, the majority of mathematical knowledge of the formerly
colonized peoples has been lost, one may try to reconstruct or
‘unfreeze’ the mathematical thinking, that is ‘hidden’ or ‘frozen’ in
6
old techniques, like, e.g., that of basket making;
5 Students and colleagues of D’Ambrosio, like Carraher,

Schliemann, Ferreira and Borba published many interesting
examples of this spontaneous mathematics.
6 Cf. the comments of Bishop:
“...in many underdeveloped countries and former colonies [there
is a response] which is aimed at developing a greater awareness
of one’s own culture. Cultural rebirth or cultural
‘conscientisation’ is a recognized goal of the educational process
in several countries. Gerdes, in Mozambique, is a teacher
educator who has done a great deal of work in this area. He seeks
not only to demonstrate interesting mathematical aspects of
Mozambican life but also to develop the process of ‘unfreezing’
the ‘frozen’ mathematics, which he uncovers. For example, with
33
* Folk mathematics [Mellin-Olsen, 1986]: the mathematics

(although often not recognized as such) that develops in the
working activity of each of the peoples may serve as a starting
point in the teaching of mathematics.
The proposals of new concepts are provisional. They belong to a

tendency that started in the ‘Third World’ and that later on found an
echo in other countries.
The various aspects illuminated by the aforementioned
provisional concepts have been gradually united under the more
general ‘common denominator’ of ethnomathematics. This process
has been accelerated by the creation of the International Studygroup on
Ethnomathematics [ISGEm] in 1985. Mathematicians, including the
author that tried to avoid the use of the term ethnomathematics
because of its connotation with the first ethnographical interpretation
of the same concept [see above], saw themselves ‘obliged’ to start to
use it more and more. The international debate on what
ethnomathematics means became more intense, and during the
International Congress of Education Mathematics (Budapest, 1988)
various papers on ethnomathematics were presented and also a hearing
with the participation of U. D’Ambrosio (Brazil), M. Fasheh
(Palestina), P. Gerdes (Mozambique), M. Harris (Great-Britain) and P.
Scott (USA), around ‘What can we expect from ethno-
mathematics?’ [See Bishop et al., 1988] was realized.
Concept, accent or movement?
According to the editorial comment, entitled

‘Ethnomathematics: What might it be?’, in the first edition of the
newsletter of ISGEm, ethnomathematics lies at the confluence of
the plaiting methods used by fishermen to make their fish traps,

he demonstrates significant geometric ideas which could easily
be assimilated into the mathematics curriculum in order to create
what he considers to be a genuine Mozambican mathematics
education for the young people there” [Bishop, 1989. 13].
34
Chapter 3
mathematics and of cultural anthropology (ethnography). At a first

level, it may be called ‘mathematics-in-the-(cultural)-environment’
or ‘mathematics-in-the-community’ [ISGEm-Newsletter, 1985, Vol.
1, No. 1, 2]. In this way, both sociomathematics, and folk,
spontaneous, informal, oral, frozen, non-standard and oppressed
mathematics belong to ethnomathematics. At a second level, related to
the first one, ethnomathematics is “the particular (and perhaps
peculiar) way that specific cultural groups go about the tasks of
classifying, ordering, counting and measuring” [ISGEm-Newsletter,
1985, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2].
Some researchers try to unite both levels into one definition. E.g.
A. Hunting, in his book ‘Learning, aboriginal world view, and ethno-
mathematics’ (1985), considers ethnomathematics to be the
“Mathematics used by a defined cultural group in the course of dealing
with environmental problems and activities” [cited in ISGEm-
Newsletter, 1986, Vol. 2, No. 1, 3]. In the opinion of Ferreira, well
known for his studies of mathematical activities among Brazilian
Indians, ethnomathematics is “mathematics incorporated in popular
culture” [Ferreira & Imenes, 1986, 4]. Borba, author of an interesting
study about the mathematical knowhow of a ‘favela’ population,
defines ethnomathematics as “mathematics practiced by cultural
groups, as tribal societies, workgroups or neighbourhoods” [Borba,
1988, 20] and sees ethno-mathematics “as a domain of knowledge
intrinsically allied to a cultural group and its interests, that is closely
linked to its reality and is expressed in a language that is generally
different from the one used by Mathematics seen as a science, in a
language that is umbilically bound to its culture, to its ethnicity”
[Borba, 1987, 38]. These definitions come very close to one of
D’Ambrosio: “...different forms of mathematics which are proper to
cultural groups we call Ethnomathematics” [D’Ambrosio, 1987, 5].
According to these authors the following holds for each ethno-
mathematics:
(1) ethnomathematics ⊂ mathematics.
At the same time, however, the investigation of a concrete ethno-

mathematics is also called ethnomathematics. In this way writes the
35
same Ferreira in 1986, that ethnomathematics constitutes a branch of

ethnology:
(2) ethnomathematics ⊂ ethnology,
as it analyses “the mathematical knowledge, practised in the daily life

of a social group” [Ferreira, 1986, 2]. In this sense, the interpretation
of ethnomathematics approximates the definition of ethnomathematics
that we deduced above from the definition of ethnolinguistics given by
the ethnographer Favrod: “Ethnomathematics tries to study
mathematics in its relations with the whole of cultural and social life.”
In the same essay, Ferreira considers ethnoscience also as “a method
that may be used to arrive at the concepts of the institutionalized
sciences” [Ferreira, 1986, 3]. This implies that ethnomathematics
belongs to the didactics of mathematics:
(3) ethnomathematics ⊂ didactics of mathematics.
The same idea is also stressed at the end of the aforementioned

editorial ‘Ethnomathematics: What could it be?’: “... examples of
Ethno-mathematics derived from culturally identifiable groups, and
related inferences about patterns of reasoning and models of thought
can lead to curriculum development projects that build on the intuitive
understandings and practiced methods students bring with them to
school. Perhaps the most striking need for such curriculum
development may be in Third World countries, yet there is mounting
evidence that schools in general do not take advantage of their
students’ intuitive mathematical and scientific grasp of the world”
[ISGEm-Newsletter, 1985, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2].
How may ethnomathematics satisfy simultaneously the
‘conditions’ (1), (2) and (3)? In other words, how may
ethnomathematics belong at the same time to mathematics, to
ethnology and to the didactics of mathematics?
When A. Bishop compares the definition of Ascher & Ascher
(Ethnomathematics as the study of mathematical ideas of nonliterate
36
Chapter 3
peoples [Ascher & Ascher, 1986, 125; cf. Ascher, 1984]) with one of
D’Ambrosio (Ethnomathematics as a more local collection of
mathematical ideas, that maybe are not (yet) as developed and
systematized, as those of the ‘mainstream’ of mathematics [Bishop,
1989, 2,3], he concludes that the concept of ethnomathematics does
not yet constitute a well defined term and that “in view of the ideas
and data we now have, perhaps it would be better not to use that term
but rather to be more precise about which, and whose, mathematics
one is referring to in any context” [Bishop, 1989, 13].
When we compare the distinct ‘levels’ (1), (2) and (3), on which
one interprets ethnomathematics, we may agree with the appeal of
Bishop for caution. Maybe it is better to speak provisionally about an
ethnomathematical accent in research and in mathematics education,
or of an ethnomathematical movement, that we may characterize as
follows:
* ‘Ethnomathematicians’ emphasize and analyse the influences of
socio-cultural factors on the teaching, learning and development of
mathematics;
* With the notion of ethnomathematics, one draws attention to the
fact that mathematics (its techniques and truths) is a cultural
7
product; one stresses that every people – every culture and every
subculture – develops its own particular mathematics. Mathematics
is considered to be a universal, pan-human activity [Ascher &
Ascher, 1981, 159]. As a cultural product mathematics has a
history. Under certain economic, social and cultural conditions, it
emerged and developed in certain directions; under other
conditions, it emerged and developed in other directions. In other
words, the development of mathematics is not unilinear [Ascher
& Ascher, 1986, 139, 140].
* ‘Ethnomathematicians’ emphasize that the school mathematics of
the transplanted, imported ‘curriculum’ is apparently alien to the
cultural traditions of Africa, Asia and South America. Apparently
this mathematics comes from the outside of the ‘Third World’. In
7 Cf. the earlier studies of the ethnologist White and of the

mathematician Wilder.
37
reality, however, an important of the contents of this school

mathematics is of African and Asian origin. Firstly, it became
expropriated in the process of colonization that destroyed greatly
8
the (scientific) culture of the oppressed peoples [Cf. Gerdes,
1985b]. Then colonial ideologies ignored or despised the survivals
of African, Asian and American-Indian mathematics. The
mathematical capacities of the peoples of the ‘Third World’
became negated or reduced to rote memorization. This tendency
has been reinforced by the curriculum transplantation (‘New
Math’) from the highly industrialized nations to ‘Third World’
countries in the 1960’s.
* ‘Ethnomathematicians’ try to contribute to the knowledge of the
mathematical realizations of the formerly colonized peoples. They
look for culture elements, that survived colonialism and that reveal
mathematical and other scientific thinking. They try to reconstruct
9
these mathematical thoughts.
* ‘Ethnomathematical studies’ in ‘Third World’ countries look for
mathematical traditions that survived colonization and for
mathematical activities in people’s daily life and analyse ways to
10
incorporate them into the curriculum.
8 Cf. e.g. Bishop: “One of the greatest ironies … is that several

different cultures and societies contributed to the development of
[the so-called] Western Mathematics – the Egyptians, the
Chinese, the Indians, the Moslems, the Greeks as well as the
Western Europeans. Yet when Western cultural imperialism
imposed its version of Mathematics on the colonized societies, it
was scarcely recognisable as anything to which these societies
might have contributed ...” [Bishop, 1989, 14].
9 Cf. e.g.: Ascher & Ascher, 1981; Bassanezi & Faria, 1988;
Marschall, 1987; Closs, 1986; Doumbia, 1988; Njock, 1985;
Villadiego, 1984; Gerdes, 1985b, 1986g, 1989 a, b, e.
10 Cf. e.g.: Borba, 1987, 1988; Carraher, 1982; Ferreira & Imenes,
1986; Ferreira, 1986, 1988a and b; Shirley, 1988; Bishop, 1988a
38
Chapter 3
* ‘Ethnomathematical studies’ also look for other culture

elements that may serve as a starting point for doing and
11
elaborating mathematics in the classroom.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
D’Ambrosio, Ubiratan [1976]: Matemática e sociedade, Ciência e

Cultura, São Paulo, 28, 1418-1422.
D’Ambrosio, Ubiratan [1982]: Mathematics for rich and for poor
countries, CARIMATH, Paramaribo.
D’Ambrosio, Ubiratan [1984]: The intercultural transmission of
mathematical knowledge: effects on mathematical education,
UNICAMP, Campinas.
D’Ambrosio, Ubiratan [1985a]: Mathematics education in a cultural
setting, International Journal of Mathematical Education in
Science and Technology, London 16, 469-477.
D’Ambrosio, Ubiratan [1985b]: Sociocultural bases for mathematics
education, UNICAMP, Campinas.
D’Ambrosio, Ubiratan [1985c]: Ethnomathematics and its place in the
history of mathematics, For the Learning of Mathematics,
Montreal 5, 1, 44-48.
D’Ambrosio, Ubiratan [1987]: Reflections on ethnomathematics,
ISGEm-Newsletter, Albuquerque, 3, 1, 3-5.
D’Ambrosio, Ubiratan [1988a]: Ethnomathematics: a research
programm in the history of ideas and in cognition,: ISGEm-
Newsletter, Albuquerque, 4, 1, 5-8.
D’Ambrosio, Ubiratan [1988b]: Etnomática se ensina?, BOLEMA, Rio
Claro, 3, 4, 13-16.
and b; Harris, 1987; Gerdes, 1982, 1985a, 1986a, b, g, 1987a,

1988b,e, 1989a.
11 Cf Zaslavsky, 1988; Harris, 1987; Langdon, 1988; Gerdes,
1986b, d, 1988a, b, c, d, e, f, g, 1989a.
39
D’Ambrosio, Ubiratan [1990]: Etnomatemática: arte ou técnica de

explicar, Editora Ática, São Paulo.
Ascher, Marcia & Ascher, Robert [1981]: Code of the Quipu. A study
in media, mathematics, and culture, Ann Arbor.
Ascher, Marcia & Ascher, Robert [1986]: Ethnomathematics, History
of Science, Cambridge, XXIV, 125-144.
Ascher, Marcia [1984]: Mathematical ideas in non-western cultures,
Historia Mathematica, New York, 11, 76-80.
Ascher, Marcia [1991]: Ethnomathematics: a multicultural view of
mathematical ideas, Brooks/Cole Publ., Pacific Grove Ca.
Bassanezi, Rodney & Faria, Maria [1988]: A matemática dos
ornamentos e a cultura Arica, Revista de Ensino de Ciências, São
Paulo, 21, 39-45.
Bishop, Alan [1988a]: Mathematical enculturation: a cultural
perspective on mathematics education, Kluwer, Dordrecht.
Bishop, Alan (Coord.) [1988b]: Mathematics Education and Culture,
Kluwer, Dordrecht.
Bishop, Alan [1989]: Cultural imperialism and western mathematics:
the hidden persuader, in: Mangan, J.A. (ed.), Education, Europe
and Imperialism; Manchester.
Bishop, A.; Damerow, P.; Gerdes, P. & Keitel, Ch. [1988]:
Mathematics, education and society, in: Proceedings of the Sixth
International Congress on Mathematical Education (Ed. Hirst,
A. & Hirst, K.), Jáos Bolyai Mathematical Society, Budapest,
311-328.
Borba, Marcelo [1987]: Um estudo em etnomatemática: sua
incorporação na elaboração de uma proposta pedagógica para
o Núcleo-Escola da Favela de Vila Nogueira e São Quirino,
UNESP, Rio Claro.
Borba, Marcelo [1988]: Etnomatemática: o Homem também conhece
o Mundo de um ponto de vista Matemático, BOLEMA, Rio
Claro, 5, 19-34.
Campos, Márcio [1987]: Science teaching integrated in the
sociocultural context with some hints taken from Ethnoscience
40
Chapter 3
and Ethnoastronomy, Bombay.

Carraher, T., Carraher, D. & Schliemann, A. [1982]: Na vida, dez; na
escola,zero: os contextos culturais da aprendizagem de
matemática, Cadernos de Pesquisa, São Paulo, 42, 79-86.
Closs, Michael (Ed.) [1986]: Native American Mathematics; Austin.
Doumbia, Salimata [1988]: Mathématiques dans les jeux traditionels
africains; IRMA, Abidjan.
Favrod, Charles-Henri [1977]: A antropologia, Publicações Dom
Quixote, Lisbon.
Ferreira, Eduardo Sebastiani [1986]: Etnociência: uma metodologia de
ensino, Aprender a ensinar Boletim de Educação Matemática,
São Paulo, 2, 2, 2-4.
Ferreira, Eduardo Sebastiani [1987a]: Construcción de la casa
indígena - una propuesta de ensenanza de matemática,
UNICAMP, Campinas.
Ferreira, Eduardo Sebastiani [1987b]: The planning of a teaching
model in Ethnomathematics, UNICAMP, Campinas.
Ferreira, Eduardo Sebastiani [1988a]: The teaching of mathematics in
Brazilian nature communities, UNICAMP, Campinas.
Ferreira, Eduardo Sebastiani [1988b]: The genetic principle and the
ethno-mathematics, UNICAMP, Campinas.
Ferreira, Eduardo Sebastiani & Imenes, Luiz Márcio [1986]:
Etnomatemática – a matemática incorporada à cultura de um
povo, Revista de Ensino de Ciências, São Paulo, 15, 4-9.
Gay, John & Cole, Michael [1967]: The new mathematics and an old
culture: a study of learning among the Kpelle of Liberia, Holt,
Rinehart and Winston, New York.
Gerdes, Paulus [1982]: Mathematics for the benefit of the people,
CARIMATH, Paramaribo.
Gerdes, Paulus [1985a]: Conditions and strategies for emancipatory
mathematics education in underdeveloped countries, For the
Learning of Mathematics, Montreal, 5, 3, 15-20 [reproduced as
chapter 12].
Gerdes, Paulus [1985b]: Zum erwachenden geometrischen Denken,
41
UEM, Maputo [Latest edition in English: Ethnogeometry:

Awakening of Geometrical Thought in Early Culture, ISTEG,
Boane & Lulu, Morrisville NC, 2013].
Gerdes, Paulus [1986a]: On culture, mathematics and curriculum-
development in Mozambique, in: Mathematics and Culture, a
seminar report (Eds. S. Mellin-Olsen, M. Johnsen Hoines),
Caspar Forlag, Radal, 15-42.
Gerdes, Paulus [1986b]: Um método geral para construir polígonos
regulares, inspirado numa técnica moçambicana de
entrelaçamento, TLANU, Maputo.
Gerdes, Paulus [1986c]: How to recognize hidden geometrical
thinking? A contribution to the development of anthropological
mathematics, For the Learning of Mathematics, Montreal, 6, 2,
10-12 and 17 [reproduced as chapter 4].
Gerdes, Paulus [1987]: Inspiration aus traditionellen angolanischen
Zeichnungen: geometrische Bestimmung des größten
gemeinsamen Teilers zweier natürlichen Zahlen, TLANU,
Maputo.
Gerdes, Paulus [1988a]: A widespread decorative motif and the
Pythagorean Theorem, For the Learning of Mathematics,
Montreal, 8, 1, 35-39 [reproduced as chapter 6].
Gerdes, Paulus [1988b]: On possible uses of traditional Angolan sand
drawings in the mathematics classroom, Educational Studies in
Mathematics, Boston / Dordrecht, 19, 1, 3-22 [reproduced as
chapter 8].
Gerdes, Paulus [1988c]: On culture, geometrical thinking and
mathematics education, Educational Studies in Mathematics,
Boston/Dordrecht, 19, 2, 137-162 [reproduced as chapter 5].
Gerdes, Paulus [1988d]: How many proofs of the Pythagorean
Proposition do there exist?, Nämnaren, Göteborg, 15, 1, 38-41.
Gerdes, Paulus [1988e]: Find the missing figures. A series of
geometric problems inspired by traditional Tchokwe sand
drawings (Angola) and Tamil threshold designs (India),
Mathematics Teaching, Derby, 124, pp. 0, 18-19, and 50.
Gerdes, Paulus [1988f]: De quantas maneiras é que se pode
42
Chapter 3
demonstrar o teorema de Pitágoras?, BOLEMA, Rio Claro, 3, 5,

47-56.
Gerdes, Paulus [1989a]: Ethnogeometrie: Kulturanthropologische
Beiträge zur Genese und Didaktik der Geometrie, Franzbecker
Verlag, Bad Salzdetfurth [Latest edition in English:
Ethnogeometry: Awakening of geometrical Thought in Early
Culture, ISTEG, Boane and Lulu, Morrisville NC, 2013].
Gerdes, Paulus [1989b]: Reconstruction and extension of lost
symmetries: examples from the Tamil of South India, Computers
& Mathematics with Applications, New York, Vol. 17, No. 4-6,
791-813.
Gerdes, Paulus [1989c]: Ethnomathematische Studien, ISP, Maputo.
Harris, Marvin [1969]: The rise of anthropological theory: a history of
theories of culture, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
Harris, Mary [1987]: An example of traditional women’s work as a
mathematics resource, For the Learning of Mathematics,
Montreal, 7, 3, 26-28.
Hunting, Robert [1987]: Mathematics and Australian aboriginal
culture, For the Learning of Mathematics, Montreal, 7, 2, 5-10.
Joseph, George Ghevarughese [1984]: The multicultural dimension,
Times Educational Supplement, London, 5.10.1984, 45-46.
Joseph, George Ghevarughese [1986]: A non-Eurocentric approach to
school mathematics, Multicultural Teaching, Trentham, 4, 2, 13-
14.
Joseph, George Ghevarughese [1987]: Foundations of Eurocentrism in
mathematics, Race & Class, London, XXVIII, 3, 13-28.
Joseph, George Ghevarughese [1991]: The crest of the peacock: non-
European roots of mathematics, Tauris, London.
Kane, Elimane Abdoulaye [1987]: Les systèmes de numération parlée
des groupes ouest-atlantiques et Mande. Contribution à la
recherche sur les fondaments et l’histoire de la pensée logique et
mathématique en Afrique de l’Ouest; Lille.
Langdon, Nigel [1988]: Cultural starting points, ICME VI, Budapest.
Lévi-Strauss, Claude [1962]: Totemism, Penguin, Harmondworth.
43
Marschall, James [1987]: An atlas of American Indian Geometry, in:

Ohio Archaeologist, 37, 2, 36-49.
Mellin-Olsen, S. [1986]: Culture as a key theme for mathematics
education. Postseminar reflections, Mathematics and Culture, a
seminar report (Eds. S.Mellin-Olsen, M. Johnsen Hoines),
Caspar Forlag, Radal, 99-121.
Moore, Charles G. [1987]: Ethnomathematics, Science, Washington,
236, 1006-1007.
Njock, George [1985]: Mathématiques et environnement socio-
culturel en Afrique Noire, Présence Africaine, Paris, 135, 3-21.
Nobre, Sérgio [1989]: Aspectos sociais e culturais no desenho
curricular da matemática, UNESP, Rio Claro.
Panoff, Michel & Perrin, Michel [1973]: Dicionário de Etnologia,
Lexis, São Paulo.
Posner, Jill [1982]: The development of mathematical knowledge in
two West African societies, Child Development, Chicago, 53,
200-208.
Shirley, Lawrence [1988]: Historical and Ethnomathematical
algorithms for classroom use, ICME VI, Budapest.
Struik, Dirk [1986]: The sociology of mathematics revisited: a
personal note, Science & Society, Vol. L, No.3, 280-299.
Villadiego, Benjamín [1984]: El sombrero vueltiano Zenú, Revista de
Extensión Cultural, Medellín, 16, 91-100.
White, Leslie [1956]: The locus of anthropological reality: an
anthropological footnote, in: Newman, J. (Ed.), The world of
mathematics, New York, Vol.4, 2348-2364.
Wilder, Raymond [1981]: Mathematics as a cultural system,
Pergamon, Oxford.
Zaslavsky, Claudia [1973]: Africa counts: Number and pattern in
African culture, Prindle, Weber & Schmidt, Boston.
Zaslavsky, Claudia [1988]: Integrating mathematics with the study of
cultural traditions, ICME VI, Budapest.
44
Chapter 4
Chapter 4
HOW TO RECOGNIZE HIDDEN GEOMETRICAL
THINKING: A CONTRIBUTION TO THE
DEVELOPMENT OF AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF
MATHEMATICS *
Confrontation
You are mathematics educators, are you not? So let us see if you
are good at mathematics.
* Do you know how to construct a circle given its circumference?
* Do you know how to construct angles that measure 90o, 60o or
45o, using only the strips of paper I have distributed to you?
* What is the minimum number of strips of paper you need in
order to be able to plait a broader strip?
* Can you fold an equilateral triangle out of a square of paper?
* Do you know how to construct a regular hexagon out of paper
strips?
I gave you five minutes. Who solved all the problems? Nobody?
How is that possible?
* This chapter is an abridged version of an invited paper, ‘On

culture, mathematics and curriculum development in
Mozambique’, presented at the International Seminar on
Mathematics and Culture, Bergen, Norway (1985); the chapter
was published in: For the Learning of Mathematics, Montreal,
Vol. 6, No. 2, 1986, 10-12, 17.
45
Who solved four problems? Nobody? Three of them? ... You failed?
Do you not have the necessary mathematical abilities?
No, that is not the reason; you need more time, don’t you? But you are
mathematicians, are you not?
You need more time to analyse these non-standard problems. All
right. But let me say to you that many of our (illiterate) Mozambican
artisans know how to solve these problems ... (obviously “formulated”
in another way).
Introduction
The President of the Interamerican Committee on Mathematical

Education, Ubiratan D’Ambrosio, has stressed the need for the
recognition, incorporation and compatibilization of ethnomathematics
into the curriculum [e.g., D’Ambrosio, 1984, p. 10]. This integration of
mathematical traditions
“requires the development of quite difficult anthropological-
research methods relating to mathematics” [D’Ambrosio, 1985,
p. 47];
Anthropological mathematics...constitutes an essential research
theme in Third World countries ... as the underlying ground upon
which we can develop curriculum in a relevant way”
[D’Ambrosio, 1985, p. 47].
In order to be able to incorporate popular (mathematical)
practices into the curriculum, it is first of all necessary to recognize
their mathematical character. Traditional counting methods, e.g. by
means of knots in strings, and counting systems are relatively easily
recognized as mathematics. But what about geometrical thinking?
Traditional Mozambican houses have conical roofs and circular
or rectangular bases. Rectangular mats are rolled up into cylinders.
Baskets possess circular borders. Fish traps display hexagonal holes.
Could these examples figure in the mathematics lesson as illustrations
of geometrical notions?
Only as illustrations?
46
Chapter 4
This is a rather fundamental question that has recently also been

posed by Howson, Nebres and Wilson in their discussion paper on
School mathematics in the 1990s:
There has been increasing talk, particularly with respect to
developing countries, of “ethnomathematics”, i.e. mathematical
activities identified within the everyday life of societies. Thus,
for example, a variety of types of symmetries are used for
decoration in all cultures, numerous constructions are erected
which illustrate mathematical laws. To what extent are these
activities really “mathematical”? What is it which makes the
activities “mathematical” rather than, say, “capable of
mathematical elaboration or legitimisation”?” [Howson et al.,
1985, p. 15]
In order to answer this question, let us analyse some examples.
First example
Figure 1
Take two strips of paper in your hands. How do you have to fold
them around another in order to be able to weave them further (see
Figures 1 and 2)? What has to be the initial angle between the two
strips? Vary the angle. What do you discover?
47
Figure 2
Only one special angle makes further plaiting possible (see

Figures 3, 4 and 5). Two types of strips can be woven in this way (see
Figures 6 and 7). The strip pattern in Figure 7 admits changes in
direction, like the “circling around” in Figure 8. It is exactly this
possibility that makes this strip weaving process very useful. For
example, Mozambican artisans use this method for making their straw
hats by knitting together the successive wings of a plaited spiral.
1'
1
2 2'
Figure 3
2' 1'
1
2
Figure 4
48
Chapter 4
Now I repeat the question. Can this result only be used in the
mathematics lesson as an illustration of geometrical notions? What is
your answer?
When discovering the strip weaving method, did you do
mathematics?
2' 1'
1
2
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
49
Figure 8
Did you analyse the effects of the variation of the angle between
the two initial strips of paper?
Let’s go further. What can be said about that particular necessary
angle between the two strips? Observe the resulting strip. That
particular angle goes three times into a straight angle (see Figure 9).
The little triangles possess three of those angles, and therefore ...
What other geometrical knowledge can be obtained? (see e.g.
Figure 10).
3
2
1
Figure 9
Figure 10
50
Chapter 4
Second example
Consider the following practical problem. In many situations it is

disadvantageous to have a densely woven basket, e.g. when
transporting small birds in a basket, they must be able to breathe. So it
is useful to have a basket with holes. A basket with holes will also be
less heavy. Can you weave a basket with holes?
Like in Figure 11?
Figure 11
Are the holes fixed? More or less flexible? This may be

permitted? Why not? How may the problem be solved?
Figure 12
51
Maybe by weaving in more than two directions? What happens

when you introduce supporting strands? E.g. in a diagonal way? (see
Figure 12). How do you have to introduce them so that the holes
become fixed? Is it possible to adapt the three directions in such a way
that they become more “equal”?
The resultant regular hexagonal pattern is exactly the one
Mozambican peasants use for their light transportation baskets and
fishermen for their fish traps.
Do we do mathematics?
Do you still doubt? Please suspend your judgement for a while
longer.
Let us solve together another practical production problem.
Third example
How can you fasten a border to the walls of a basket when both
border and walls are made out of the same material?
Try to solve this problem for yourself. Take two equal strips of
paper in your hands, and consider one of them as part of the border, the
other as belonging to the wall. How should one join them together?
Figure 13
Should we join the border- and wall-strips as in Figure 13? No ...

It is necessary to wrap the wall-strip once more around the border-
strip. In this way (Figure 14)? No? How then? As in Figure 15?
52
Chapter 4
Figure 14
Figure 15
But what happens when you flatten the wall-strip (see Figure
15)? How can we avoid the problem? What has to be the initial angle
between the border- and the wall-strip (Figure 16)?
Figure 16
Let us complete the border and the wall. What happens? See
Figure 17. Are there any other possibilities? Introducing more
horizontal strips ... what now? Once again a hexagonal pattern appears
53
(Figure 18). What other geometrical knowledge can be obtained?

Possibility of a hexagonal tiling pattern (Figure 19), etc.
Did you do mathematics?
Let us try to draw some conclusions from these few examples
[many other examples can be given, see Gerdes, 1985b].
Figure 17
Figure 18
A method for recognizing hidden geometrical thinking
In our analysis of the geometrical forms of traditional –

Mozambican – objects, like baskets, mats, pots, houses, fish traps, etc.,
we posed the question: why do these material products possess the
forms they have? In order to answer this question, we learned the usual
production techniques and tried to vary the forms. It emerged that the
54
Chapter 4
forms of these objects are almost never arbitrary, but generally possess
many practical advantages, and are, a lot of the time, the only possible
or the optimal solutions of specific production problems, as in the
examples we have given. The traditional forms reflect accumulated
experience and wisdom. They constitute an expression not only of
biological and physical knowledge about the materials that are used,
but also of mathematical knowledge. [The first results from this
research are summarized in Gerdes, 1985b.]
Figure 19
Cultural and pedagogical value
There exists “hidden” or “frozen” mathematics. The artisan who

imitates a known production technique is – generally – doing some
mathematics. The artisans who discovered the technique, did quite a
lot of mathematics, developed mathematics, were thinking
mathematically.
By unfreezing this frozen mathematics, by rediscovering hidden
mathematics in the Mozambican culture, we show indeed that the
people of Mozambique, like every other people, did mathematics.
After so many years of colonial repression of the culture one
encourages, by defrosting the frozen mathematics, an understanding
that the people of Mozambique – and other formerly colonized peoples
– were capable of developing mathematics in the past, and therefore –
55
regaining cultural confidence [cf. Gerdes, 1982, 1985a] – will be

capable, now and in the future, of developing and using mathematics
creatively.
Defrosting frozen mathematics can serve as a starting point for
doing and elaborating mathematics in the classroom, as we showed in
the geometrically-related examples we gave.
At the same time “unfreezing frozen mathematics” forces
mathematicians and philosophers to reflect on the relationship between
geometrical thinking and material production, between doing
mathematics and technology. Where do (early) geometrical ideas come
from? [cf. Gerdes, 1985b].
References
D’Ambrosio, U. [1984]: The intercultural transmission of

mathematical knowledge: effects on mathematical education,
UNICAMP, Campinas.
D’Ambrosio, U. [1985]: Ethnomathematics and its place in the history
and pedagogy of mathematics, For the Learning of Mathematics,
Montreal, Vol. 5, No. 1, 41-48.
Gerdes, P. [1982]: Mathematics for the benefit of the people,
CARIMATHS, Paramaribo.
Gerdes P. [1985a]: Conditions and strategies for emancipatory
Learning of Mathematics, Montreal, Vol. 5, No. 1, 15-21
[reproduced as chapter 12].
Gerdes, P. [1985b]: Zum erwachenden geometrischen Denken,
Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo [Latest edition in
English: Ethnogeometry: Awakening of Geometrical Thought in
Early Culture, ISTEG, Boane & Lulu, Morrisville NC, 2013].
Howson, A.; Nebres, B.; Wilson, B. [1985]: School mathematics in the
1990s, ICMI, Southampton.
56
Chapter 5
Chapter 5
ON CULTURE, GEOMETRICAL THINKING AND
MATHEMATICS EDUCATION * 1
* This article is dedicated to Samora Machel,

President of Mozambique, who died on October 19,
1986, the day of conclusion of this article.
“Colonization is the greatest destroyer of culture
that humanity has ever known ... long-suppressed
manifestations of culture have to regain their place
...” (Samora Machel, 1978).
“Education must give us a Mozambican personality
which, without subservience of any kind and steeped
in our own realities, will be able, in contact with the
outside world, to assimilate critically the ideas and
experiences of other peoples, also passing on to
them the fruits of our thought and practice” (Samora
Machel, 1970).
1 In: Educational Studies in Mathematics, Dordrecht / Boston,

1988, Vol. 19, No. 3, 137-162; and reproduced in: Bishop, A.
(ed.), Mathematics Education and Culture, Kluwer Academic
Publishers, Dordrecht / Boston, 1988, 137-162.
57
Some social and cultural aspects of mathematics education in

Third World countries
In most formerly colonized countries, post-independence

education did not succeed in appeasing the hunger for knowledge of its
people’s masses.
Although there had occurred a dramatic explosion in the student
population in many African nations over the last twenty five years, the
mean illiteracy rate for Africa was still 66% in 1980. Overcrowded
classrooms, shortage of qualified teachers and lack of teaching
materials, contributed towards low levels of attainment. In the case of
mathematics education, this tendency has been reinforced by a hasty
curriculum transplantation from highly industrialized nations to Third
World countries. 2 With the transplantation of curricula their
perspective was also copied: “(primary) mathematics is seen only as a
stepping stone towards secondary mathematics, which in turn is seen
as a preparation for university education” (Broomes and Kuperes
1983, p. 709). Mathematics education is therefore structured in the
interests of a social élite. To the majority of children, mathematics
looks rather useless. Maths anxiety is widespread; especially for sons
and daughters of peasants and laborers, mathematics enjoys little
popularity. Mathematics education serves the selection of élites:
“Mathematics is universally recognized as the most effective
education filter,” as El Tom underlines (El Tom, 1984, p. 3). Ubiratan
D’Ambrosio, president of the Interamerican Committee on
Mathematics Education agrees: “... mathematics has been used as a
barrier to social access, reinforcing the power structure which prevails
in the societies (of the Third World). No other subject in school serves
so well this purpose of reinforcement of power structure as does
mathematics. And the main tool for this negative aspect of
mathematics education is evaluation” (D’Ambrosio 1983, p. 363).
In their study of the mathematics learning difficulties of the
Kpelle (Liberia), Gay and Cole concluded, that there do not exist any
inherent difficulties: what happened in the classroom, was that the
2 Cf. e.g. Eshiwani (1979), Nebres (1983) and El Tom (1984).

58
Chapter 5
contents did not make any sense from the point of view of Kpelle-
culture; moreover the methods used were primarily based on rote
memory and harsh discipline (Gay and Cole 1967, p. 6). Experiments
showed that Kpelle illiterate adults performed better than North
American adults, when solving problems, like the estimation of
number of cups of rice in a container, that belong to their ‘indigenous
mathematics’ (Gay and Cole 1967, p. 66). Serious doubts about the
effectiveness of school mathematics teaching are also raised by Latin
American researchers. Eduardo Luna (Dominican Republic) posed the
question if it is possible, that the practical mathematical knowledge
that children acquired outside the school is ‘repressed’ and ‘confused’
in the school (Luna 1983, p. 4). Not only possible, but this happens
frequently, as shown by Carraher and Schliemann in Brazil: children,
who knew before they went to school, how to solve creatively
arithmetical problems which they encountered in daily life, e.g. at the
marketplace, could, later in the school, not solve the same problem, i.e.
not solve them with the methods taught in the arithmetic class
(Carraher et al. 1982). D’Ambrosio concludes that “‘learned’
matheracy eliminates the so-called ‘spontaneous’ matheracy”
(D’Ambrosio 1984, p. 6; Cf. D’Ambrosio 1985b), i.e. “An individual
who manages perfectly well numbers, operations, geometric forms and
notions, when facing a completely new and formal approach to the
same facts and needs creates a psychological blockade which grows as
a barrier between the different modes of numerical and geometrical
thought” (D’Ambrosio 1984, p. 6, italics P. G.). What happens in the
school, is that “the former, let us say, spontaneous, abilities (are)
downgraded, repressed and forgotten, while the learned ones (are not
being) assimilated, either as a consequence of a learning blockage, or
of an early dropout ...” (D’Ambrosio 1984, p. 8, italics P. G.). For this
reason, “the early stages of mathematics education (offer) a very
efficient way of instilling the sense of failure, of dependency in the
children” (D’Ambrosio 1984, p. 7). How can this psychological
blockade be avoided?
How can this “totally inappropriate education, leading to
misunderstanding and sociocultural and psychological alienation”
(Pinxten 1983, p. 173) be avoided? How can this ‘pushing aside’ and
‘wiping out’ of spontaneous, natural, informal, indigenous, folk,
implicit, non-standard and / or hidden (ethno)mathematics be avoided?
59
3
Gay and Cole became convinced that it is necessary to
investigate first the ‘indigenous mathematics’, in order to be able to
build effective bridges from this ‘indigenous mathematics’ to the new
mathematics to be introduced in the school: “...the teacher should
begin with materials of the indigenous culture, leading the child to use
them in a creative way” (Gay and Cole 1967, p. 94), and from there
advance to the new school mathematics. The Tanzanian curriculum
specialist Mmari stresses, that: “... there are traditional mathematics
methods still being used in Tanzania ... A good teacher can utilize this
situation to underline the universal truths of the mathematical
concepts” (Mmari 1978, p. 313). And how could the good teacher
achieve this? Jacobsen answers: “The (African) people that are
building the houses are not using mathematics; they’re doing it
traditionally ... if we can bring out the scientific structure of why it’s
done, then you can teach science that way” (Quoted by Nebres 1984,
p. 4). For D’Ambrosio, it becomes necessary “... to generate ways of
understanding, and methods for the incorporation and
compatibilization of known and current popular practices into the
curriculum. In other words, in the case of mathematics, recognition
and incorporation of ethnomathematics into the curriculum”
(D’Ambrosio 1984. p 10). “... this ... requires the development of quite
difficult anthropological research methods relating to mathematics; ...
anthropological mathematics ... constitutes an essential research theme
in Third World countries ... as the underlying ground upon which we
can develop curriculum in a relevant way” (D’Ambrosio 1985a, p.
47).
3 D’Ambrosio: spontaneous; Carraher a.o.: natural; Posner, Ascher

et al.: informal; Gay and Cole: indigenous; Mellin-Olsen: folk-:
Ascher and Ascher: implicit; Carraher et al.: non-standard;
Gerdes: hidden, ‘frozen’; D’Ambrosio a.o.: ethno-.
60
Chapter 5
Towards a cultural-mathematical reaffirmation
D’Ambrosio stressed the need for incorporation of

ethnomathematics into the curriculum in order to avoid a
psychological blockade. In former colonized countries as
Mozambique, there exists also a related cultural blockade to be
eliminated. “Colonization – in the words of Samora Machel, first
President of Mozambique – is the greatest destroyer of culture that
humanity has ever known. African society and its culture were
crushed, and when they survived they were co-opted so that they could
be more easily emptied of their content. This was done in two distinct
ways. One was the utilization of institutions in order to support
colonial exploitation ... The other was the ‘folklorizing’ of culture, its
reduction to more or less picturesque habits and customs, to impose in
their place the values of colonialism”. “Colonial education appears in
this context as a process of denying the national character, alienating
the Mozambican from his country and his origin and, in exacerbating
his dependence on abroad, forcing him to be ashamed of his people
and his culture” (Machel 1978, p. 401). In the specific case of
mathematics, this science was presented as an exclusively white men’s
creation and ability; the mathematical capacities of the colonized
peoples were negated or reduced to rote memorization; the African
and American-lndian mathematical traditions became ignored or
despised.
A cultural rebirth is indispensable, as Samora Machel
underlines: “... long-suppressed manifestations of culture (have to)
regain their place” (Machel 1978, p. 402). In this cultural rebirth, in
this combat of racial and colonial prejudice, a cultural-mathematical-
reaffirmation plays a part: it is necessary to encourage an
understanding that the peoples of the Third World have been capable
of developing mathematics in the past, and therefore regaining cultural
confidence (Cf. Gerdes 1982, 1985a) – will be able to assimilate and
develop the mathematics we need; mathematics does not come from
outside the African, Asian and American-Indian cultures.
We may conclude that the incorporation of mathematical
traditions into the curriculum will – probably – contribute not only to
the elimination of individual and social psychological blockade, but
61
also of the related cultural blockade. Now, this raises an important

question: which mathematical traditions? In order to be able to
incorporate popular (mathematical) practices, it is first of all necessary
to recognize their mathematical character. In this sense, D’Ambrosio
speaks about the need to broaden our understanding of what
mathematics is (D’Ambrosio 1985, p. 45). Ascher and Ascher remark
in this connection “Because of the provincial view of the professional
mathematicians, most definitions of mathematics exclude or minimize
the implicit and informal; ...involvement with concepts of number,
spatial configuration, and logic, that is, implicit or explicit
mathematics, is panhuman” (Ascher and Ascher 1981, p. 159, italics
P. G.; cf. Gerdes 1985b, §2).
Broadening our understanding of what may be mathematics, is
necessary, but not sufficient. A related problem is how to reconstruct
mathematical traditions, when probably many of them have been – as
a consequence of slavery, of colonialism... – wiped out. Few or almost
none (as in the case of Mozambique) written sources can be consulted.
Maybe for number systems and some aspects of geometrical thinking,
oral history may constitute an alternative. What other sources can be
used? What methodology?
We developed a complementary methodology that enables one
to uncover in traditional, material culture some hidden moments of
geometrical thinking. It can be characterized as follows. We looked to
the geometrical forms and patterns of traditional objects like baskets,
mats, pots, houses, fish traps, etc. and posed the question: why do these
material products possess the form they have? In order to answer this
question, we learned the usual production techniques and tried to vary
the forms. It came out that the form of these objects is almost never
arbitrary, but generally represents many practical advantages and is,
quite a lot of times, the only possible or optimal solution of a
production problem. The traditional form reflects accumulated
experience and wisdom. It constitutes not only biological and physical
knowledge about the materials that are used, but also mathematical
knowledge, knowledge about the properties and relations of circles,
angles, rectangles, squares, regular pentagons and hexagons, cones,
pyramids, cylinders, etc.
Applying this method, we discovered quite a lot of ‘hidden’ or
62
Chapter 5
‘frozen’ mathematics. 4 The artisan, who imitates a known production

technique, is, generally, doing some mathematics. But the artisans,
who discovered the techniques, did and invented quite a lot of
mathematics, were thinking mathematically. When pupils are
stimulated to reinvent such a production technique, they may be
encouraged to do and learn mathematics. Hereto they can be
stimulated only if the teachers themselves are conscious of hidden
mathematics, are convinced of the cultural, educational and scientific
value of rediscovering and exploring hidden mathematics, are aware of
the potential of ‘unfreezing’ this ‘frozen mathematics’. Now we shall
present some of our experiences in this necessary ‘cultural
conscientialization’ of future mathematics teachers.
Examples of ‘cultural conscientialization’ of future mathematics

teachers
Study of Alternate Axiomatic Constructions of Euclidean

Geometry in Teacher Training
Many alternate axiomatic constructions for Euclidean geometry have

been devised. In Alexandrov’s construction, 5 Euclid’s famous fifth
4 The first results are summarized in Gerdes (1985b). Cf. Gerdes

(1986a,f). By bringing to the surface geometrical thinking that
was hidden in very old production techniques, like that of
basketry, we succeeded in formulating new hypotheses on how
the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians could have discovered
their formulas for the area of a circle [cf. Gerdes (1985b,c,
1986d)] and for the volume of a truncated pyramid [cf. Gerdes
(1985b)]. It proved possible to formulate new hypotheses on how
the so-called ‘Theorem of Pythagoras’ could have been
discovered [cf. Gerdes (1985b, 1986c, e)].
5 Experimental course developed for secondary schools in the
Soviet Union (1981) by a team directed by the academician A.
Alexandrov.
63
postulate is substituted by the ‘rectangle axiom’:
D C D C
if , then
A B A B
i.e., if AD = BC and α and β are right angles, then AB = DC and γ and

δ are also right angles. In one of the classroom sessions of an
introductory geometry course, we posed the following provocative
question to our future mathematics teachers – many of whom are sons
and daughters of peasants: “ Which ‘rectangle axiom’ do the
Mozambican peasants use in their daily life?” The students’ first
reactions were rather skeptical in the sense of “Oh, they don’t know
anything about geometry...”. Counter-questions followed: “Do the
peasants use rectangles in their daily life?” “Do they construct
rectangles?” Students from different parts of the country were asked to
explain to their colleagues how their parents construct e.g. the
rectangular bases of their houses. Essentially, two construction
techniques are common:
(a) In the first case, one starts by laying down on the floor two long
bamboo sticks of equal length.
Then these first two sticks are combined with two other sticks
also of equal length, but normally shorter than the first ones.
64
Chapter 5
Now the sticks are moved to form a closure of a quadrilateral.
One further adjusts the figure until the diagonals – measured with
a rope – become equally long. Then, where the sticks are now
lying on the floor, lines are drawn and the building of the house
can start.
(b) In the second case, one starts with two ropes of equal length that
are tied together at their midpoints.
A bamboo stick, whose length is equal to that of the desired

breadth of the house, is laid down on the floor and at its
endpoints pins are hit into the ground. An endpoint of each of the
ropes is tied to one of the pins.
65
Then the ropes are stretched and at the remaining two endpoints
of the ropes, new pins are hit into the ground. These four pins
determine the four vertices of the house to be built.
“Is it possible to formulate the geometrical knowledge, implicit in

these construction techniques, into terms of an axiom?” “Which
‘rectangle axiom’ do they suggest?” Now the students arrive at the
following two alternate ‘rectangle axioms’:
(a)
D C D C
if , then
A B A B
i.e. if AD = BC, AB = DC and AC = BD, then α, β, γ, and δ are right

angles. In other words, an equidiagonal parallelogram is a rectangle.
66
Chapter 5
(b)
D C D C
if , then
M
A B A B
i.e. if M = AC ∩ BD and AM = BM = CM = DM, then α, β, γ, and δ

are right angles, AD = BC and AB = DC. In other words, an equi-
semidiagonal quadrilateral is a rectangle. “After all, our peasants know
something about geometry”, remarks a student. Another, more
doubtful: “But these axioms are theorems, aren’t they?”.... This
classroom session leads to a more profound understanding by the
student of the relationships between experience, the possible choices
of axioms, between axioms and theorems at the first stages of alternate
axiomatic constructions. It prepares the future teachers for discussions
later in their study on which methods of teaching geometry seem to be
the most appropriate in our cultural context. It contributes to cultural-
mathematical confidence.
An Alternate Construction of Regular Polygons
Artisans in the north of Mozambique weave a funnel in the

following way. One starts by making a square mat ABCD, but does
not finish it: with the strands in one direction (horizontal in our figure),
the artisan advances only until the middle.
67
D FE C C=D
E=G F=H
G H
T
T
A B
A B
Then, instead of introducing more horizontal strips, he

interweaves the vertical strands on the right (between C and E) with
those on the left (between F and D). In this way, the mat does not
remain flat, but is transformed into a ‘basket’. The center T goes
downwards and becomes the vertex of the funnel. In order to
guarantee a stable rim, its edges AB, BC, and AC are rectified with
little branches. As a final result, the funnel has the form of a triangular
pyramid. So far about this traditional production technique. 6
C C
T T
A B A B
We posed our students the following question: “What can we

learn from this production technique?” “The square ABCD has been
transformed into a triangular pyramid ABC.T whose base ABC is an
equilateral triangle. Maybe a method to construct an equilateral
triangle?”...
6 The implicit geometrical knowledge that it reveals is analysed in

Gerdes (1985b).
68
Chapter 5
Some reacted skeptically: “A very clumsy method to do so ...”.

Counter-questions: “Avoid overhasty conclusions! What was the
objective of the artisan? What is our objective?” “Can we simplify the
artisans’ method if we only want to construct an equilateral triangle?”
“How to construct such a triangle out of a square of cardboard paper?”
An answer to these questions is given in the following diagrams:
D C D C
T T
A B A B
folding the diagonals
F
D C
A B
folding FT
D C D C
F
F
T T
A B A B
join the triangles DFT and CFT until C and D coincide,

F goes up, T goes down
69
D=C D=C
T T
A B A B
fix the ‘double triangle’ DFT to the face ATC, e.g. with a paperclip
“Can this method be generalized?” “Starting with a regular

octagon, how to transform it into a regular heptagonal pyramid?”
“How to fold a regular octagon?”
A8
F
A1 A7
A A6
2 T
A A5
3
A
4
folding the diagonals and FT
70
Chapter 5
A A8 = A
8 7
A1 F
A7 A1
F
A6
A A6 A
2 T 2 T
A5
A A5
3 A
A 3
4 A
4
F goes up, T goes down and A7 and A8 approximate until they

coincide
“How to transform the regular heptagonal pyramid into a regular

hexagonal pyramid?” As 2n-gons are easy to fold (by doubling the
central diagonals when one starts with a square) and each time that the
simplified ‘funnel-method’ is applied, the number of sides of a regular
polygon (or of the regular polygonal base of a pyramid) decreases by
1, it can be concluded that all regular polygons can be constructed in
this way (For more details, see Gerdes 1986b). Once arrived at this
point, it is possible to look back and ask: “Did we learn something
from the artisans who weave funnels?” “Is it possible to construct a
regular heptagon using only a ruler and a compass?” “Why not?” “And
with our method?”
“What are the advantages of our general method in relation to
the standard Euclidean ruler and compass constructions?” “What are
its disadvantages?” “Which method has to be preferred for our primary
schools?” “Why?”
71
From Woven Buttons to the ‘Theorem of Pythagoras’ 7
By pulling a little lasso around a square-woven button, it is

possible to fasten the top of a basket, as is commonly done in southern
parts of Mozambique. The square button, woven out of two strips,
hides some remarkable geometrical and physical considerations. By
making them explicit, the interest in this old technique is already
revived. But much more can be made out of it, as will now be shown.
When one considers the square-woven button from above, one
observes the pattern (a) or the pattern obtained (b) after rectifying the
slightly curved lines and by making the hidden lines visible:
a b
In its middle there appears a second square. Which other squares

can be observed, when one joins some of these square-woven buttons
together? Do there appear other figures with the same area as (the top
of) a square-woven button?
7 Another ‘culturally integrated’ introduction to the ‘Theorem of

Pythagoras’ is presented in Gerdes (1986c, g)
72
Chapter 5
Yes, if you like, you may extend some of the line segments or rub out
some others.
What do you observe? Equality in areas?
73
Hence C = A + B:
C
B
or C
B
A A
i.e. one arrives at the so-called ‘Theorem of Pythagoras’.

The teacher-students rediscover themselves this important
theorem and succeed in proving it. One of them remarks: “Had
Pythagoras – or somebody else before him – not discovered this
theorem, we would have discovered it” ... Exactly! By not only
making explicit the geometrical thinking ‘culturally frozen’ in the
square-woven buttons, but by exploiting it, by revealing its full
potential, one stimulates the development of the abovementioned
necessary cultural-mathematical (self-)confidence. “Had Pythagoras
74
Chapter 5
not ... we would have discovered it”. The debate starts. “Could our
ancestors have discovered the ‘Theorem of Pythagoras’?” “Did
they?”... “Why don’t we know it?” ... “Slavery, colonialism ...” By
‘defrosting frozen mathematical thinking’ one stimulates a reflection
on the impact of colonialism, on the historical and political dimensions
of mathematics (education).
From Traditional Fish Traps to Alternate Circular Functions,

Football and the Generation of (Semi)regular Polyhedra
Mozambican peasants weave their light transportation baskets

‘litenga’ and fishermen their traps ‘lema’ with a pattern of regular
hexagonal holes. One way to discover this pattern is the following.
How can one fasten a border to the walls of a basket, when both border
and wall are made out of the same material? How to wrap a wall strip
around the border strip?
←→
What happens when one presses (horizontally) the wall strip?
What is the best initial angle between the border- and wall strip?
o
60
75
In the case that both strips have the same width, one finds that
the optimal initial angle measures 60o. By joining more wall strips in
the same way and then introducing more horizontal strips, one gets the
‘litenga’ pattern of regular hexagonal holes.
By this process of rediscovering the mathematical thinking

hidden in these baskets and fish traps – and in other traditional
production techniques – the future teachers feel themselves stimulated
to reconsider the value of their cultural heritage: in fact, geometrical
thinking was not and is not alien to their culture. But more than that.
This “unfreezing of culturally frozen mathematics” can serve, in many
ways, as a starting point and source of inspiration for doing and
elaborating other interesting mathematics. In the concrete case of this
hexagonal-weaving-pattern, for example, the following sets of
geometrical ideas can be developed.
a. Tiling patterns and the formulation of conjectures.
Regular hexagonal and other related tiling patterns can be

discovered by the students.
76
Chapter 5
hexagonal
triangular rhombic pentagonal
With the so-found equilateral triangle, many other polygons can be

built. By considering these figures, general conjectures can be
formulated, e.g.
* the sum of the measures of the internal angles of a n-gon is
equal to 3(n—2) 60o;
* areas of similar figures are proportional to the squares of

their sides;
77
side=1, area=1=12; side=2, area=4=22 ; side=3, area=9=32

* the sum of the first n odd numbers is n2.
Once these general theorems are conjectured, there arises the
question of justifying, how to prove them.
b. An alternate circular function.
a
α
1
Let us return to the weaving of these ‘litenga’ baskets. What
happens when the ‘horizontal’ and ‘standing’ strips are of different
width, e.g. 1 (unity of measurement) and a?
One finds a semi-regular hexagonal pattern. How does the
optimal angle α depend on a?
78
Chapter 5
α = hex(a)
How does a vary? Both α and a can be measured. One finds:
30 60 90 degrees
We have here a culturally integrated way to introduce a circular

function. After the study of the ‘normal’ trigonometric functions, their
relationships can be easily established, e.g.
!
a = hex -1 (α) = .
! !"# !
c. Footballs and polyhedra
The faces and edges of the ‘lema’ fish trap display the regular-
hexagonal-hole-pattern. At its vertices the situation is different. The
artisans discovered that in order to be able to construct the trap,
‘curving’ the faces at its vertices, it is necessary, e.g. at the vertices A,
B and C to reduce the number of strips. At these points, the six strips
that ‘circumscribe’ one hexagon, have to be reduced to five. That is
why one encounters at these vertices little pentagonal holes.
79
B
C
A
What can be learnt from this implicit knowledge? What types of

baskets can be woven, that display at all their vertices pentagonal
holes?
It comes out that the smallest possible ‘basket’, made out of six
strips, is similar to the well-known modern football made out of
pentagonal and hexagonal pieces of leather.
woven ball football / soccer ball
When one ‘planes’ this ball, one gets a truncated icosahedron,

bounded by 20 regular hexagons and 12 regular pentagons. By
extending these 20 hexagons, one generates the regular icosahedron.
On the other hand, when one extends the 12 pentagons, the regular
dodecahedron is produced.
What type of ‘baskets’ can be woven, if one augments their
‘curvature’? Instead of pentagonally woven ‘vertices’, there arise
80
Chapter 5
square-hole-vertices. By ‘planing’ the smallest possible ‘ball’, one gets

a truncated octahedron, bounded by 6 squares and 8 regular hexagons.
Once again, by extension of its faces, new regular polyhedra are
discovered, this time, the cube and the regular octahedron. When one
augments still more the curvature of the ‘ball’, there appear triangular-
hole-vertices and by ‘planing’ the ‘ball’, one gets a truncated
tetrahedron, bounded by 4 regular hexagons and 4 equilateral triangles.
By extension of its hexagonal or triangular faces one obtains a regular
tetrahedron.
Many interesting questions can be posed to future teachers, e.g.
* Is it possible to ‘weave’ other semi-regular polyhedra?
Semi-regular, in what sense?
* Did we generate all regular polyhedra? Why?
* What happens if one, instead of reducing the material at a
vertex of the basket, augments it?
Concluding remarks
Of the struggle against ‘mathematical underdevelopment’ and

the combat of racial and (neo)colonial prejudice, a cultural-
mathematical reaffirmation makes a part. A ‘cultural
conscientialization’ of future mathematics teachers, e.g. in the way we
described, seems indispensable.
Some other conditions and strategies for mathematics education
to become emancipatory in former colonized and (therefore)
underdeveloped countries have been suggested elsewhere (Cf. e.g.
Gerdes 1985a, 1986a; D’Ambrosio 1985b and Mellin-Olsen 1986).
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to Dr. A. J. Bishop (Cambridge) for his

invitation to write this article and to Dr. W. Humbane (Maputo) for
proofreading this paper.
81
References
D’Ambrosio, U. [1983]: Successes and failures of mathematics

curricula in the past two decades: A developing society
viewpoint in a holistic framework; in: Proceedings of the Fourth
International Congress of Mathematical Education, Boston,
362-364.
D’Ambrosio, U. [1984]: The intercultural transmission of
mathematical knowledge: Effects on mathematical education,
UNICAMP, Campinas.
D’Ambrosio, U. [1985a]: Ethnomathematics and its place in the
history and pedagogy of mathematics, For the Learning of
Mathematics, Montreal, Vol. 5, No. 1, 44-48.
D’Ambrosio, U. [1985b]: Socio-cultural Bases for Mathematics
Education; UNICAMP, Campinas.
Ascher, M. and R. Ascher [1981]: Code of the Quipu: A Study in
Media, Mathematics, and Culture, University of Michigan Press,
Ann Arbor.
Broomes, D. & P. Kuperes [1983]: Problems of defining the
mathematics curriculum in rural communities, in: Proceedings of
the Fourth International Congress of Mathematical Education,
Boston, 708-711.
Carraher, T., D. Carraher & A. Schliemann [1982]: Na vida, dez, na
escola, zero: os contextos culturais da aprendizagem de
matematica, Cadernos de pesquisa, São Paulo, Vol. 42, 79-86.
El Tom, M. [1984]: The role of Third World University Mathematics
Institutions in promoting mathematics, Adelaide.
Eshiwani, G. [1979]: The goals of mathematics teaching in Africa: A
need for re-examination, Prospects, Paris, Vol. IX, No. 3, 346
352.
Gay, J. and M. Cole [1967]: The New Mathematics and An Old
Culture: A Study of Learning Among the Kpelle of Liberia, Holt,
Gerdes, P. [1982]: Mathematics for the benefit of the people,
82
Chapter 5
CARIMATHS, Paramaribo.
Gerdes, P. [1985a]: Conditions and strategies for emancipatory
Eduardo Mondlane University,Maputo [Latest edition in
Gerdes, P. [1985c]: Three alternate methods of obtaining the ancient
Egyptian formula for the area of a circle, Historia Mathematica,
New York, Vol. 12, 261-268.
Gerdes, P. [1986a): On culture, mathematics and curriculum
development in Mozambique; in: Mellin-Olsen & Johnsen
Hoines, 15-42.
Gerdes, P. [1986b]: Um método geral para construir polígonos
regulares, inspirado numa técnica mocambicana de
entrelaçamento; TLANU-booklet, Maputo, No. 4.
Gerdes, P. [1986c]: A widespread decorative motif and the
Pythagorean theorem, For the Learning of Mathematics,
Montreal, Vol.8, No.1 [1988], 35-39 [reproduced as chapter 6].
Gerdes, P. [1986d]: Hypothesen zur
Entdeckung des alt-
1
mesopotamischen Näherungswertes π = 3 , TLANU-
8
preprint, Maputo, No. 1986-4.
Gerdes, P. [1986e]: Did ancient Egyptian artisans know how to find a
square equal in area to two given squares?, TLANU-preprint,
Maputo, No. 1986-5.
Gerdes, P. [1986f]: How to recognize hidden geometrical thinking? A
contribution to the development of anthropological mathematics,
For the Learning of Mathematics, Montreal, Vol.6, No. 2, 10-12,
17 [reproduced as chapter 4].
Gerdes, P. & H. Meyer [1986g]: Pythagoras, einmal anders, Alpha
Berlin, Vol.24, No.6 [1990], 128-129.
Luna, E. [1983]: Análisis curricular y contexto sociocultural,
83
Santiago.
Machel, S. [1970]: Educate man to win the war, create a new society
and develop our country, in: Mozambique, Sowing the Seeds of
Revolution, Zimbabwe Publishing House, Harare, 1981, 33-41.
Machel, S. [1978]: Knowledge and science should be for the total
liberation of man’, Race and Class, Vol. XIX, No. 4, 399-404.
Mellin-Olsen, S. & M. J. Hoines [1986]: Mathematics and Culture. A
Seminar Report, Caspar Forlag, Radal.
Mmari, G. [1978]: The United Republic of Tanzania: Mathematics for
social transformation, in: F. Swetz (ed.), Socialist Mathematics
Education, Burgundy Press, Southampton.
Nebres, B. [1983]: Problems of mathematical education in and for
changing societies: problems in Southeast Asian countries,
Tokyo.
Nebres, B. [1984]: The problem of universal mathematics education in
developing countries, Adelaide.
Pinxten, P., I. van Dooren & F. Harvey [1983]: The Anthropology of
Space. Explorations into the Natural Philosophy and Semantics
of the Navajo, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.
84
Chapter 6
Chapter 6
A WIDESPREAD DECORATIVE MOTIF AND THE
PYTHAGOREAN THEOREM *
In their already classical study of the mathematics learning

difficulties of the Kpelle (Liberia), Gay and Cole [1967. p.6]
concluded that there do not exist any inherent difficulties. What
happened in the classroom was that the contents did not make any
sense from the point of view of Kpelle culture...
Subsequent research and analyses reinforced this conclusion and
recognised that in view of the “educational failure” of many children
from Third World countries and from ethnic minority communities in
industrialised countries like Great Britain, France and U.S.A., it is
necessary to (multi)culturalise the school curriculum in order to
improve the quality of mathematics education [cf. e.g. Bishop, 1988;
D’Ambrosio, 1985 a, b; Eshiwani, 1979; Gerdes 1985 a, b, 1981 a,
1988 a, b; Ginsburg & Russell, 1981; Mellin-Olsen, 1986; Nebres,
1983; Njock 1985]. In other words, the mathematics curriculum has to
be “embedded” into the cultural environment of the pupils. Not only its
ethnomathematics, but also other culture elements, may serve as a
starting point for doing and elaborating mathematics in the classroom
[cf. D’Ambrosio, 1985 a, b; Gerdes, 1986 b, 1988 a, b]. In this article
we explore the mathematical-educational potential of such a cultural
element: a widespread decorative motif.
A widespread decorative motif
One of the best-known basketry designs of the Salish Indians of
* Published in: For the Learning of Mathematics, Montreal, Vol.

8, No. 1, 1988, 35-39.
85
British Columbia is their so-called star pattern [Ferrand, 1900, p. 397,

Plate Xll. See Figure 1]. The Pomo Indians of California used to name
it deer-back or potato forehead [Barrett, 1908, p. 199].
‘Star’ design
Figure 1
Ancient Egyptian basket

Figure 2
This decorative motif has a long tradition and can be

1
encountered all over the world. The same star pattern is already
found in Ancient Egypt [Wilson, 1986, T. 23, p. 21; see Figure 2]. The
detail of a beautifully plaited mat from Angola, shown in Figure 3, is
known as the tortoise design [Bastin, 1961, p. 116]. One encounters
the star pattern also on tiled pavements in Arabic-speaking countries
1 Its possible technical origin in the production or flat, circular

baskets is analysed in Gerdes [1985, pp. 47-51, 78-80].
86
Chapter 6
[Hutt, 1977, p. 43], on textiles from Scandinavia (see Figure 4),

Ancient Mexico [Weitlaner-Johnson, 1976, vol. 1, Plate 63], Nigeria,
Algeria [Picton & Mack, 1979, pp. 35, 75] etc., on baskets from
Lesotho, Mozambique, etc., and on a game board in Liberia
[Machatscheck, 1984, p. 55].
Mat design from Angola

Figure 3
Scandinavian textile design

Figure 4
87
Discovering the Pythagorean theorem
Looking at the number of unit squares on each row of a “star”

(see Figure 5), it is easy to see that the area of the “star” is equal to the
sum of areas of the 4 x 4 shaded square and the 3 x 3 unshaded square.
2
Four rows of four

4
4
4
4
3
3
3
Three rows of three
Figure 5
A “star” figure, like the one in Figure 1, may also be called a

“toothed square.” A toothed square, especially one with many teeth,
looks almost like a real square. So naturally the following question
2 Pupils can also be led in many other ways to draw this

conclusion. E.g., the teacher may ask them to transform a “star”
made of loose tiles into two mono-coloured similar figures. Or,
one may ask them to cut off the biggest possible square from a
“star” made of paper or cardboard and to analyse which figures
can be laid down with the other pieces (see Figure 14).
88
Chapter 6
arises: is it possible to transform a toothed square into a real square of

the same area? By experimentation (see Figure 6), the pupils may be
led to draw the conclusion that this is indeed possible.
too big too small equal
T C
Figure 6
In Figure 5, we have seen that the area of a toothed square (T) is

equal to the sum of the areas of the two smaller squares (A and B):
T = A + B.
In Figure 6 we conclude that that area of a toothed square (T) is
equal to the area of a real square (C). Since C = T, we can conclude
that
A + B = C.
Do there exist other relationships between these three squares?
What happens if one draws the toothed square and the two real squares
(into which it is decomposed) together on square grid paper, in such a
way that they become “neighbours”? Figure 7 shows a possible
solution. When we now draw the last real square (area C) on the same
figure, we arrive at the Pythagorean Theorem for the case of (a, b, c)
right triangles with a : b = n : (n + 1 ), where the initial toothed square
has (n + 1) teeth on each side.
89
B A+B=T
Figure 7
B A+B=C
Figure 8
Figure 8 illustrates the Pythagorean Proposition for the special

90
Chapter 6
case of the (3, 4, 5) right triangle. On the basis of these experiences,

the pupils may be led to conjecture the Pythagorean theorem in
general. In this manner, toothed squares assume a heuristic value for
the discovery of this important proposition.
Does this same discovery process also suggest any (new)
demonstrations for the Pythagorean theorem?
What happens when one reverses the process? When one begins
with two arbitrary squares and uses them to generate a toothed square?
A first proof
Let A’ and B’ be two arbitrary squares. We look at Figure 5 for

inspiration: dissect A’ into 9 little congruent squares, and B’ into 16
congruent squares, and join the 25 pieces together as in Figure 9. The
obtained toothed square T’ is equal in area (T) to the sum of the real
squares A’ and B’:
T = A + B.
a
Figure 9
91
b
Figure 9
Figure 10
92
Chapter 6
As, once again, the toothed square is easily transformed into a

real square C of the same area (see Figure 10), we arrive at
A + B = C,
i.e. the Pythagorean Proposition in all its generality.
n = 14
Figure 11
An infinity of proofs
Instead of dissecting A’ and B’ into 9 and 16 subsquares, it is

possible to dissect them into n2 and (n + 1)2 congruent subsquares
for each value of n (n∈N). Figure 11 illustrates the case n = 14. To
each value of n there corresponds a proof of the Pythagorean
93
3
Proposition. In other words, there exist infinitely many
demonstrations of this famous theorem.
For relatively high values of n, the truth of the Pythagorean
Proposition is almost immediately visible.
When we take the limit n → ∞, we arrive at one more
4
demonstration of the theorem.
For n = 1, one obtains a very short, easily understandable proof
(see Figure 12).
n=1
Figure 12
3 These demonstrations were elaborated by the author in [1986d].

Another infinite set of possible dissection proofs for the same
proposition has been outlined by Bernstein [1924].
4 Another proof by means of limits has been given in Gerdes
[1986c].
94
Chapter 6
Pappos’ theorem
Analogously, Pappos’ generalization of the Pythagorean

Proposition for parallelograms can be proved in infinitely many ways
(Figure 13 illustrates the case n = 3).
A+B=T
B
A+B=C
b
Figure 13
95
Example
Loomis’ well known study The Pythagorean Proposition gives

“… in all 370 different proofs, each proof calling for its specific
figure” [1940; 1972, p. 269] and its author invites his audience to
“Read and take your choice; or better, find a new, a different proof …”
[p. 13]. Our reflection on a widespread decorative motif led us not only
to an alternative, active way to introduce the Pythagorean Proposition
in the classroom but also to generate infinitely many proofs of the
same theorem. May this example serve as a further stimulus to the
multi-culturalisation of mathematics education.
Alternative decomposition
Figure 14
96
Chapter 6
References
D’Ambrosio, U. [1985a]: Ethnomathematics and its place in the

history and pedagogy of mathematics, For the Learning of
Mathematics, Montreal, Vol. 5, No. 1, 44-48.
D’Ambrosio, U. [1985b]: Sociocultural bases for mathematics
education, UNICAMP, Campinas.
Barrett, S.A. [1908]: Pomo Indian basketry, University of California
Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology.
Bastin, M.-L. [1961]: Art décoratif Tchokwe, Publicações Culturais da
Companhia de Diamantes de Angola, Lisbon.
Bishop, A. [1988]: The interactions of mathematics education with
culture, Cultural Dynamics.
Eshiwani, G. [1979]: The goals of mathematics teaching in Africa: a
need for re-examination, Prospects, 346-352.
Farrand, L. [1900]: Basketry designs of the Salish Indians, Memoir of
the American Museum of Natural History.
Gay, J. & Cole, M. [1967]: The new mathematics and an old culture: a
study of learning among the Kpelle of Liberia, Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, New York.
Gerdes, P. [1985a]: Conditions and strategies for emancipatory
Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo [Latest edition in
Gerdes, P. [1986a]: On culture, mathematics and curriculum
development in Mozambique, in: S.Mellin-Olsen & M. Johnsen
Hoines (eds.): Mathematics and Culture, a seminar report,
Radal, 15-42.
Gerdes, P. [1986b]: Um método geral para construir polígonos
regulares, inspirado numa técnica moçambicana de
97
entrelaçamento, TLANU, Maputo.

Gerdes, P. [1986c]: Mais duas novas demonstrações do teorema de
Pitágoras, TLANU, Maputo.
Gerdes, P. [1986d]: Infinitely many proofs of the Pythagorean
Theorem, TLANU, Maputo.
Gerdes, P. [1988a]: On culture, geometrical thinking and mathematics
education, Educational Studies in Mathematics [reproduced as
chapter 5].
Gerdes, P. [1988b]: On possible uses of traditional Angolan sand
drawings in the mathematics classroom, Educational Studies in
Mathematics [reproduced as chapter 8].
Ginsburg, H. & Russell, R. [1981]: Social class and racial influences
on early mathematical thinking, Child Development, Chicago,
Vol.46.
Hutt, A. [1977]: Islamic architecture: North Africa, London.
Loomis, E.S. [1972]: The Pythagorean Proposition, NCTM, Reston.
Machatscheck, H. [1984]: Stein um Stein. Exotik der Brettspiele,
Berlin.
Mellin-Olsen, S. [1986]: Culture as a key theme for mathematics
education, in: S.Mellin-Olsen & M. Johnsen Hoines (eds.)
Mathematics and Culture, a seminar report, Radal, 99-121.
Nebres, B. [1983]: Problems of mathematical education in and for
changing societies: problems in Southeast Asian countries,
Tokyo.
Njock, G. [1985]: Mathématique et environnement socio-culturel en
Afrique Noire, Présence Africaine, No. 135, 3-21.
Picton, J. & Mack, J. [1979]: African textiles, British Museum,
London.
Weitlanger-Johnson, I. [1976]: Design motifs on Mexican Indian
textiles, Graz.
Wilson, Eva [1986]: Ancient Egyptian Designs, British Museum,
London.
98
Chapter 7
Chapter 7
‘PYTHAGORAS’, SIMILAR TRIANGLES AND THE
“ELEPHANTS’-DEFENCE”-PATTERN
OF THE (BA)KUBA (CENTRAL AFRICA) *
Introduction
The (Ba)Kuba people inhabit the central part of the Congo basin
(in today’s Democratic Republic of Congo), living in the savannah
south of the dense equatorial forest. The (Ba)Kuba had constituted a
strong and secular kingdom.
Their metallic products, like weapons and jewellery are famous.
The villages had specialized themselves in certain types of craft, like
the production of ornamented wooden boxes and cups, velvet carpets,
copper pipes, raffia cloths, etc. The beautiful decorative art of the
(Ba)Kuba [see the examples in Figure 1 (Meurant, 1987, p. 170, 172)]
attracted not only the attention of artists from all over the world
(Meurant, 1987), but also from Mathematicians. D.Crowe (USA)
analysed symmetry patterns occurring in (Ba)Kuba designs and found
their mathematical variety and richness evident (Crowe, 1971;
Zaslavsky, 1973, chap. 14). In this paper I shall present some
(Ba)Kuba patterns and show how these designs may serve as an
interesting starting point in the study of geometry.
* Elaborated example given during the invited lecture “On the

Multiculturalisation of Mathematics Education” presented at the
1st Ibero-American Congress on Mathematics Education,
September 23-29, 1990, Seville, Spain. The paper was later
included as chapter 4 in the book African Pythagoras (1994).
99
Examples of decorative art of the (Ba)Kuba

Figure 1
A particular case of the Pythagorean proposition
(Ba)Kuba designs, like the one illustrated in Figure 2 (Meurant,

p. 168) may serve to discover the Pythagorean proposition in the
particular case where both legs are equal (see Figure 3).
Figure 2 Figure 3
The MONGO and MWOONG patterns
Figure 4 (Meurant, p. 114, 126, 144, 176) shows two tattooing

motifs formerly used by the Ngongo, one of the ethnic groups that
100
Chapter 7
belonged to the (Ba)Kuba kingdom. Both display a rotational

symmetry of order 4.
Tattooing motifs
Figure 4
When one draws lines between the ends of these tattooing

motifs, one obtains a pattern similar to the (Ba)Kuba engravings
illustrated in Figures 5 and 6 (Meurant, p. 176). The Ngongo call the
engraving motif in Figure 5 mongo, i.e. knee (according to information
collected by E.Torday in 1907. Cf. Meurant, 1987, p. 177). The
(Bu)Shongo – the dominant ethnic group in the old (Ba)Kuba kingdom
– call the engraving pattern in Figure 6a mwoong, i.e. “elephants’
defence”, and the motif in Figure 6b ikwaakl’imwoong, i.e. “deformed
elephants’ defence” (Meurant, 1987, p. 177).
Mongo motif
Figure 5
101
Engraving patterns
Figure 6
To arrive at the Pythagorean proposition
The (Ba)Kuba engraving pattern in Figure 6a is well known

from the history of Mathematics in Asia (China, India). When one
places several patterns together, one may discover, ‘reinvent’ and even
prove, easily and geometrically, the so-called ‘Theorem of
Pythagoras’, as Figure 7 illustrates. On the other hand, knowing the
identity (b–a)2 = b2 – 2ba + a2 and the formulas for the determination
of the areas of squares and right triangles, one may arrive, in the
following algebraic-geometric way, at the same conclusion. The area
of the little central square is equal to (b – a)2 and the areas of the four
neighbouring right triangles (see Figure 8) are together 2ab. Therefore
(1) c2 = (b – a)2 + 2ab = b2 + a2.
P P
Q Q
P P
P P
102
Chapter 7
A
C
Figure 7
b
a
c
Figure 8
Figure 9
103
An ornamental variant and a generalization of the Pythagorean

proposition
Figure 9 shows a (Ba)Kuba variant of the elephants’ defence
pattern. 1 The rectangle is composed of two pairs of similar triangles
(see Figure 10) and a little rectangle at the centre.
c’
a’ b’
c b
a
Figure 10
R
P P
Q Q
P P
R R
Figure 11
1 During the 6th International Congress of Mathematical Education

(August 1988), I had the opportunity of visiting the permanent
exposition ‘From clan to civilization’ at the Ethnographic
Museum of Budapest (Hungary). In Room VIII art and craft of
the (Ba)Kuba is exhibited. The “elephants’ defence” pattern is
seen on some exhibited objects. On the walls and top of a
beautiful carved wooden box one encounters the referred variant
of the same pattern.
104
Chapter 7
When one places several examples of this variant together (see

Figure 11), one may discover / invent and prove the following
generalization of the Pythagorean proposition:
(2) c c’ = a a’ + b b’ (see Figure 12)
c’
a’ b’
a
Figure 12
On the other hand, it is possible to arrive at the same conclusion

by an algebraic-geometrical reasoning. The area of the central
rectangle is equal to (b’– a)(b – a’) and the areas of the four
neighbouring right triangles are together ab + a’b’. Therefore, we have
c c’ = (b’ – a)(b – a’) + a b + a’b’ = a a’ + b b’.
A combination of the Pythagorean Proposition with its

generalization
What result may be obtained when one combines the theorem (2)
105
(2) c c’ = a a’ + b b’
with the Pythagorean proposition?
Combining (2) with the Theorem of Pythagoras
(1) c2 = a2+ b2
and
(1’) (c’)2 = (a’) 2+ (b’) 2,
one obtains
(3) (a a’ + b b’) 2 = (c c’)2 = c2 (c’)2 = [a2 + b2][(a’)2 + (b’)2].
This leads immediately to
(4) 2 a a’ b b’ = a2 (b’)2 + b2 (a’)2
and
(5) (a b’ – b a’)2 = 0.
In this way, we see that
(6) a b’ = b a’,
i.e.
(7) a : b = a’ : b’.
In other words, the ratios of the legs (taken in the same order) of
similar right triangles are equal. The deduction here presented is
algebraic. Does there not exist a (purely) geometrical alternative?
A geometrical alternative
Let us return to the rectangular (Ba)Kuba variant of the

elephants’ defence pattern (Figure 9). How can one join some of these
ornamental rectangles in order to obtain a square?
Figures 13a and b show two possibilities to obtain a square of
side c + c’. In both cases, there appears a ‘hole’ in the centre whose
sides measure c’ – c. When one extends the legs that end at the
vertices of the square ‘hole’ until they encounter other legs, one
obtains Figures 14a and b.
106
Chapter 7
b
Figure 13
107
b
Figure 14
In both cases, there appear four right triangles around the square
‘hole’ (see Figure 15), that form together with the square ‘hole’ a new
square of side (a’+b’) – (a+b). And in both cases, there appear around
108
Chapter 7
this new central square four rectangles, which constitute patterns that
are similar to the (Ba)Kuba tattooing displayed in Figure 4b.
Figure 15
a b
Figure 16
As the big squares are congruent and the little squares are also
congruent, one arrives at the conclusion that the patterns themselves
(see Figure 16) are equal in area. Both patterns are composed of four
rectangles. Therefore, the area (ab’) of one of these rectangles of the
first pattern (Figure 16a) is equal to the area (a’b) of one of the
rectangles of the second pattern (Figure 16b):
(8) ab’ = a’b.
In other words
(9) a : b = a’ : b’,
109
that is, we arrived geometrically at the conclusion that the ratios of the
legs (taken in the same order) of similar right triangles are equal. It
turns out to be easy to prove the Fundamental Theorem of Similar
Triangles on the basis of the foregoing result. Also one may introduce
without any difficulty the concepts of tangent, sine and cosine of an
acute angle. Application of theorem (2) in the case of the triangles in
Figure 17 leads to the trigonometric formula
(10) c = a sin α + b sin β.
_ c b
1 sin `
`
sin _ a
Figure 17
Other geometrical alternatives
Inspired by the (Ba)Kuba designs, we saw that there exists a

(purely) geometrical deduction of the theorem that says that the ratios
of the legs (taken in the same order) of similar right triangles are equal.
As in the schoolbooks we know this is either not proven or is proven
on the basis of more general knowledge (Fundamental Theorem of
Similar Triangles), I was led to look for other alternatives. I found the
following: both may easily be used in the mathematics classroom, for
instance, when the trigonometric ratios of an acute angle are
introduced.
Let us consider a right triangle with sides a+a’, b+b’ and c+c’
(Figure 18a). The right triangles of sides a, b, c and a’, b’, c’ may fit
into it in various ways. Figures 18b and c give two possibilities. The
rectangles that remain have obviously the same areas. Therefore:
(8) ab’ = a’b.
110
Chapter 7
b
b’
b+b’
b’
b
a+a’ a’ a a a’
Figure 18
Let us now consider right triangles with sides a, b, c and a’, b’,
c’. One may join them like illustrated in Figures 19a and b. In both
cases, one may consider the so obtained figure as composed of a
rectangle and a right triangle with sides a’– a, b’– b and c’– c (see
Figure 20). Therefore, both rectangles have the same area, and one
may conclude:
(8) ab’ = a’b.
a
a
b
b’ b b’
a’ a’
Figure 19
111
b’ b
a’
Figure 20
Once more ‘Pythagoras’
The well-known drawing in Figure 15 constitutes an invitation

for the discovery of some more proofs of the ‘Theorem of Pythagoras’.
Final considerations
(Ba)Kuba designs may serve as an attractive starting point in the

mathematics classroom for the (re)discovery / invention and
demonstration of the ‘Theorem of Pythagoras’, of one of its
generalizations and of (a particular case of) the Fundamental Theorem
of Similar Triangles. It was also shown how the considered (Ba)Kuba
patterns may be used for the introduction of trigonometric ratios. Our
reflection about the possibilities of incorporating cultural elements of
the (Ba)Kuba into the teaching of geometry inspired us to find some
didactical alternatives.
References
Crowe, Donald [1971]: The geometry of African art I: Bakuba art,

Journal of Geometry, Basel, Vol. 1, No. 2, 169-182.
Meurant, Georges [1987]: Abstractions aux royaumes des Kuba,
Éditions Dapper, Paris, 205 pp.
Zaslavsky, Claudia [1973]: Africa Counts, Prindle, Weber & Schmidt,
Boston, 328 pp.
112
Chapter 8
Chapter 8
ON POSSIBLE USES OF TRADITIONAL ANGOLAN
SAND DRAWINGS IN THE MATHEMATICS
CLASSROOM *
Abstract
Both industrialised and Third World countries see themselves

confronted with the need to ‘multi-culturalise’ their mathematics
curricula. Following a brief description of the drawing tradition of the
Tchokwe people (Angola), some possible uses of their pictograms in
the mathematics classroom are suggested. The examples given in this
paper range from the study of arithmetical relationships, progressions,
symmetry, similarity, and Euler graphs to the determination of the
greatest common divisor of two natural numbers.
Introduction
In industrialised countries like Great Britain, France and U.S.A.,

the necessity to re-evaluate the total school experience in view of the
educational ‘failure’ of many children from ethnic minority
communities is more and more recognised. Pressure has mounted to
reflect the multi-cultural nature of these societies in the school
curriculum. Thus Bishop (1987, p. 2) concludes that it is necessary to
‘multi-culturalise’ the mathematics curriculum (see also Ginsburg and
* Published in the international journal Educational Studies in

Mathematics (Dordrecht / Boston, 1988, Vol. 19, No. 1, 3-22,
and reproduced in the Brazilian journal BOLEMA (São Paulo
State University, Rio Claro, 1989, Special No. 1, pp. 51-78). A
preliminary version of this article was published in the Nigerian
journal Abacus (Ilorin, 1988, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 107-125).
113
Russell, 1981; Mellin-Olsen, 1986).

As the inherited colonial boundaries seldom did justice to the
existing cultural and ethnic realities, many Third World countries see
themselves today, in the difficult process of nation building,
confronted with the same need to multi-culturalise their mathematics
curriculum (see e.g. D’Ambrosio, 1985a,b; Eshiwani, 1979; Gerdes,
1985b, 1986b; Nebres, 1983). During the colonial period, mathematics
was generally presented as an exclusively white man’s creation and
ability (cf. Gerdes, 1985a; Njock, 1985). With the hasty
transplantation of curricula from the highly industrialised capitalist
nations to Third World countries in the 1960s (e.g. the so-called
‘African Mathematics Program’), this negation of African, Asian,
American-Indian and Aboriginal-Australian ‘indigenous’ mathematics
continued, at least implicitly. And herein lies one of the fundamental
causes for the verified low levels of attainment, which, in their turn,
may reinforce (neo)colonial and racial prejudices (cf. D’Ambrosio,
1985b; Gerdes, 1985b).
In order to break this vicious circle, D’Ambrosio (1985a,b)
stresses that it is urgent to recognise all sorts of ‘indigenous’
mathematics (or ‘ethno-mathematics’) and to integrate / incorporate
them into the curriculum. Only then, in the author’s opinion, is one
necessary condition for ‘world-mathematics’, (defined as the union of
all ‘ethno-mathematics’; terminology of Hogbe-Nlend, 1985) or
‘internationalised mathematics’ (terminology of Bishop, 1987) to
become really and effectively accessible to the peoples of the Third
World satisfied.
The following article on traditional Angolan sand drawings is
meant as a concrete example of how it is possible to use ‘indigenous’
mathematical ideas in the teaching context. We are looking for
effective bridges (Gay and Cole, 1967, p. 94) between ‘ethno-
mathematics’ and ‘world-mathematics’.
The drawing tradition of the Tchokwe
The Tchokwe people (or Cokwe or Quiocos in Portuguese) with

a population of about one million (Fontinha, 1983, p. 28) inhabit
predominantly the northeast of Angola, the Lunda region.
114
Chapter 8
Traditionally they are hunters, but since the middle of the 17th century
they have dedicated themselves also to agriculture (Redinha, 1975, p.
11). The Tchokwe are well known for their beautiful decorative art
(Bastin, 1961), ranging from the ornamentation of plaited mats and
baskets, iron work, ceramics, engraved calabash fruits (Fontinha and
Videira, 1963) and tattoos (Lima, 1956) to paintings on house walls
(Redinha, 1953) and sand drawings (Fontinha, 1983).
When the Tchokwe meet at their central village places or at their
hunting camps, they are used, sitting around a fire or in the shadow of
leafy trees, to spend their time in conversations that are illustrated by
drawings on the ground. Most of these drawings belong to a long
tradition. They refer to proverbs, fables, games, riddles, animals etc.
and play an important role in the transmission of knowledge and
wisdom from one generation to the next (Fontinha, 1983, p. 37). The
designs have to be executed smoothly and continuously, as any
hesitation or stopping on the part of the drawer is interpreted by the
audience as an imperfection and lack of knowledge, and assented with
an ironic smile.
In order to facilitate the memorisation of their standardised
picto- or ideograms, the ‘akwa kuta sona’ – drawing experts –
invented an interesting mnemonic device. After cleaning and
smoothing the ground, they first set out with their fingertips an
orthogonal net of equidistant points. The number of rows and columns
depends on the motif to be represented. For example, in order to
represent an antelope, one needs three rows of four points (Figure 1).
By applying their method – an example of an early use of a coordinate
system! (cf. Santos, 1960, p. 267) – the ‘akwa kuta sona’ generally
reduce the memorisation of a whole design to that of mostly two
numbers and a geometric algorithm.
Fontinha (1983) published in a beautiful book 287 different
Tchokwe sand drawings, collected in the 1940s and 1950s. Kubik
(1987) will publish a collection of related pictographs from northwest
Zambia. A hypothesis on the historical origin of this type of drawings
has been formulated in Gerdes (1985b, pp. 33-36).
Some possible uses of these traditional Tchokwe sand drawings
in the mathematics classroom will now be suggested and briefly
discussed.
115
Figure 1
5x5
a b
= 4x +1
Figure 2
116
Chapter 8
Arithmetical relationships
Each drawing redistributes, we may say, the points of the

reference net. This situation may be “exploited” in the mathematics
classroom, as the following examples will show, to discover diverse
arithmetical relationships.
First example
On the basis of the representation of a forest with many ‘qundu’

birds (Figure 2b) one finds
52 = 4 × 6 + 1.
Arithmetical progressions
An analysis of the symbolic representation of the “chased

chicken” pattern (Figure 3) leads to
5 × 6 = (1+2+3+4+5) + (5+4+3+2+1) =2 × (1 +2+3+4+5).
1 2 3 4 5
5 4 3 2 1
5x6
a b
Figure 3
117
This and other related examples can be used as a starting point

for the study of sums of arithmetical progressions
2 × (1 + 2 + 3 + ... + n) = n (n + 1) etc.,
or, alternatively
2
2 × (1 + 2 + 3 + + n) = (n + 1) – (n + 1),
as can be extrapolated from
2
2 × (1 +2+3+4+5) = 6 – 6,
as suggested by a representation of ‘Kalunga’ (God) [see Figure 4c].
In order to execute many Tchokwe sand drawings, it is necessary
to superimpose two orthogonal nets in such a way that the points of the
second one are the centres of the unit squares of the first net, thus
forming together a new grid. The representation of a tortoise illustrates
this superimposition (Figure 5). The redistribution of reference points
by this tortoise figure suggests:
2 2
3 + 2 = 1+3+5+3+1.
In the same way, the representation of an ox-stall and of an

elephant’s head (Figures 6b, 7b) lead to:
42 + 32 = 1 +3+5+7+5+3+ 1
and
52 + 42 = 1+3+5+7+9+7+5+3+1.
Which part of ( 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 + 5 + 3 + 1) corresponds to 42? Which
part to 32? By experimentation, one may observe, e.g. in the following
way (Figure 8a):
42 = 32 +3+4, i.e. 42 = 32 +7.
Therefore 42 = 1+3+5+7 and 32 = 5+3+1. One may ask the
students if 52 + 42 or (1+3+5+7+9+7+5+3+1) can be split up in the
same manner. And: “Are there other ways to see that 42 = 1+3+5+7,
starting with the 42 point square grid?” (Figure 8b).
118
Chapter 8
6x6
a
b
Figure 4
119
5
4
3
2
1
2x = +
5
4
3
2
1
= -
6x6 6
d
Figure 4
120
Chapter 8
2 2 2
3 3 +2
a b c
1
3
5 3 1
d e
Figure 5
2 2
4 +3
a b
Figure 6
121
2 2
5 +4
a b
Figure 7
Figure 8
Extrapolation gives
n2 = 1+3+5+...+(2n -1),
or the sum of the first n odd numbers is n2.
122
Chapter 8
Figure 9
Figure 10
A Pythagorean Triplet
A 5 point reference frame is used for the characteristic

‘cingelyengelye’ motif (Figure 9), a very old design that appears
already on rock paintings in the Upper Zambeze region (Redinha,
1948) and for some other Tchokwe patterns (Figure 10; Bastin, 1961,
152; Fontinha, 1983, 213, 207, 239, 227; Redinha, 1948, 74). By
trying to cover double square reference frames [(n + 1)2 + n2 points]
with these patterns, pupils may discover the ‘Pythagorean’ triplet (3, 4,
5):
32 + 42 = 52 (Figure 11).
Figure 11
123
Geometrical ideas
The tradition of the ‘akwa kuta sona’ reveals a profound

awareness and interest in the geometrical properties of their drawings.
These properties, such as symmetries and similarities, are studied in
the classroom and the sand drawings may serve as a starting point as
the following examples will show.
c
Figure 12
Axial Symmetry
Not only the final sand drawings (Figure 12) display a bilateral
symmetry, but also the reference frames themselves. Two
corresponding points have the same distance to the axis of symmetry.
Double Bilateral and Point Symmetry
Double bilateral and point symmetries are displayed not only by

the final sand drawings (Figure 13), but also by the orthogonal
reference nets themselves. This may help the pupils to discover that
corresponding points have the same distance to the centre of
symmetry.
124
Chapter 8
a b c
Figure 13
a b c
Figure 14
125
Rotational Symmetry
In the same way, pupils may be led to the discovery (Figure 14),
that corresponding points are at the same distance from the centre of
rotation.
Similarity
Figure 15e represents a lioness with her two cubs. 1 The

dimensions 10 : 3 and 7 : 2 of the rectangular skeletons of the lioness
and her cubs have been chosen in such a way that the lioness and the
cubs are more or less similar figures. Therefore
10 : 3 ≈ 7 : 2.
Their mutual orthogonal position may be used in the mathematics
classroom to compare (see Figure 16) the pairs (3, 7) and (2,10) and
discover that
10 : 3 ≈ 7 : 2
corresponds to
3 × 7 ≈ 10 × 2 (21 ≈ 20).
An analogous analysis (Figure 17) of the representation of a leopard
with five cubs leads to the correspondence of
11 : 8 ≈ 4 : 3
and
8 × 4 ≈ 11 × 3 (32 ≈ 33).
By extrapolation one gets:
a:b ≈ c:d (or a : b = c : d)
is equivalent to
b × c ≈ a × d (or b × c = a × d).
1 Cf. Fontinha, 1983, p. 181; we adapted the design, as its drawer

made some obvious mistakes in its execution.
126
Chapter 8
10
3 7
a b
c d
Figure 15 (first part)

127
Figure 15 (Second part)
10
3 7
a b
Figure 16
128
Chapter 8
Figure 17
Geometrical Determination of the Greatest Common Divisor of

two Natural Numbers
Let us return to the representation of a tortoise (see Figure 5).

The ‘akwa kuta sona’ started with a 3 × 3 reference frame and needed
essentially three closed curves to complete their drawing (Figure 18).
In the case of the elephant’s head of Figure 6, one starts with a 5 × 5
reference frame and needs five closed curves to “embrace” all the
points.
129
Figure 18
Figure 19
To draw an antelope’s head (Fontinha, 1983, 235), one has to

start with a 2 × 4 frame and needs two closed curves to “embrace” all
the network points (Figure 19).
How many such curves are necessary to “embrace” all points of
a m × n reference frame?
o
45
o o
45 45
Figure 20
First of all, the pupils may try to define the characteristics of

these curves: they form both before and after a reflection, angles of
45o with the sides of the reference frame (see Figure 20). Now the
130
Chapter 8
pupils may experiment (Figure 21) and discover that it is only

necessary to draw one such closed curve in order to answer our
question:
f (3, 6)= ?
Figure 21
An admitted closed curve that starts from a vertex (see Figure

22a) always “embraces” one point of each column and two of each
row. As there are three rows, three curves are necessary: f (3, 6) = 3.
f (4, 6) = ?
This time, an admitted closed curve (see Figure 22b) “embraces”
two points of each initial six columns and three of each row. As there
!
are four rows, ! = 2 curves are necessary. In the same way, as there are
!
6 columns, ! = 2 curves are necessary.
a b
Figure 22
131
Extrapolation leads to
f (m, n) is a divisor of m,
f (m, n) is a divisor of n,
or f (m, n) is a common divisor of m and n. Further experience leads
to: f (m, n) is the greatest common divisor of m and n [ = gcd (m, n)].
gcd(12,9) = 3
3 9
2 =3
gcd(12,9)
1 2
1 2 3 4
12
=4
gcd(12,9)
Figure 23
Figure 23 gives an application of this provisional result.

Cautious observation of the behaviour of the closed curve drawn in
Figure 23 and comparison with other concrete examples may lead the
pupils to discover the following interesting generalisation:
gcd (m, n) = minimum number of points “embraced”

by “branches” of an admitted closed
curve that passes through a m × n
reference frame.
132
Chapter 8
Towards the Euclidean algorithm
From this generalisation onwards, it is not very difficult for the

pupils to arrive by means of a structured series of exercises (see
Gerdes, 1987a) at the geometric equivalent of Euclid’s arithmetical
algorithm for the determination of the greatest common divisor of two
natural numbers. Figure 24 illustrates the possible successive steps in
this discovery process for the case (m, n) = (21, 15). In Figure 24b,
the admitted closed curve has been substituted by a polygonal line. At
this stage, the gcd (m, n) may be geometrically interpreted in the
following way (cf. Figure 24c):
gcd (m, n) = length of the side of the greatest square
with which it is possible to fill up a m × n
rectangle (same units of length) .
Figure 24d shows that it is not necessary to draw the whole
polygonal line of 24b in order to find gcd (m, n). It is sufficient to
consider a reduced polygonal line, that “diagonally cuts off squares”
from the original m × n rectangle.
Euler Graphs
The Tchokwe sand drawing tradition offers good possibilities to

study some properties of graphs. For example, one may ask the pupils
which figures can be drawn in the sand without lifting the finger or
retracting any line segment (cf. Zaslavsky, 1973, p. 105).
The representations of a ‘dyahotwa’ bird (see Figure 25a, b;
Fontinha, 1983, 149, 151) are not traceable. But they may be
‘extended’ in order to become so (Figure 25c, d). The pupils may
discover that there exists a path that traverses the figure without
crossing any segment more than once if and only if there are fewer
than 3 vertices that belong to an odd number of segments. The
representation of a married couple (Figure 26; Fontinha, 1983, 145) is
an example of such an Euler graph.
133
21
15
a
Figure 24
134
Chapter 8
b
Figure 24
135
3 3 3 3 3
c
Figure 24
136
Chapter 8
d
Figure 24
137
a b
c d
Figure 25
Figure 26
Concluding remarks
In this paper we suggested some possible ways to use traditional

Angolan sand drawings in the mathematics classroom. The
incorporation of this Tchokwe, both educational and artistic-
mathematical, tradition into the curriculum may contribute to achieve
138
Chapter 8
important societal goals:

* in the concrete case of the Tchokwe people it may contribute to
the revival, reinforcement and valuing of this practice of the
‘akwa kuta sona’, threatened with extinction during the colonial
occupation; it may contribute towards a more productive and
creative mathematics education, as it avoids sociocultural and
psychological alienation;
* with the integration of this regional tradition into the national
curriculum, this drawing practice, the knowledge it reveals and
its mathematical potential, will become less monopolised, less
regional, less linked to a particular ethnic group; the
incorporation of this and other popular practices from all regions
of the country will contribute to the development of a truly
national culture, very important in a process of nation building as
in the case of Angola (cf. Gerdes, 1986b);
* the uses of these sand drawing patterns in the mathematics
classroom need not be restricted to Angola. On the contrary.
Their incorporation in other African curricula, for example in
Mozambique, will contribute to the valuing and appreciation of
the culture of this brother people, will reinforce the apprehension
of the value of the artistic and scientific heritage of the African
continent; will consolidate the idea that mathematics does not
come from outside the African cultures. In other societies as well
(cf. Zaslavsky, 1973, 1979, 1985) their ‘multi-culturalising’
integration into the curriculum may stimulate interdisciplinarity
(e.g. mathematics and drawing with artistic-aesthetic education)
and contribute to mathematical confidence: mathematics is
panhuman; all peoples have been (and are) capable of
developing mathematics (‘ethnomathematics’). This confidence
will facilitate the assimilation of ‘worldmathematics’.
Some other examples of incorporating traditional practices into

the mathematics curriculum are given in Gerdes (1986a, 1987b).
139
Postscript
In this paper we explored some possibilities of using the

Tchowke sand drawing tradition into the mathematics classroom.
Nevertheless their educational value is not the only reason to study
them. They also constitute a stimulus for the development of new
mathematical ideas and methods (see e.g. the results of Jaritz, 1983)
and are very important for the reconstruction of some parts of the early
history of mathematics. Probably independent of the Tchokwe
tradition, similar drawing methods have been developed in South India
(Layard, 1937) and on the New Hebrides (Deacon, 1934; Ascher,
forthcoming). It seems that different people invented the same
mnemonic device in response to the same need of facilitating the
transmission of ideas and values from one generation to the next.
There are reasons to believe (see e.g. the figures in Giacardi et al.,
1979, 146, 157) that in Ancient Mesopotamia a similar tradition
existed. The author is preparing a study on the possible influence of a
tradition of this type of Tchokwe sand drawings on the development of
Ancient Mesopotamian mathematics, one important root of ‘world-
mathematics’.
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to Professors D. Crowe (Madison, U.S.A.),

M. Ascher and C. Zaslavsky (New York, U.S.A.) and to the editors for
their valuable comments on this paper and to Dr. W. Humbane
(Maputo, Mozambique) for proofreading.
Sources for illustrations
Figure 1: drawn after Fontinha, 1983, p. 187;

Figure 2b: drawn after Fontinha, 1983, p. 271;
140
Chapter 8
Figure 4c: drawn after Fontinha, 1983, p. 255, 177; cf. Zaslavsky,
1973, p. 109;
Figure 5e: drawn after Fontinha, 1983, p. 221;
Figures 6b, 7b: drawn after Fontinha, 1983, p. 167;
Figures 9 and 10: drawn after Bastin, 1961, p. 152; Fontinha, 1983, p.
213, 207, 239, 227; Redinha, 1948, p. 74;
Figure 12: drawn after Fontinha, 1983, 229, 211, 197, 171;
Figure 13: drawn after Fontinha, 1983,181, 257, 133,185,189,195, 245;
Figure 14: drawn after Fontinha, 1983, 243, 263, 175, 183;
Figure 15e: drawn after Fontinha, 1983, p. 183;
Figure 25a, b: drawn after Fontinha, 1983, p. 149, 151;
Figure 26: drawn after Fontinha, 1983, p.145.
References
D’Ambrosio, U. [1985a]: ‘Mathematics education in a cultural

setting’, International Journal of Mathematical Education in
Science and Technology, London, 16, 469-477.
D’Ambrosio, U. [1985b]: Sociocultural Bases for Mathematics
Education; UNICAMP, Campinas.
Bastin, M. L. [1961]: Art décoratif Tchokwé, Publicações Culturais da
Companhia de Diamantes de Angola, Lisbon.
Bishop, A. [1987]: ‘The interactions of mathematics education with
culture’, Cultural Dynamics, Vol. 2, Gent.
Deacon, A. B. [1934]: ‘Geometrical drawings from Malekula and
other islands of the New Hebrides’, Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute, London, 64, 129-175.
Eshiwani, G. S. [1979]: ‘The goals of mathematics teaching in Africa:
A need for re-examination’, Prospects, 346 352.
Fontinha, M. and A. Videira [1963]: Cabaças gravadas da Lunda,
141
Publicações Culturais da Companhia de Diamantes de Angola,

Lisbon.
Fontinha, M. [1983]: Desenhos na areia dos Quiocos do Nordeste de
Angola, Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical, Lisbon.
Gay, J. and M. Cole [1967]: The New Mathematics and an Old
Culture: A Study of Learning among the Kpelle of Liberia, Holt,
Gerdes, P. [1985a]: ‘Conditions and strategies for emancipatory
mathematics education in underdeveloped countries’, For the
Learning of Mathematics, Montreal, Vol.5, 15 20 [reproduced as
chapter 12].
Gerdes, P. [1985b]: Zum erwachenden geometrischen Denken, UEM,
Maputo [Latest edition in English: Ethnogeometry: Awakening
of Geometrical Thought in Early Culture, ISTEG, Boane &
Lulu, Morrisville NC, 2013].
Gerdes, P. [1986a]: A Widespread Decorative Motif and the
Pythagorean Theorem, TLANU, Maputo [reproduced as chapter
6].
Gerdes, P. [1986b]: ‘On culture, mathematics and curriculum
development in Mozambique’, in: Mellin-Olsen, S. and Johnsen
Hoines, M. (eds.), Mathematics and Culture, a Seminar Report,
Radal, 15-42.
Gerdes, P. [1987a]: Inspiration aus traditionellan Angolanischen
Zeichnungen: geometrische Bestimmung des grossten
gemeinsamen Teilers zweier natürlichen Zahlen, TLANU,
Maputo.
Gerdes, P. [1987b]: ‘On culture, geometrical thinking and mathematics
education’, Educational Studies in Mathematics [reproduced as
chapter 5].
Giacardi, L., S. C. Roero and T. Viola [1979]: ‘Ipotesi sull’esistenza di
una mathematica magicosacrale presso gli antiche Sumeri’, in
Figala, K. and Berninger, E. H. (eds.), Arithmos-Arrythmos,
Skizzen aus der Wissenschaftsgeschichte, München, 143-160.
Ginsburg, H. and R. Russell [1981]: ‘Social class and racial influences
on early mathematical thinking’, Child Development, Chicago,
142
Chapter 8
46, 1-66.
Hogbe-Nlend, H. [1985]: L’Afrique, berceau de la mathématique
mondiale, United Nations University, Nairobi.
Jaritz, W. [1983]: Über Bahnen auf Billardtischen oder: eine
mathematische Untersuchung von Ideogrammen Angolanischer
Herkunft, Mathematisch-Statistische Sektion im Forschungs-
zentrum Graz, Graz.
Kubik, G. [1987]: Tusona-Luchazi Ideographs, Verlag E. Stiglmayr,
Vienna.
Layard, J. [1937]: ‘Labyrinth ritual in South India: Threshold and
tattoo designs’, Folk-Lore, London, 48, 115-182.
Lima, M. [1956]:Tatuagens da Lunda, Museu de Angola, Luanda.
Mellin-Olsen, S. [1986]: ‘Culture as a Key Theme for Mathematics
Education. Postseminar reflections’, in Mellin-Olsen, S. and
Johnsen Hoines, M. (eds.), Mathematics and Culture, a Seminar
Report, Radal, pp. 99-121.
Njock, G. E. [1985]: ‘Mathématiques et environnement socio-culturel
en Afrique Noire’, Présence Africaine , Paris, Vol. 135, 3- 21.
Redinha, J. [1948]: ‘As gravuras rupestres do Alto Zambeze e primeira
tentativa da sua interpretação’, Publicações Culturais da
Companhia de Diamantes de Angola, Lisbon, Vol. 2, 65-92.
Redinha, J. [1953]: Paredes pintadas da Lunda, Publicações Culturais
da Companhia de Diamantes de Angola, Lisbon.
Redinha, J. [1975]: Aspectos sociais e económicos da vida Quioca,
Cadernos Capricórnio, Lobito. Santos, E. dos: 1960, ‘Sobre a
matemática dos Quiocos de Angola’, Garcia de Orta, Lisbon, 8,
257-271.
Zaslavsky, C. [1973]: Africa Counts; Number and Pattern in African
Culture, Prindle, Weber & Schmidt, Boston.
Zaslavsky, C. [1979]: ‘Symmetry along with other mathematical
concepts and applications in African life’, in: Applications in
School Mathematics, pp. 82-97.
Zaslavsky, C. [1985]: ‘Bringing the world into the math class’,
Curriculum Review, pp. 82-97.
143
144
Chapter 9
Chapter 9
EXPLORATION OF THE MATHEMATICAL POTENTIAL OF
‘SONA’:
AN EXAMPLE OF STIMULATING CULTURAL AWARENESS
IN MATHEMATICS TEACHER EDUCATION *
Introduction: necessity of culture-oriented education
Development strategies that neglect or minimize cultural factors

provoke indifference, alienation and social discord, as underlines the
Report of the South Commission, led by the former President of
1
Tanzania, Julius Nyerere. Alternate development strategies should
utilize the enormous reserves of traditional knowledge, creativity and
capacity to take initiatives that exist in the Third World (p.55). The
Regional Consultation on Education for All (Dakar, 27-30 November
2
1989) stresses that Africa needs culture-oriented education.
Scientific appreciation of African cultural elements and experience is
considered to be “one sure way of getting Africans to see science as a
* Paper presented at the conference ‘The education of mathematics

teachers in the SADCC region’, realized during the 8th
Symposium of the Southern Africa Mathematical Sciences
Association, Maputo, Mozambique, December 16-19, 1991.
Reproduced as chapter 3 in: Sona Geometry from Angola, Vol. 2
Educational and Mathematical Explorations of African Designs
on the Sand, 2012, Lulu, Morrisville NC.
1 The Challenge to the South, Oxford University Press, Oxford,
325 pp.
2 African Thoughts on the Prospects of Education for All,
UNESCO-UNICEF, Dakar / Abidjan, 193 pp.
145
means of understanding their cultures and as a tool to serve and

advance their cultures” (p.23).
Educate or Perish: Africa’s Impasse and Prospects, study
3
directed by Joseph Ki-Zerbo, shows that today’s African educational
system – unadapted and elitist – favours foreign consumption without
generating a culture that is both compatible with the original
civilization and truly promising. Africa needs a “new educational
system, properly rooted in both society and environment, and therefore
apt to generate the self-confidence from which imagination springs.”
(p.104).
Ethnomathematical research and teacher education
In order to avoid alienation – the experience of mathematics as a

rather strange, useless and uninteresting subject, imported from outside
4
Africa – the African mathematical heritage, traditions and practices
have to be ‘embedded’ or ‘incorporated’ into the curriculum.
In order to prepare gradually a curriculum reform that guarantees that
mathematics education is “in tune with African traditions and socio-
5
cultural environment,” we started ethnomathematical research in
Mozambique.
6
Ethnomathematical studies analyse
3 Educate or Perish: Africa’s Impasse and Prospects, UNESCO-

UNICEF, Dakar / Abidjan, 109 pp.
4 Cf. Gerdes, P, ‘On the history of mathematics in sub-Saharan
Africa’, paper presented at the Third Pan-African Congress of
Mathematicians, Nairobi, 20-28 August 1991 [reproduced as
chapter 11].
5 “African Thoughts…”, p. 14.
6 Cf. Gerdes, P. (1989): Mathematics education and culture in
Third World countries, in: Namnären, Göteborg (Sweden), Vol.
16, No. 4, 24-27; and: The use of ethnomathematics in the
146
Chapter 9
* mathematical traditions, that survived colonization and

* cultural elements that may serve as a starting point for doing and
elaborating mathematics in and outside school.
As teachers fulfil a pivotal role in any (successful) curriculum

reform, teacher education is a strategic place for debate and
experimentation with ‘cultural embedding of mathematics education.’
In my paper, ‘On culture, geometrical thinking and mathematics
7
education’, (1988) examples of ‘cultural conscientialisation’ of
future mathematics teachers are given: a Mozambican house
construction and a study of alternate axiomatic constructions of
Euclidean geometry; funnel weaving as a source of inspiration for a
general method for the construction of regular polygons; from button
weaving to the ‘Theorem of Pythagoras’; from traditional fish traps to
an alternate circular function, tilings and the generation of semi-
regular and regular polyhedra. This time I should like to expose how
investigations by future mathematics teachers may be realized
examining the cultural context and history of Southern Africa, opening
new field for mathematical research. As an illustration, the
mathematical potential of sona, sand drawings or ‘sand graphs’ of the
Tchokwe people of North-eastern Angola will be explored.
The (lu)sona tradition
The (lu)sona-tradition belongs to the heritage of the Tchokwe,

Lunda, Lwena, Xinge and Minungo peoples, that inhabit the north-
classroom (partial transcription), in: Proceedings of a

Conference on the Politics of Mathematics Education, NECC
Mathematics Commission, 1989, Cape Town, 26-36.
7 In: Educational Studies in Mathematics, Dordrecht, Vol. 19, No.
3, 137-162; and in: Bishop, A. (ed.), Mathematics Education and
Culture, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht / Boston, 137-
162 [reproduced as chapter 5].
147
eastern part of Angola, and of the Ngangela and Luchazi peoples of

south-eastern Angola and north-western Zambia. Especially the
Tchokwe are well known for their beautiful decorative art, ranging
from the ornamentation of plaited mats and baskets, iron work,
ceramics, engraved calabash fruits and tattoos to paintings on house
walls and sand drawings.
When the Tchokwe met at their central village places or at their
hunting camps, they usually sat around a fire or in the shadow of leafy
trees spending their time in conversations, illustrated by drawings in
the sand. These drawings are called lusona (singular) or sona (plural).
Most of these drawings belong to an old tradition. They refer to
proverbs, fables, riddles, animals, etc. and played an important role in
the transmission of knowledge and wisdom from one generation to the
next.
Every boy learned the meaning and execution of the easier sona
during the intensive schooling phase of the circumcision and initiation
rites. The meaning and execution of more difficult sona was only
known by specialists, the akwa kuta sona (those who know how to
draw), who transmitted their knowledge to their sons.
The designs have to be executed smoothly and continuously, as
the audience interpreted any hesitation or stopping on the part of the
drawer as an imperfection and lack of knowledge.
Figure 1
In order to facilitate the memorisation of their standardised sona,

the akwa kuta sona invented an interesting mnemonic device. After
cleaning and smoothing the ground, they first set out with their
fingertips a net of equidistant points. The number of rows and columns
148
Chapter 9
depends on the motif to be represented. Then they draw the line Figure
applying the geometrical algorithm that corresponds to the motif to be
represented. Figure 1 displays an example of the representation of a
bird.
Didactical experimentation
In the paper ‘On possible uses of traditional Angolan sand

8
drawings in the mathematics classroom’ (1988), some possible uses
of the sona are suggested to mathematics teachers. The examples
given range from the study of arithmetical relationships, progressions,
symmetry, similarity, and Euler graphs to the determination of the
greatest common divisor of two natural numbers. I have also
elaborated mathematical connections to sona in a book for children
9
(age 10-15), Living mathematics: drawings of Africa (1990). In the
10
paper ‘Find the missing figures’ (1988) and in the book Lusona:
11
Geometrical Recreations of Africa (1991) mathematical amusements
are presented that are inspired by the geometry of the sand drawing
8 First version, in: Abacus, the Journal of the Mathematical

Association of Nigeria, Ilorin (Nigeria), Vol. 18, No. 1, 107-125;
second more elaborated version in: Educational Studies in
Mathematics, Dordrecht / Boston, Vol.19, 3-22; Portuguese
language version in: Bolema, Rio Claro (Brasil), 1989, Special
9 Gerdes, P.: Vivendo a matemática: desenhos da África, Editora
Scipione, São Paulo (Brazil), 1990, 64 pp. [Published in English
under the title: Drawings from Angola: Living Mathematics,
Lulu, Morrisville NC, 2007].
10 In: Namnären, Götenborg (Sweden), Vol. 15, No. 4, 51-53;
Portuguese language version in: Bolema, Rio Claro (Brasil),
1989, Special No. 1, 79-97.
11 Mozambique’s Higher Pedagogical Institute, Maputo, 1991, 120
pp. [Latest colour edition in English with solutions: Lulu,
149
tradition. The problems included in these publications have been tested

out in a seminar of teacher educators and of future mathematics
teachers at Mozambique’s Higher Pedagogical Institute. Participation
in the seminar was voluntary and normally it was difficult to finish the
two-hour session of the seminar as participants ‘lost their notion of
time’. The first type of sona-inspired-recreation consists of problems
where some Figures of a series are given and one has to find the
missing ones. Figure 2 gives an example.
Figure 2
150
Chapter 9
Here all figures have to be monolinear, i.e. made out of only one
closed line that embraces all points of the reference frame without
repeating itself. In order to find the solutions, both the dimensions of
the successive drawings and the geometrical algorithm have to be
carefully observed.
A short overview of historical and didactical research on the
sona is given in ‘On mathematical elements in the Tchokwe ‘sona’
12
tradition’ (1990).
Further exploration of the mathematical potential of SONA in

teacher education
The context of the sona is very rich for further mathematical

exploration. In general, it is important for future mathematics teachers
to get a feeling of what it means to do mathematics: experiment,
discover and formulate of conjecture, prove theorems. The study of
sona and sona-like drawings gives a culturally embedded, attractive
context in which to develop that feeling, as the following examples
will show.
Composition rules
Very apt for teacher-student investigations are the discovery and

proof of the (reconstructed) traditional Tchokwe rules for the building
up of bigger monolinear drawings out of smaller monolinear ones.
Figure 3 illustrates one such a rule that has been applied four times in
the Tchokwe representation of a leopard with five cubs (see Figure
4b).
12 In: For the Learning of Mathematics, Montreal, Vol. 10, No. 1,

31-34, and slightly adapted versions in: Afrika Matematika,
African Mathematical Union, Benin City (Nigeria), 1991, Series
2, Vol. 3, 119-130, and in: Discovery and Innovation, African
Academy of Sciences, Nairobi (Kenya), 1991, Vol. 3, No.1, 29-
36. In French: A propos d’éléments mathématiques dans les
‘SONA’ de la tradition Tchokwe, in: Plot, Poitiers (France),
1991, No. 54, 5-9.
151
Composition rule
Figure 3
a b
Figure 4
Systematic construction of monolinear drawings
Figure 5 displays a left half of a lusona. It may be thought of as

constructed on the basis of the ‘triangular design’ in Figure 6a by
linking and passing through the endpoints a, b, c, d, A, B, C and D in
the order DaAbBcCd. Many questions for further reflection and
analysis arise, such as:
152
Chapter 9
Figure 5
D
C
B
A
a
d
c
b
a b
Figure 6
* Do there exist other possibilities? (See Figure 6b) How many?

* How many possibilities for monolinear drawings exist if there are
n endpoints on each side of the ‘triangular design’?
How many of them are symmetrical like the lusona in Figure 5?
153
How many lines?
First example
The Tchokwe lusona that represents the stomach of a lion

displays dimensions 5x4 and is monolinear (see Figure 7a). The
monolinear Ngangela sand graph in Figure 7b represents a bark
blanket. The same algorithm (illustrated in Figure 7c) has been
applied. Only the dimensions of the grid are different: 5x6. When one
uses the algorithm in the case of a reference frame of dimensions 7x3,
one needs three lines in order to embrace all points of the grid (see
Figure 8). How does the number of lines depend on the dimensions m
and n of the grid?
a b
Figure 7
154
Chapter 9
a b
Figure 8
When the width (m) is even, the drawing does not look like a
lions’ stomach (see Figure 9). We consider therefore only odd values
of m. For the same reason n has to be equal to or greater than 2.
Figure 9
The teacher-students may experiment with concrete values of m

and n, draw the figures, count the lines and join the data collected in
this manner in a table like:
n 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17
m
2 2 1 2 1 2
3 3 1 3 1
4 4 1 4
5 5
6 6 1
7
8
9
155
The extrapolation on the basis of these experimental data may

lead to the following table:
n 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17
m
2 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1
3 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 1
4 4 1 4 1 4 1 4 1
5 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1
6 6 1 6 1 6 1 6 1
7 7 1 7 1 7 1 7 1
8 8 1 8 1 8 1 8 1
9 9 1 9 1 9 1 9 1
and to the formulation of a conjecture such as:

The number of lines in a ‘lion’s-stomach’ necessary to embrace
all points of a m × n grid is equal to 1 if n = 4p+1 and equal to n
if n ≠ 4p+1, where p denotes a positive integer.
Now the teacher-students may test their conjecture. For instance,
is the hypothesis verified in the case m=4, n=13 (see the monolinear
drawing in Figure 10)?
Figure 10
The next question is: How to prove the conjecture?
156
Chapter 9
13
Second example
Among the sona reported from the Tchokwe, there are two that
represent the marks left on the ground by a chicken when it is chased.
Both line drawings are monolinear and satisfy the same geometrical
algorithm (see Figure 11a). The dimensions of the reference frames,
however, are different: 5 × 6 and 9 × 10 (see Figure 11b and c). The
monolinear sand drawing represented in Figure 11d has dimensions
8×3. It has been reported from the Ngangela. The graph shows the path
of the ‘ngonge’ insect as it slowly eats its way around a tree, cutting
out the flow of sap.
a
Figure 11
13 For more details, see ‘On the number of ‘chased-chicken’ lines’,

chapter 4 in: Sona Geometry from Angola, Vol. 2 Educational
and Mathematical Explorations of African Designs on the Sand,
2012, Lulu, Morrisville NC.
157
d
Figure 11
When one uses a reference frame of dimensions 5 × 10 and

applies the same algorithm, one needs three of such ‘chased-chicken’
lines to embrace all points of the reference frame (see Figure 12).
158
Chapter 9
Figure 12
Teacher-students may investigate the question: How does the

number of ‘chased-chicken’ lines depend on the dimensions of the grid
of points?
In order to get a design that looks like Figure 11, the width of the
reference frame, i.e. the number of dots in a row, has to be even, and
its height, i.e. the number of points in a column, has to be odd. The
teacher-students may now experiment with concrete values for the
width and height, draw the figures, count the number of ‘chased-
chicken’ lines and join the data collected in this manner in a table like:
width 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
height
3 1 2 1 2 1 2 1
5 3 1 1 3 1 1 3
7 1 4 1 2 1 4
9 1 1 5 1
11 3 2 1 6
13 1 1
15
17
Let 2m+1 denote the height and 2n the width of the rectangular
grid, where m and n are positive integers. Using m and n as variables,
the table becomes easier to analyse:
159
n 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
m
1 1 2 1 2 1 2 1
2 3 1 1 3 1 1 3
3 1 4 1 2 1 4
4 1 1 5 1
5 3 2 1 6
6 1 1
7
8
The number G of ‘chased-chicken’ lines that are needed to

embrace all points of a reference frame is a function of the width and
the height of the grid:
G = f (2m+1, 2n).
When one looks at the table and does not take into account the
row m=1, it seems that corresponding rows and columns are equal, i.e.
f (2m+1, 2n) = f (2n+1, 2m).
Furthermore, (at least) the first rows seem to be periodic. In the
first row, (1, 2) repeats itself (period = 2); in the second row, (3, 1, 1)
seems to repeat (period = 3). The period seems to be equal to the row
number m plus one, i.e. period = m+1. On the diagonal, i.e. for m=n,
one expects f (2m+1, 2m) = m+1.
Extrapolation on the basis of the collected experimental data and
of the observed regularities, may lead to the following table:
160
Chapter 9
n 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
m
1 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2
2 3 1 1 3 1 1 3 1
3 1 4 1 2 1 4 1 2
4 1 1 5 1 1 1 1 5
5 3 2 1 6 1 2 3 2
6 1 1 1 1 7 1 1 1
7 1 4 1 2 1 8 1 2
8 3 1 1 3 1 1 9 1
Now the teacher-students may test their conjecture. For instance,

is the hypothesis verified in the case where m = 7, n = 9. Analysing
such questions as:
* Is it possible to complete the table up to m = n = 20?;
* What relationship does there seem to exist between the numbers in
the third row and its period?
* What happens in the case of the fourth row? What happens in
general?,
the teacher-students may discover that the numbers in any row or
column are divisors of the respective period. And as any number in the
table belongs at the same time to a column and to a row, it is a divisor
of both periods: of the period (= m+1) of the corresponding row and of
the period (= n+1) of the respective column. Therefore it may be
conjectured that in general
f (2m+1, 2n) is a common divisor of m+1 and n+1,
or still more that
f (2m+1, 2n) is the greatest common divisor (gcd) of m+1 and n+1.
In other words the teacher-students arrive at the conjecture that

f (2m+1, 2n) = gcd (m+1, n+1).
Once more, the next question is: How to prove the conjecture?
161
As variations on this theme, other challenging research questions

arise like
* What characterizes (non)rectangular grids of monolinear ‘chased-
chicken’ patterns? In other words, under what conditions is a
‘chased-chicken’ pattern monolinear? (see Figure 13 for two
examples)
Figure 13
Figure 14
* Figure 14 shows a variant of the ‘chased-chicken’ pattern where

162
Chapter 9
the successive vertical broad zigzags of the ‘chased-chicken’-line

are (bilateral) symmetrical. Under what conditions are such
patterns monolinear? What will be the genus of such patterns?
Underlying black-and-white designs
If one draws a monolinear lusona, e.g. the one shown in Figure

15, on squared paper and colours the squares through which the curve
successively passes, alternately black and white, an underlying black-
and-white design is obtained. Figure 16 shows the underlying black-
and-white design of the lusona in Figure 15. Figure 17 displays
another lusona with the same type of chequer-board as underlying
black-and-white design.
b
Figure 15
163
Figure 16
Figure 17
Here arises a first research question:

* What is a necessary and sufficient condition for a monolinear
drawing to produce an underlying chequer-board design?
Figure 18 shows two sona that generate black-and-white designs,
which are different from chequer-boards.
* Which relationships exist between sona-type drawings and their
underlying black-and-white designs?
* Which similarities exist between monolinear drawings, which
generate the same underlying black-and-white design? Figure 19
gives an example. When one maintains the algorithms but
164
Chapter 9
changes the dimensions of the drawings, do their underlying

black-and-white designs continue to be the same?
b
Figure 18
Figure 19
A design is called a two-colour design if there is some rigid

motion, which interchanges the colours everywhere. Figure 20 shows a
165
monolinear sona-type drawing and its underlying black-and-white

design.
b
Figure 20
This black-and-white design is a two-colour design, as a half-

turn (rotation of 180o) reverses the colours. The (global) two-colour,
166
Chapter 9
two-fold rotational symmetry of the black-and-white design

corresponds to the (global) two-fold symmetry of the drawing. Figure
21 shows an (repeated) element of the drawing and some of its
underlying black-and-white modules. The element displays a double
symmetry. The black-and-white modules, on the other hand, have a
(one-color) two-fold symmetry. In general:
* How do the symmetries of monolinear sona-type drawings relate
to the local and global one-color and two-colour symmetries of
the underlying black-and-white designs?
Figure 21
Another interesting research question is the following:

* What happens with the underlying two-colour designs when one
changes the dimensions of the monolinear drawings?
Figure 22 illustrates an example, with successive dimensions 6 × 5, 10

× 9, 14 × 13 and 18 × 17.
* Is it possible to predict what will be the black-and-white designs
in the cases 22 × 21 and 26 × 25?
* Is it possible to conjecture what will be the underlying black-and-
white design for dimensions (4n+2) × (4n+1) of the drawing,
where n denotes a positive integer?
And, much more general,
167
* Given the algorithm of a monolinear sona-type drawing and the

dimensions of the reference frame, is it possible to predict what
will be the underlying black-and-white design?
* Is it possible to characterise the class of black-and-white designs,
which underlie (are generated by) sona-like drawings?
Once the conjectures are found, there remains the question of
14
testing and proving them.
Concluding remarks
In this paper I described some experiences in a seminar I

organized for teacher educators and future mathematics teachers. They
reacted enthusiastically to the topic and were conscious that they were
doing real mathematics. My experience suggest that by discovering
both the didactical and the mathematical potential of a tradition like
that of the sona, that belongs to the cultural heritage of Africa, future
teachers gain confidence not only in their personal capacities and
capacities as a group to do, to invent and to understand mathematics
but also in the potentialities of African culture in general. In other
words, one stimulates cultural awareness among future mathematics
teachers, thereby satisfying one of the necessary conditions for
mathematics education to become culture-oriented and emancipatory.
15
14 [Icall these black-and-white patterns Lunda-designs and analyse

them in the book Lunda Geometry (Gerdes, 1996) (Second
edition: Lulu, Morrisville NC, 2007)].
15 Cf. Gerdes, P. (1985), Conditions and Strategies for
Emancipatory Mathematics education in Underdeveloped
Countries, For the Learning of Mathematics, Montreal, Vol. 5,
168
Chapter 9
a1 a2
Figure 22
169
b1
c1
Figure 22
170
Chapter 9
b2
c2
Figure 22
171
d1
Figure 22
172
Chapter 9
d2
Figure 22
173
174
Chapter 10
Chapter 10
TECHNOLOGY, ART, GAMES AND
MATHEMATICS EDUCATION: AN EXAMPLE *
Observe this type of handbag, common in Mozambique (Figure

1). These bags are made from three superimposed cylinders. One of
the cylindrical walls of each of them has been eliminated by knitting
two halves of one circular border together. The artisans usually
decorate these bags with decorative strip patterns.
Handbag
Figure 1
* One of the examples given during the opening plenary address

“Some Reflections on Mathematics Education and ‘The
Challenge to the South’” at the 4th Brazilian National Meeting
on Mathematics Education, January 26-31, 1992, Blumenau SC,
Brazil [for more examples and details, see the books Sipatsi:
Technology, Art and Geometry in Inhambane (co-author Gildo
Bulafo), 1994, and Sipatsi: Basketry and Geometry in the Tonga
Culture of Inhambane (Mozambique, Africa), 2009].
175
* What has the basket maker to do in order to guarantee that the

bag is beautiful? What does he/she have to do so that the
decorative motif repeats itself an integral number of times on the
cylindrical wall without leaving any undecorated space or any
motif incomplete?
Which calculations has she or he to make?
The total number of strands has to be an integral multiple of the

number of strands necessary to produce the motif once. All strip
patterns are symmetrical and many display a rotational symmetry of
180o. In other words, it does not make any difference if one looks at
the strip pattern from above or from below; the impression one gets
remains the same. Figure 2 gives examples of this type of decoration.
Woven strip patterns

Figure 2
Many questions arise:

* Is it possible to invent other decorations in the same style?
176
Chapter 10
* In which other contexts is it possible to observe cylinders or

related forms with the same type of symmetrical decoration?
In pottery ... Figure 3 shows symmetric patterns used by women
at a ceramics cooperative in a suburb of Maputo to decorate their pots,
dishes and vases.
Decorative strip patterns on ceramics

Figure 3
In games... Many Mozambican children like to run with car tyres

(Figure 4). Two sticks are put into a can. The base of the can slides in
soapy water or in oil, contained in the bottom of the tyre. The children
have discovered
* at which angle one has to push the sticks in order to run faster;
* at which angle one has to push the sticks to be able to brake or
stop;
* how to hold the sticks to be able to make a curve or to turn
round, etc.
177
Child running with a tyre

(Drawing by Marcos Cherinda)
Figure 4
There are many other games with tyres. Figure 5 gives examples.
In the last case the tyre is used as a trampoline.
Figure 5 (First part)
178
Chapter 10
Children playing with tyres

(Drawings by Marcos Cherinda)
Figure 5
Tyre profiles
Figure 6
179
Looking at the tyres themselves, what particularity related to

their profile may be observed?
The tyre profiles often display the same symmetry as the
decoration on the handbags and pots (see the examples in Figure 6).
Why does this happen?
* Is it possible to invent new profiles? Which are the best ones? In

what respect? Why?
* In which other contexts, is it possible to meet patterns with the
same type of rotational symmetry? Tattooing ... (see Figure 7).
* Do these symmetries also occur in nature?
Tattoo design with half turn symmetry

(Makonde, North Mozambique)
Figure 7
180
Chapter 11
Chapter 11
On Mathematics in the History of
Africa South of the Sahara *
For Dirk Struik on his 100th birthday
Ever since my student days Dirk Struik’s books and

papers have stimulated my reflections on mathematics, its
history and sociology. Later followed his letters full of
encouragement and interest in ethnomathematics and the
history of mathematics in Africa. At last, in February
1993, I had the possibility of meeting Dirk and the honour
of staying at his house, and going with him to several
scientific and social events in the Boston area. During a
three-hour television interview (VPRO, Hilversum,
August 1, 1993), Struik presented a retrospective on his
life, the 20th century, mathematics and the historiography
of mathematics; once more he showed his interest in the
history of mathematics in Africa by explaining the
geometry involved in the production of a basket from
Mozambique.
* Updated version of a paper presented at the Third Pan-African

Congress of Mathematicians, Nairobi, 20-28 August 1991,
originally published in AMUCHMA-Newsletter, No. 9, Maputo,
1992, 3-32 [Historia Mathematica, New York, Vol. 21, 1994,
345-376].
181
INTRODUCTION
In her classical study “Africa Counts: number and pattern in

African culture” [1973a] (review in [Wilder 1976]), Claudia Zaslavsky
presented an overview of the available literature on mathematics in the
history of Sub-Saharan Africa. She discussed written, spoken and
gesture counting, number symbolism, concepts of time, numbers and
money, weights and measures, record-keeping (sticks and strings),
mathematical games, magic squares, graphs, and geometric forms,
while Donald Crowe contributed a chapter on geometric symmetries in
African art.
Since the publication of Zaslavsky’s overview, many scholars,
students, teachers and laymen alike – both in Africa and abroad – have
become interested in the mathematical heritage of Sub-Saharan Africa.
The African Mathematical Union (AMU) formed its Commission on
the History of Mathematics in Africa (AMUCHMA) in 1986 in order
to stimulate research in the history of mathematics in Africa in general,
and to promote the dissemination of research findings and the
exchange of information in this field. In 1987 the AMUCHMA began
publishing a newsletter in English, French and Arabic.
In this paper, an overview of research findings and of sources on
or related to the history of mathematics in Africa south of the Sahara is
presented, which includes studies that have appeared since the
publication of Africa Counts. Topics like counting and numeration
systems, numerology, mathematical games and puzzles, geometry,
graphs, Islam and mathematical development, international
connections, and the history of mathematics curricula will be included.
Attention will also be paid to the objectives of research in the history
of mathematics in Africa, to methodology, to the relationship with
ethnomathematical research and to the uses of research findings in
mathematics education. Some possible directions for further research
are also identified.
182
Chapter 11
WHY STUDY THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS IN AFRICA

SOUTH OF THE SAHARA?
There are many reasons, which make the general study of the
history of mathematics both necessary and attractive (see e.g. [Struik
1980]). One of the most important reasons – and certainly valid in the
case of Africa – is that it “helps to understand [the] cultural heritage,
not only through the applications mathematics has had and still has to
astronomy, physics and other sciences, but also because of the relation
it has had and still has to such varied fields as art, religion, philosophy
and the crafts” [Struik 1980, 26]. Aside from Struik’s general
arguments, there exist important additional considerations, which
make the study of the history of mathematics in Africa south of the
Sahara even more indispensable.
Most histories of mathematics devote only a few pages to
Ancient Egypt and to northern Africa during the ‘Middle Ages.’
Generally they ignore the history of mathematics in Sub-Saharan
Africa and give the impression that this history either did not exist or,
at least, is not knowable / traceable, or, stronger still, that there was no
mathematics at all south of the Sahara (cf. the critics of [Lumpkin
1983; Njock 1985]). “Even the Africanity of Egyptian mathematics is
often denied” [Shirley 1986b, 2]. Prejudice and narrow conceptions of
both ‘history’ (cf. e.g. [Ki-Zerbo 1980]) and of ‘mathematics’ form the
basis of such (Eurocentric) views (cf. e.g. [Joseph 1987, 1991]).
African countries face the problem of low ‘levels of attainment’
in mathematics education. “Math anxiety” is widespread. Many
children (and teachers too!) experience mathematics as a rather strange
and useless subject, imported from outside Africa. One of the causes
thereof is that the goals, contents and methods of mathematics
education are not sufficiently adapted to the cultures and needs of the
African peoples (cf. e.g. [Eshiwani 1979, 346; Eshiwani 1983;
Jacobson 1984]). Today’s existing African educational system is
“unadapted and elitist” and “favours foreign consumption without
generating a culture that is both compatible with the original
183
1
civilization and truly promising” [Ki-Zerbo 1990, 4]. The
mathematical heritage of the peoples of Africa has to be valued and
African mathematical traditions should be embedded into the
curriculum [Ale 1989; Doumbia 1984, 1989b; Gerdes 1985a, 1986a, b,
1988d, 1990c; Langdon 1989, 1990; Mmari 1978; Njock 1985; Shirley
1986a, b]. This scientific legacy of Africa south of the Sahara is little
known, and therefore research in this area constitutes a challenge to
which an urgent response is necessary [Njock 1985, 4]. In addition,
African-Americans and minorities of African descent all over the
world feel the need to know their cultural-mathematical heritage
[Campbell 1977; Frankenstein & Powell 1989; Zaslavsky 1973, etc.;
Ratteray 1991]. More generally, both in highly industrialised and in
Third World countries it is becoming more and more recognised that it
is necessary to multi-culturalise the mathematics curriculum in order
to improve its quality, to augment the cultural confidence of all pupils
and to combat racial and cultural prejudice [D’Ambrosio 1985a;
Ascher 1984; Bishop 1988a, b; Joseph 1987; Mellin-Olsen 1986;
NCTM 1984; Zaslavsky 1989a, 1991].
Zaslavsky’s Africa Counts is a pioneering work on mathematics
and its history south of the Sahara. She offers her book as “a
preliminary survey of a vast field awaiting investigation” [Zaslavsky
1973a, vi]. Her task was not an easy one: in face of “the inadequacy of
easily accessible material... “, she had to search “the literature of many
disciplines – history, economics, ethnology, anthropology,
archaeology, linguistics, art and oral tradition – ...” [Zaslavsky 1973a,
vi]. Zaslavsky’s study deals with, what she calls, the sociomathematics
of Africa: she considers “the applications of mathematics in the lives
of African people, and, conversely, the influence that African
institutions had upon the evolution of mathematics” [Zaslavsky 1973a,
7]. The concept of sociomathematics may be considered a forerunner
of the concept of ethnomathematics. It is ethnomathematics as a
1 On mathematics education and the selection of élites, see [El-

Tom 1984, 3].
184
Chapter 11
2
discipline that studies mathematics (and mathematical education) as
embedded in their cultural context. For the (possible) relationships
between ethnomathematics and the history of mathematics, see
[D’Ambrosio 1985b] and (in the case of Africa) [Shirley 1986b] and
[Gerdes 1990e]. The application of historical and ethnomathematical
research methods has contributed, as will be shown, to a better
knowledge and understanding of mathematics in the history of in Sub-
Saharan Africa, as well as to an awareness of further mathematical
elements in African traditions.
THE BEGINNINGS
As early evidence for (proto-) mathematical activity in Africa,

Zaslavsky presented a bone dated at 9000-6500 B.C., unearthed at
Ishango (Zaire). The bone has what appear to be tallying marks on it,
notches carved in groups. Its discoverer, De Heinzelin, interpreted the
patterns of notches as an “arithmetical game of some sort, devised by a
people who had a number system based on 10 as well as a knowledge
of duplication and of prime numbers” [Heinzelin, 1962, 110].
Marshack [1972], however, explained the bone as early lunar phase
count. Their views, summarized in [Zaslavsky, 1973a, 17-19], were
reproduced in [Fauvel & Gray, 1987, 5-7]. Later, Marshack re-
evaluated the dating of the Ishango bone, setting it back from about
8000 B.C. to 20,000 B.C. [Marshack, 1991, 32]. Zaslavsky raises the
question “who but a woman keeping track of her cycles would need a
lunar calendar?” and concludes that “women were undoubtedly the
first mathematicians!” [Zaslavsky 1991b, 4].
Bogoshi, Naidoo & Webb reported in 1987 on a still much older
“mathematical artefact”: “A small piece of the fibula of a baboon,
marked with 29 clearly defined notches, may rank as the oldest
mathematical artefact known. Discovered in the early 1970s during an
2 In this sense “ethnomathematics” is closely related to the

“sociology of mathematics” as founded by Struik [1942, 1986].
Cf. [Gerdes, 1993a] where an analysis of several forerunners of
the concept of ethnomathematics and related concepts are
discussed.
185
excavation of Border Cave in the Lebombo Mountains between South

Africa and Swaziland, the bone has been dated to approximately 35000
B.C.” [Bogoshi, Naidoo & Webb 1987, 294]. They note that the bone
“resembles calendar sticks still in use today by Bushmen clans in
Namibia” [Bogoshi, Naidoo & Webb 1987, 294].
A research project looking for numerical representations in San
(Bushmen) rock art has recently been started by Martinson [1992a, b].
3
From the surviving San hunters in Botswana, Lea and her students at
the University of Botswana have collected information. Her papers
describe counting, measurement, time reckoning, classification,
tracking and some mathematical ideas in San technology and craft.
The San developed very good visual discrimination and visual memory
as needed for survival in the harsh environment of the Kalahari desert
[Lea 1987, 1989, 1990a, 1990b, 1990c; Stott & Lea, 1993].
NUMERATION SYSTEMS AND NUMBER SYMBOLISM
Zaslavsky’s discussion of oral and gestural counting as well as

written numeration systems drew heavily on the work of earlier
4
investigators. In the meantime other sources came also to the fore,
like [Seidenberg 1959, 1963, 1976], [Santos 1960] on the Tchokwe
[Cokwe] (Angola), [Hazoume 1983] on the Gun, Gen and Bariba,
[Vellard 1988, 1993] on the Bambara (Mali).
During recent years, a whole series of research projects on
spoken and written numeration systems in Africa are being carried out.
3 Several rock drawings and engravings of southern Africa are

also interesting from a geometrical point of view. See for
example [Dowson 1992].
4 [Almeida 1947] on Guinea Bissau; [Armstrong 1962] on the
Yoruba (Nigeria); [Atkins 1961]; [Delafosse 1928]; [Herskovits
1939] on the Kru (Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire); [Lagercrantz 1968] on
tally-systems; [Mann 1887] on the Yoruba; [Mathews 1964] on
Northern Nigeria; [O. 1964] on the Hima (Uganda); [Raum
1938]; [Schmidl 1915] (overview); [Thomas 1920]; [Torrey
1963]; [Williamson 1943] on the Dabida (Kenya).
186
Chapter 11
These include studies on:

* counting in traditional Ibibio and Efik societies (I. Enukoha,
University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria);
* numeration among the Fulbe (Fulani) (S. Ale, Ahmadu-Bello-
University, Bauchi, Nigeria; cf. [Ale 1989]);
* pre-Islamic ways of counting (Y. Bello, Bayero University,
Nigeria);
* mental arithmetic, algorithms and counting among the different
5
ethnic groups of Nigeria (Ahmadu-Bello-University, Zaria);
* pre-colonial numeration systems in Burundi (J. Navez, University
of Burundi, Bujumbara);
* learning of counting in Côte d’Ivoire [Tro 1980; Zepp 1983c];
* numeration systems used by the principal linguistic groups in
Guinea (S. Oulare, University of Conakry);
* counting among the various ethnic groups in Kenya (J. Mutio,
Kenyatta University, Nairobi);
* oral and possible graphic numeration systems from Zaire
[Mubumbila 1988];
* numeration and geometric figures in Great Zimbabwe [Mubumbila
1992];
* traditional counting in Botswana (H. Lea, University of Botswana,
Gaborone);
* number and pattern in selected cultures in Uganda (E. Segujja-
Munagisa).
An important study – from the point of view of its contents and
5 [Shirley, 1988b] presents an overview B.Ed., M.Ed. and Ph.D.

projects at the Faculty of Education of the Ahmadu-Bello-
University (Zaria, Nigeria): [Adaaku 1982], [Akin & Fapenle
1985], [Anzenge et al. 1988], [Enukoha 1979], [Gafai 1987],
[Henry-Carmichael 1986], [Musa 1987], [Oladimeji 1987] and
[Tarbo 1987]. Cf. also [Ale 1989].
187
the methodological debate it initiates – is E. Kane’s doctoral

dissertation [Kane 1987] on “The spoken numeration systems of West-
Atlantic groups and of the Mandé.” Kane (Cheik-Anta-Diop-
University, Dakar-Fann, Senegal) analyses numeration in about twenty
languages spoken in Senegal. He realised the necessity of basing his
research on ethnomathematics, trying to understand mathematical
ideas in relationship to the general culture in which they are embedded.
Therefore he did preparatory research in four domains: African
linguistics, history of numeration systems, works of ethnologists and
African languages spoken in Senegal (as understood by interviewing
many speakers of the same and different languages). He shows that
oral numeration systems, like the one of the Mandé, are susceptible to
reform and evolution. Kane develops a methodology for the analysis of
numeration systems that is adapted to the specificities of ‘oral
cultures’.
Mozambique’s ‘Instituto Superior Pedagógico’ published a study
of numeration systems and popular counting practices [Gerdes 1993c].
It includes an introduction to African systems of numeration [Gerdes
& Cherinda 1993a] (see also [Gerdes & Cherinda 1993b] and [Gerdes
1994b]), a survey of written and oral sources on numeration in thirteen
languages spoken in Mozambique, an analysis of popular counting
methods [Ismael & Soares 1993] (see also [Soares 1991]), comparative
tables and maps about spoken numeration in Mozambique [Mapapá &
Uaila 1993], and a reflection on numeration and learning / teaching of
arithmetic [Draisma 1993].
Zaslavsky dedicated a chapter to number symbolism and taboos
on counting [Zaslavsky 1973, 52-57]. The examples she gave are
based, among others, on a study of number symbolism among the Ijo
in Nigeria [Williamson & Timitimi 1970]. For example, the number
three is associated with men, the number four with women. Ojoade
[1988] published a paper on the number 3 in African lore, highlighting
the sacredness, mysticism and taboos attached to it (cf. also [Nicolas
1968]). In [Page 1987] objects of African art, mostly from the Yoruba
(Nigeria) are analysed as functions of the involved repetitions. The
twofold objects evoke the standard dichotomies: good/bad, life/death;
the threefold objects sometimes evoke a hierarchy; the fourfold objects
may be associated with the directions in space. By systematically
searching the ethnographical literature as well as novels, biographies,
188
Chapter 11
etc. it is likely that a good deal more information on number

symbolism in African cultures will be found (see also [Alberich
1990]). For instance, the anthropological study of Thornton explains
the significance of the number 9 among the Iraqw of Tanzania
[Thornton 1980, 96, 167, 183]. Number symbolism may have a
rational basis. E.g. Makhuwa basket makers in northern Mozambique
call odd numbers or odd quantities of plant strips ‘ugly,’ and they have
good reasons for doing so as shown in [Ismael 1991]. For an earlier
discussion of ‘even’ and ‘odd’ numbers in basketry see [Gerdes
1985a]. Makhuwa hunters are always acting in groups of an even
number [Ismael 1991]. [Mubumbila 1988] discusses the symbolic
expression of numbers in Luba cosmogony (Zaire), for example, the
significance of ‘even’ and ‘odd’ and the use of ‘numbers of peace’ like
4, 12, 24, 48, and 96. Certainly, further collecting of oral data may
throw new light on African numerology.
GAMES, RIDDLES AND PUZZLES
Among the games with mathematical ‘ingredients’ referred to in

[Zaslavsky 1973, 102-136] are counting rhymes and rhythms, three-in-
a-row-games, arrangements, games of chance and board games.
[Zaslavsky 1982] gives more information on three-in-a-row-games in
Africa. [Russ 1984] (review in [Crowe 1987]) presents the rules and a
brief history of ‘mancala’ games (cf. Townshend, 1979), also known
as Ayo, Bao, Wari, Mweso, Ntchuva, etc. [Zaslavsky 1989c] suggests
that it could be important in the reconstruction of the history of
mathematical thinking in Africa to investigate further mathematical
aspects of traditional games. As a starting point, she indicates, along
with [Russ 1984], the following publications: [Béart 1955], [Centner
1963], [Driedger 1972], [Klepzig 1972], and [Pankhurst 1971].
“Games of West Africa” [Béart 1955] has been reviewed in [Doumbia
1989a]. To this list, “Omweso: a game people play in Uganda”
[Nsimbi 1968], “Strategic games in Cameroon and their mathematical
aspects” [Mizoni 1971], “Wari and solo, the African calculation
game” [Deledicq & Popova 1977], “The mankala games in Zaire,
Rwanda and Burundi” [Townshend 1977], “Rules and strategies of the
awélé game” [Ballou 1978] and “African games of strategy” [Crane
1982] may be added. Crane reports on some of the most common types
of African games involving strategy and mathematical principles, like
189
games of alignment [Shisima (Kenya), Achi (Ghana), Murabaraba

(Lesotho)], ‘struggle-for-territory’ games (Sega (Egypt), Kei (Sierra
Leone), and ‘Mancala’ games, both two-row versions [Oware (Ghana),
Awélé (Ivory Coast), Ayo and Okwe (Nigeria)] and four-row versions
[Omweso (Uganda), Tshisolo (Zaire)]. Bell and Cornelius (1988) give
some information on Achi (Ghana), Dara (Nigeria), Sega (Egypt) and
on ‘Mancala’ games. [Retschitzki 1988] and [N’Guessan 1988]
analyse the learning of strategies and tactics of the ‘awélé’ game. The
important research of Doumbia and her colleagues at the Mathematical
Research Institute of Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) has focussed on
traditional African games. It deals with classification and solution of
mathematical problems posed by the games, and explores the
possibilities of using these games in the mathematics classroom. Their
studies [Doumbia 1989b; Doumbia & Pil 1992; Doumbia & N’guessan
1994] reveal that the rules of some games, like Nigbé Alladian,
indicate an empirical knowledge of probabilities, a finding that will
certainly stimulate further research. Vergani (Open University, Lisbon)
is preparing a monograph on the mathematical aspects of intellectual
games in Angola. Mve Ondo (Omar-Bongo-University, Gabon)
published a study on two ‘calculation games’, i.e. the ‘Mancala’
games, Owani (Congo) and Songa (Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial
Guinea) [Mve Ondo 1990]. The possible relationship between visual
memory and concentration as necessary factors for success in many
African games (cf. [Paul 1971]) and the development of mathematical
ideas also deserves further attention.
Zaslavsky [1973, 109-110] presents a riddle from the Kpelle
(Liberia) about a man who has a leopard, a goat, and a pile of cassava
leaves to be transported across a river, whereby certain conditions have
to be satisfied: the boat can carry no more than one at a time, besides
the man himself; the goat cannot be left alone with the leopard, and the
goat will eat the cassava leaves if it is not guarded. How can he take
them across the river? [Ascher 1990] places this river-crossing
problem in a cross-cultural perspective and analyses mathematical-
logical aspects of story puzzles of this type from Algeria, Cape Verde
Islands, Ethiopia, Liberia, Tanzania and Zambia. More difficult to
solve is an ‘arithmetical puzzle’ from the Valuchazi (East Angola and
Northwest Zambia), recorded and analysed by Kubik: “This..dilemma
tale is about three women and three men who want to cross a river in
190
Chapter 11
order to attend a dance on the other side. With the river between them
there is a boat with the capacity for taking only two people at one time.
However, each of the men wishes to marry all the three women
himself alone. Regarding the crossing, they would like to cross in
pairs, each man with his female partner, but failing that any of the
other men could claim all the women for himself. How are they
crossing?” [Kubik 1990, 62]. In order to solve the problem or to
explain the solution, auxiliary drawings are made in the sand. [Béart
1955, 744-745] presents a series of riddles from West Africa. [Fataki
1991] describes riddles he learnt as a child in Uganda.
A ‘topological’ puzzle from the Bambala (Bakuba, Congo) is
recorded in [Torday & Joyce 1911, 90, 96]. It consists of two pieces of
calabash and a string arranged as in Figure 1. The player has to
separate one of the calabash pieces from the string without cutting or
untying the string.
Bambala ‘topological’ puzzle

(Drawn after Torday & Hoyce 1911, 90)
Figure 1
A more complicated puzzle from the Guinean forest is the game

called pèn [Béart 1955, 413]. It uses an instrument (see Figure 2)
produced in the following way. A stick is perforated in the middle.
Through the hole passes a loop of a string and then both ends of the
string pass through the loop. Perforated nuts are stringed on the thread
and thereafter the endpoints of the string are tied to the endpoints of
the sticks. Now the player has to displace the nuts from the big loop on
the lefts ide to the big loop on the right side without cutting or untying
191
the string. Other examples of ‘topological’ puzzles from West Africa

are recorded in [Béart 1955, 413-419].
West African game ‘pèn’

(Drawn after Béart 1955, 413)
Figure 2
GEOMETRY
Art and symmetries
Njock (University of Yaoundé, Cameroon) characterises the

relationship between African art and mathematics as follows: “Pure
mathematics is the art of creating and imagining. In this sense black art
is mathematics” [Njock 1985, 8].
Mathematicians have mostly been drawn to the analysis of
symmetries in African art. Symmetries of repeated patterns may be
classified on the basis of the 24 different possible types of patterns,
which can be used to cover a plane surface (the so-called 24 plane
groups due to Federov). Of these, seven admit translations in only one
direction and are called strip patterns. The remaining 17, which admit
two independent translations, are called plane patterns. In chapter 14 of
Africa Counts, Crowe applies this classification to decorative patterns
that appear on the raffia pile cloths of the Bakuba (Congo) (see also
[Crowe 1971]), on Benin bronzes, and on Yoruba adire cloths
(Nigeria), showing that all seven strip-patterns occur and many of the
plane patterns. Crowe continued this research and published a
192
Chapter 11
catalogue of Benin patterns [Crowe 1975] and a symmetry analysis of

the smoking pipes of Begho (Ghana) ([Crowe 1982a]; cf. also [Crowe
1982b]). In Washburn and Crowe [1988] a number of patterns from
African contexts are classified in the same way. The use of the
crystallographic groups in the analysis of symmetries in African art
underscores and attests to the creative imagination of the artists and
artisans involved and their capacity for abstraction (cf. [Meurant
1987]). More recently [Washburn 1990] showed how a symmetry
analysis of the raffia patterns can differentiate patterns produced by the
different Bakuba groups. She also takes into account the way in which
the artists and artisans themselves classified and analysed their
symmetries. In [Gerdes & Bulafo 1994] it is explained which
calculations are done by basket weavers from Inhambane Province in
Mozambique to produce strip patterns on their ‘sipatsi’ handbags.
Their book also presents a catalogue of more than one hundred
patterns (see the example in Figure 3). The creativity of the ‘sipatsi’
weavers – formerly only women – also expresses itself in the fact that
they invented strip patterns belonging to all of the seven different,
theoretically possible, symmetry groups (see also [Gerdes 1994d;
Uaila, 1992]).
Detail of a plaited strip pattern

(Inhambane, Mozambique)
Figure 3
Why do symmetries appear in human culture in general, and in

African craftwork and art, in particular? This question is addressed by
Gerdes in a series of studies that analyse the origin of axial, double
axial, and rotational symmetry of order 4 in African basketry (see
[Gerdes, 1985a, 1987, 1989a, 1990c, 1991c, 1992b]). In [Gerdes
1991b] it is shown how fivefold symmetry emerged quite “naturally”
193
when artisans were solving problems in basket weaving. The examples

chosen from Mozambican cultures range from the weaving of
handbags, hats, and baskets to the fabrication of brooms.
Zaslavsky [1979] gives some examples of strip and plane
patterns, and of bilateral and rotational symmetries, occurring in
African art, architecture and design. [Langdon 1989, 1990] describe
the symmetries of ‘adinkra’ cloths (Ghana) and explores possibilities
for using them in the classroom. In a similar perspective, [Harris 1988]
describes and explores not only the printing designs on plain woven
cloths from Ghana, but also symmetries on baskets from Botswana and
‘buba’ blouses from the Yoruba (Nigeria). [Gerdes 1992c] presents a
series of traditional African designs with fourfold symmetry and
suggests ways of using them in a didactical context to discover /
reinvent the Pythagorean theorem.
Example of a monolinear ‘(lu)sona’ – ‘sand drawing’

(Drawn after Fontinha 1983, 183; Pearson 1977, 144)
Figure 4
194
Chapter 11
Networks, graphs or ‘sand-drawings’
One section of Africa Counts [Zaslavsky 1973a, 105-109] was

devoted to networks based on Torday’s information on the
(Bu)Shongo (Congo) and Bastin’s study of decorative art of the
Tchokwe (Angola) [Torday 1925; Bastin 1961]. At the time she did
not have access to the ethnographical information on such networks
published in [Baumann 1935, 222-223], [Hamelberger 1952] and
[Santos 1961]. Since the publication of Africa Counts, large
ethnographical collections of networks have become available:
[Pearson 1977] deals with ‘sand-graphs’ observed in the 1920s in the
Kwandu-Kuvanga and Muxiku provinces of Angola; [Fontinha 1983]
considers ‘sona’ or ‘sand-drawings’ collected principally among the
Tchokwe of north-eastern Angola during the 1940s and 1950s; and
[Kubik 1986, 1987a, 1987b, 1988] report on networks observed among
6
the (Va)luchazi in north-western Zambia during the 1970s. In order
to facilitate the memorisation of their standardised ‘sona’ (see the
example in Figure 4), the drawing experts used the following
mnemonic device. After cleaning and smoothing the ground, they first
set out an orthogonal net of equidistant points with their fingertips.
Next one or more lines are drawn that ‘embrace’ the points of the
reference frame. By applying their method the drawing experts reduce
the memorisation of a whole drawing to that of mostly two numbers
(the dimensions of the reference frame) and a geometric algorithm (the
rule of how to draw the embracing line(s)). Most drawings belong to a
long tradition (cf. [Redinha 1948]). They refer to proverbs, fables,
games, riddles, animals, etc. and play an important role in the
transmission of knowledge and wisdom from one generation to the
next. In Kubik’s view the ‘sona’ “transmit empirical mathematical
knowledge” [Kubik 1987a, 450]. The ‘sona’ geometry is a “non-
Euclidean geometry”: “The forefathers of the Eastern Angolan peoples
discovered higher mathematics and a non-Euclidian geometry on an
6 Dirk Struik [1948] was probably the first historian of

mathematics to call attention to the geometry of this type of
figure referring to sand drawings from the Malekula Islands
(Oceania).
195
empirical basis applying their insights to the invention of these unique

configurations” [Kubik 1987b, 108]. Kubik calls attention to the
symmetry of many ‘sona’, the implicit rules for construction and rules
for anchoring figures of the same type. The ethnographical
publications of collections of ‘sona’ have attracted the attention of
mathematicians. Ascher and Gerdes conducted research on the ‘sona’,
independently of one another. [Ascher 1988, 1991] deal with
geometrical and topological aspects of ‘sona’, in particular with
symmetries, extension, enlargement through repetition, and isomorphy.
[Gerdes 1989a, 120-189] and [Gerdes 1993b, vol.1] analyse symmetry
and monolinearity (i.e. a whole figure is made up of only one line) as
cultural values, classes of ‘sona’ and corresponding geometrical
algorithms for their construction, systematic construction of
monolinear ground patterns, chain and elimination rules for the
construction of monolinear ‘sona’. It is suggested that the ‘drawing
experts’ who invented these rules probably knew why they are valid,
i.e. they could prove in one or another way the truth of the theorems
that these rules express. He advances also with the reconstruction of
lost symmetries and monolinearities by means of an analysis of
possible drawing errors in reported ‘sona’ (for an introduction to his
research findings, see [Gerdes 1990d, 1991d, 1991e]. Inspired by his
historical research findings, Gerdes experimented with the possibilities
of using the ‘sona’ in mathematics education, in order to value and
revive a rich scientific tradition that had been vanishing (see [Gerdes
1988a and b; 1989a, b, and c; 1990a; 1991a and f, 1993b (vol.2) and
7
d]; cf. [Ratteray 1991]). He also initiated a mathematical exploration
of the properties of some (extended) classes of ‘sona’ (see [Gerdes
1989a, 288-297] and [Gerdes 1993b, vol.2]). In a similar way, Kubik’s
research stimulated a mathematical investigation by Jaritz on a
particular class of ‘sona’ [Jaritz 1983].
Monolinear patterns appear also in other African contexts. For
instance, [Prussin 1986, 90] displays a symmetric monolinear pattern
on a Fulbe warrior’s tunic from Senegal (see Figure 5). The study of
7 [NTCM 1984] and [Whitecombe & Donaldson 1988] presented

suggestions on using sand-drawings in the classroom, based on
the information available in [Zaslavsky 1973a].
196
Chapter 11
the types and spread of monolinear patterns throughout the African

continent deserves further research (cf. [Gerdes 1994a]).
Design on a warrior’s tunic of the Fulbe (Senegal)

(Drawn after Prussin 1986, 90)
Figure 5
Geometry and architecture
Chapter 13 of Africa Counts (see also [Zaslavsky 1989b]) is

dedicated to geometric form in architecture. More information on the
geometric shapes and on the ornamentation of traditional African
buildings may be found in [Denyer 1978]. [Anon. 1987] presents a
bibliography on African architecture. [Mubumbila & Bum 1992]
booklet on African architecture gives particular attention to shape and
geometric form. Prussin has called attention to the fact that in West
Africa the mathematician-scholar and the architectural designer-
builder might often be the same person [Prussin 1986, 208]. She refers
to the relationship between magic squares and the structure of domes,
and remarks that “a number of ‘adinkra’ [Ashanti, Ghana] stamp
patterns, directly associated with Islam, were also used in the
architectural setting” [Prussin 1986, 240]. For more information on the
use of magic squares in West Africa, see [Béart 1955, 746-748].
197
[Rohrman 1974], [Matthews 1974], [Courtney-Clarke 1986] and

[Changuion et al. 1989] describe house decoration and mural painting
in Southern Africa, in particular among the Ndebele. A publication of
[NTTC 1976] gives a catalogue of geometric patterns used on house
walls in Lesotho (see the examples in Figure 6).
Examples of ‘litema’ patterns (Lesotho)

(Drawn after NTTC 1976)
Figure 6
Also in West Africa according to [Courtney-Clarke 1990] are it

mostly the women who decorate the walls of their houses with
geometrical figures. Each year after the harvest, they gather to restore
and paint their mud dwellings which have been washed clean by the
rains of the wet season. These studies may serve as a starting point for
further research on geometry and ornamentation of buildings. [Eglash
& Broadwell 1989] and [Eglash 1994] are interested in possible
relationships between modern fractal geometry and traditional
settlement patterns in Africa. [Gerdes 1985a, 1990c, 1992b] describe
the geometrical know-how used in laying out circular or rectangular
house plans in Mozambique.
Uncovering ‘hidden’ geometrical ideas
Many ‘mathematical’ ideas and activities in African cultures are

198
Chapter 11
not explicitly mathematical. They are often intertwined with art, craft,
riddles, games, graphic systems, and other traditions. The mathematics
is often ‘hidden’ or ‘implicit’ (see [Zaslavsky 1994]). How may this
‘hidden’ knowledge be uncovered? As some traditions are nowadays
(becoming) obsolete, this ‘uncovering’ often requires a tentative
reconstruction of knowledge, as it existed in the past. [Gerdes 1985a,
1990c, 1992b] explores the concept of ‘hidden’ mathematics and
develops some methods of ‘uncovering’ and reconstructing ‘hidden’
geometrical thinking. One of these methods may be characterised as
follows: when analysing the geometrical forms of traditional objects –
like baskets, mats, pots, houses, fish traps – the researcher poses the
question: why do these material products possess the form they have?
In order to answer this question, the researcher learns the usual
production techniques and tries, at each stage of the production
process, to vary the forms. Doing this, the researcher observes that the
form generally represents certain practical advantages and that
frequently it is the optimal or only possible solution of a production
problem. By applying this method, it becomes possible to bring to the
fore knowledge about the properties and relations of circles, angles,
rectangles, squares, regular pentagons and hexagons, cones, pyramids,
cylinders, symmetry, etc., that were probably involved in the invention
of the production techniques under consideration.
One of the many areas of African culture, which have not been
studied as yet in the light of their inherent mathematical aspects, is that
of string figures. Elsewhere such an analysis has already begun: [Paula
& Paula 1988] studied the geometry of string figures among the
Tapirapé Indians in Brazil; [Moore 1986] analysed string figures from
the Navaho and other North American Indians and explored their
potential for mathematics education. In the case of Africa south of the
Sahara, the studies on string figures of Angola [Leakey & Leakey
1949], Botswana [Wedgwood & Schapera 1939], Central Africa
[Cunnington 1906], Ghana [Griffith 1925], Liberia [Hornell 1930],
Nigeria (Yoruba) [Parkinson 1906], Sierra Leone [Hornell 1928,
1930], Southern Africa [Haddon 1906], Sudan [Hornell 1940, Evans-
Pritchard 1955], Tanzania (Zanzibar) [Hornell 1930], West Africa
[Béart 1955, 398-412] and [Lindblom 1930] may serve as a starting
point.
In general, once the mathematical character or aspects of cultural
199
elements are recognized, one may try to track the history of the
mathematical thinking involved and its (possible) relationships to other
cultural-mathematical ‘threads’ and try to explore their educational and
scientific potential.
STUDIES IN RELATED DISCIPLINES
As the history of mathematics in Africa should not be considered

in isolation from the development of culture in general, or be
dissociated from the evolution of art, cosmology, philosophy, natural
sciences, medicine, graphic systems and technology in particular, the
historiography of African mathematics has to take into account the
research findings from other disciplines. The following overviews
cover some of the pertinent literature.
[Pappademos 1983] presents an outline of Africa’s role in the
history of physics. [Weule 1921] studied early forms of mechanics,
based on his fieldwork in eastern Africa. [Lynch & Robbins 1983]
analyse evidence from Namoratunga, a megalithic site in North
Western Kenya, that suggests that a prehistoric calendar based on
detailed astronomical knowledge was in use in eastern Africa (c.300
B.C.). [Dundas 1926] describes pre-colonial time-reckoning among the
Wachagga (Kilamanjaro-region): the year is divided into twelve
months; each month has thirty days and is divided into six periods of
five days each. The ‘topology of time’ among the Iraqw of Tanzania is
analysed by [Thorton 1980]. Concepts of time, time-reckoning and
cosmology of the Kagura (eastern Africa), of the Dwala (Cameroon)
and of the Tiv (Nigeria) have been described and analysed by
[Beidelman 1963] and [Bohannan 1953] (cf. also [Booth 1975];
[Kagame 1976]). [Lacroix 1972] discusses the time expressions in
some West African languages. Traditional African calendars constitute
one of the research themes of the ‘Thought Systems in Black Africa’
study group in Paris [Baker 1987, 53]. [Obenga 1987] reviews the
literature on astronomical knowledge in Ancient Egypt, among the
Borana (Ethiopia), Dogon (see also [Griaule & Dieterlen 1950; Zahan
1951; Griaule 1951, 9-13], Lobi, Bambara (West Africa), Vili
(Congo), Fang (Cameroon, Equatorial Guinee, Gabon), and Mbochi
(Congo, cf. [Obenga 1982]). Keller’s study [1902] deals with the
astronomical views of the Isubu in Cameroon. [Adams III 1983a, b;
200
Chapter 11
Bruel 1932; Junod 1974, vol.2, 268-274; Legesse 1973; Vergiat 1937]
may also be consulted on astronomy and on calendars in Africa.
An early attempt to analyse craftwork and technology in eastern
Africa in a historical perspective is Stuhlmann’s study [1910]. Studies
of this type are, however, relatively rare. As Thomas-Emeagwali
stresses, despite the significance of the history of technology there is a
relative dearth of writings on the issue in African historiography in
general and in Nigerian historiography in particular. Her evaluation of
the role of oral historiography in the reconstruction of the history of
technology is important from a methodological point of view. One of
the major problems [Thomas-Emeagwali 1988, 69] with which the
historian of technology is confronted in the course of fieldwork is the
understandable reluctance of practitioners to divulge technological
secrets so that they can maintain some measure of competitive power
over their potential and actual rivals. Today technicians and craftsmen
are often unaware of the precise scientific and engineering principles
when they use ancient techniques in the making of material objects
(iron technology, textile production, basketry, woodwork). Therefore,
according to Thomas-Emeagwali, the researcher “must be able to
identify the underlying principles at play in the process” [Thomas-
Emeagwali 1988, 70]. Studies on traditional medicine, biologically-
based warfare, the control of water-based diseases, glassmaking
technology and metallurgy in Nigeria, and on gold-mining in pre-
colonial Zimbabwe and diamond-mining in Sierra Leone are included
in [Thomas-Emeagwali 1992b]. [Thomas-Emeagwali 1992a, 1993]
include studies on traditional medicine, religion and science, textile
technologies, metal technology, mechanics, military technology and
engineering, microbiology and traditional food processing, and gender
and technology in Nigeria.
Studies on the multiple and varied interactions between African
languages and the learning of mathematics present important data on
mathematical concepts and ideas in African cultures. See, for example
the reports of the seminars organized by CASME [1975], UNESCO
[1975] and IREM Niamey [1977], and documents such as [Yohannes
1974], [NUL 1980], and [Lassa 1980]. [Wallman 1965] realized a
study on the communication of measurement in Lesotho. [Mashinda
1988] analysed logical and linguistic problems met by pupils in Zaire.
Zepp [1982a] studied bilinguals’ understanding of logical connectives
201
in English and Sesotho and analysed [1983a] inclusive disjunction in

West African languages. [Gay & Welmers 1971] analysed
mathematics and logic in the Kpelle language (Liberia). For an
overview, [Zepp 1990] may be consulted.
Since Gay & Cole’s classical study on mathematical learning and
mathematical capacities among the Kpelle of Liberia [Gay & Cole
1967], researchers from Cornell University and the University of
Rochester (USA) have pursued a series of psychological studies on
mathematical knowledge and capacities in West Africa: [Petitto 1978,
1982] on unschooled tailors and merchants in Côte d’Ivoire, [Posner
1978, 1982] on Baoulé and Dioula children in Côte d’Ivoire, [Posner
& Baroody 1979] on number conservation. In particular [Ginsburg
1978] and [Petitto & Ginsburg 1982] compared their research findings
on mental arithmetic in West Africa with those obtained in North
America. [Etuk 1967] examined Piaget’s theory with Yoruba children
(Nigeria). Other psychologists have shown interest in the cultural
context of the understanding of pictorial spatial relationships (pictorial
depth perception), model-making and drawing in Kenya [Deregowski
1974a, 1976], Nigeria [Nicholson & Seddon 1977], and in Zimbabwe
[Deregowski 1980, Leach 1975, 1978]. Cross-cultural psychologists
interested themselves also in symmetry and pattern reproduction in
Ghana [Jahoda 1976], Kenya [Bentley 1977] and Zambia [Deregowski
1972, 1974b] [see also [Tekane 1963]) and in orientation and rotation
of drawings [Shapiro 1960, Serpell 1971].
AFRICA SOUTH OF THE SAHARA, NORTH AFRICA AND THE

OUTSIDE WORLD
The relationships between the development of mathematics in

Sub-Saharan Africa and the development of mathematics in Ancient
Egypt, in both Hellenistic and Islamic northern Africa, and across the
Indian and Atlantic oceans, also deserve further study.
In connection with ancient Egypt, many open questions still
exist. For example, do relationships exist between the duplication and
symmetry patterns in pre-Bantu rock paintings in Mozambique, the
‘binary combinatorics’ of Pedi augurs in Transvaal (South Africa, cf.
[Junod 1974, 559-564]), elements of a binary structure in some African
202
Chapter 11
numeration systems and in the Akan weight measurement (Ghana,

Côte d’Ivoire, cf. [Niangoran-Bouah 1984]), the Mbosi duplication
(Congo; cf. [Obenga 1973], etc. and the Egyptian duplication method
(cf. [Gillings 1972]) for multiplication? Another important open
question concerns the role of ‘Black Africa’ in the development of
‘classical Greek society’ and its mathematics (cf. Bernal’s study Black
Athena [1987]). [Obenga 1991] reanalyses the mathematical
documents of Ancient Egypt and stresses their importance in the
development of philosophy in Africa.
On the basis of mathematical ideas involved in the invention and
use of basketry techniques (e.g. woven pyramidal funnels in
Mozambique and Zaire) and mat making (e.g. circular ‘spiral’ mats),
and taking into account the cultural linkages between ancient Egypt
and the rest of ‘Black Africa’ [cf. Diop 1981], it is possible to
formulate new hypotheses as to how the ancient Egyptian formulas for
the area of a circle [Gerdes 1985b] and for the volume of a truncated
pyramid [Gerdes 1985a, 1990c] may have been found.
Throughout history there have been many and varied contacts
between Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa. Kani’s paper
“Arithmetic in the pre-Colonial Central Sudan” [Kani 1992a] considers
cIlm al-Hisab (arithmetic) as part of the Islamic sciences introduced
some time after the 11th century in Nigeria, first in Kanem-Borno and
later, probably 15th century in Hausaland. Arithmetic being taught in
both ‘secular’ and Islamiyya schools, was used in the courts
(calculation of inheritance), collecting and distributing zakat (poor-
dues), business and land surveying. Scholars of Hausaland and Borno
consulted Coptic solar calendars in determining their economic
activities, especially agricultural ones. Kani concludes his paper with
the following remarks: “Despite the availability of a great deal of
literature on medicine, astrology, arithmetic and other related sciences,
written in Arabic, Fulfulde, Hausa and other languages, little effort has
been made to systematically study these sciences within the historical
perspective. The intellectual output of the cUlama (scholars) in this
area has been wrongly classified by our contemporary historians and
social scientists under the rubric of ‘mysticism’. A serious
investigation into the literary output of the scholars of western and
central Sudan, however, may reveal the fact that these scholars had
explored agricultural, medicinal, astronomical and mathematical
203
sciences long before the advent of colonial rule” [Kani 1992a, 38] (see
also [Kani 1992b]). [Zaslavsky 1973a, 138-151] discusses the work of
Muhammed ibn Muhammed from Katsina (now northern Nigeria) on
chronograms and magic squares. Muhammed ibn Muhammed, who
had been a pupil of Muhammed Alwali of Bagirmi, made a pilgrimage
to Mecca in 1730 before he died in Cairo in 1741. [Kani 1986]
discussed the work of the same Muhammed ibn Muhammed al
Katsinawi on magic squares and numerological patterns. In 1990 a
manuscript of his was found in Marrakesh (Morocco) [Djebbar,
personal communication]. [Prussin 1986, 76, 147] refers to the use of
magic squares in amulets among the Fulbe, and in Niger, Benin and
Timbuktu (Mali). [Thomas-Emeagwali 1987] reflects on the
development of science in the Islamic world and its diffusion into
Nigeria before 1903. [Diop 1960, 167] refers to the study of formal
logic in Timbuktu and Lapousterle (Bamako, Mali) is preparing a
study on the contents of three mathematical manuscripts, written in
Arabic, that belong to the Ahmad Baba Library in Timbuktu. One of
the three manuscripts, whose calligraphy is typical of Sub-Saharan
Africa, seems to have been written by a mathematician from Mali, al-
Arwani. The other two contain references to medieval mathematicians
from the Maghreb. Systematic search in libraries and archives will
probably lead to the discovery of more mathematical manuscripts from
Muslim scholars south of the Sahara. Other sources written in Arabic,
on mathematical activities south of the Sahara may also exist. An
example from the eastern coast of Africa is provided by the comments
of traveller Ahmad Ibn-Madjid at the end of the 15th century, on the
counting of the Wac-Wac, probably not a Bantu but a Khoi-San
people, living at that time in southern and central Mozambique (see
[Chumovsky & Jirmounsky 1957]).
The possible mutual links between the development of
mathematics across the Indian Ocean still remain to be studied (for
general analysis of the historical relations across the Indian Ocean, see
[UNESCO 1980]). What about the possible influence of mathematical
ideas from slaves from the African continent and from India and
Indonesia on the development of mathematics in Madagascar,
Mauritius and other islands?
204
Chapter 11
SLAVE TRADE AND COLONISATION
What kind of mathematics was brought to the Americas by the

slaves? Which mathematical ideas have survived in one way or
another? ‘Mancala’ and perhaps other games with mathematical
‘ingredients’ are played in the Caribbean and may be compared with
their ‘ancestors’ in Africa. [Ferreira 1982, 2] refers to a study by one
of his students on geometric symbology in ‘Ubanda’ and ‘Candomblé’
in Brazil. This research area remains almost virgin.
In Fauvel & Gerdes’ paper on Thomas Fuller (1710-1790), the
African slave and calculating prodigy, shipped to America in 1724, it
is suggested that ethno-mathematical research may complement the
analysis of written sources [Fauvel & Gerdes 1990]. Fuller’s
exceptional abilities can be understood only through closer
examination of the cultural context that stimulated their development.
Like the professional knowledge of the Tchokwe smiths, the
knowledge of the Tchokwe drawing experts (akwa kuta sona) was
mostly secret. When a blacksmith or a drawing expert was taken
prisoner and sold as a slave, his specific professional knowledge could
easily disappear completely from his village or region. Thus the slave
trade was extremely destructive to the development of the existing
mathematical traditions and potential, since it broke down the
professional continuity and deprived Africa of its bearers of
mathematical knowledge and skill, such as Thomas Fuller. Recent
ethnomathematical research in Nigeria, as summarized by [Shirley
1988], shows the survival, nonetheless, of a rich tradition of mental
calculations among illiterate people. It would be interesting and
valuable to search for new records with data on the geographical or
ethnic origin of Thomas Fuller, and to correlate this information with
ethnomathematical and historical research on the same region or ethnic
group.
One possible way in which the slave trade influenced the
development of arithmetical knowledge in Africa has been described
as follows by Clarkson in 1788: “Perhaps brought to the front or
produced by the necessity of competing with English traders armed
with pencil and paper, many of the old-time slave-dealers of Africa
seem to have been ready reckoners, and that, too, for a practical
purpose ... The ship captains are said to have complained that it
205
became more and more difficult to make good bargains with such
sharp arithmeticians” (cited in [Scripture 1891, 2]). It would be
interesting to explore further this and other possible influences, such as
the disappearance or undermining of traditional African mathematical
education by the physical elimination or ‘exportation’ of the bearers of
mathematical knowledge.
It might be suggested that it would be interesting to search
African literature, including autobiographies (cf. the autobiographical
essays [Fataki 1991; Mugambi 1991]), for information on mathematics
education in the colonial period and the reaction to it (e.g. attitudes
towards mathematics and mathematics teachers). A systematic analysis
of the ideas (and prejudices) of missionaries, colonial administrators
and educators about the mathematical capacities of their African
‘subjects’ (e.g. the comments of Junod on the ‘lack of mathematical
ability’ in Mozambique (Junod, 1935, 151-155, 576-577) and of their
implications, might be worthwhile and revealing for the present and
future generations.
POST-INDEPENDENCE
The impact of the ‘transplantation of curricula’ on mathematics

education and the recent history of mathematics education in Africa
has been the subject of diverse publications: Tanzania [Pythiam 1971;
Mmari 1978, 1980, 1991; Seka, 1987], Nigeria [Ohuche 1978; Shirley
1980], Sierra Leone [Williams 1978], Sudan [El Sawi 1978; El Tom
1983]; Mozambique [Gerdes 1980a, 1980b, 1981; Draisma 1985,
1986; Cherinda 1991; Ismael 1994], Swaziland [Masinga 1987];
Uganda [Timkumanya 1989]. [Gerdes 1984] reproduces the
autobiographies of the winners of the first mathematics Olympiads in
Mozambique. Navez (University of Burundi) does research on the
evolution of mathematics curricula at secondary school level in
Burundi.
An interesting theme in the recent history of mathematics
education in Africa, which seems to deserve study, is that of the
emergence and evolution of continental and regional mathematics
curriculum development projects, like the African Mathematics
Program (for a short historical overview see [Wilson 1981, 195-199]),
School Mathematics Project for East Africa, Joint Mathematics
206
Chapter 11
Project, East African Regional Mathematics Program, and West

African Regional Mathematics Program. The history of mathematical
associations and journals, of mathematical departments and schools,
are other possible research topics.
The introduction and spread, in Sub-Saharan Africa, of new
mathematical research areas and related fields such as statistics,
informatics, and computer science in relation to the introduction and
spread of new technologies, like the use of computers, have not been
studied as yet, nor have their implications for the countries involved.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author thanks Salimata Doumbia (Côte d’Ivoire), Claudia

Zaslavsky (USA) and the editor of Historia Mathematica for their
comments on an earlier version of this paper.
REFERENCES
Adaaku, J. 1982. The mathematical heritage of the Tiv people. Zaria:

Ahmadu Bello University.
Adams III, H. 1983a. African Observers of the Universe: the Sirius
Question, in Blacks in science, I.van Sertima Ed., pp. 27-46. New
Brunswick: Transaction Books.
___ 1983b. New light on the Dogon and Sirius, in Blacks in science,
I.van Sertima Ed., pp. 47-49. New Brunswick: Transaction Books.
Akin, F. & Fapenle, I. 1985. Indigenous mathematics: a case study of
the Aweri community of Ogun state, Nigeria. Zaria: Ahmadu Bello
University.
Alberich, J. 1990. Números simbólicos y rituales en el Africa
subsahariana, in Homenagem a J. R. dos Santos Júnior, pp. 99-104.
Lisbon: Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical.
Ale, S. O. 1989. Mathematics in rural societies, in Mathematics,
Education, and Society, C. Keitel, P. Damerow, A. Bishop, P.
Gerdes Ed., pp. 35-38. Paris: UNESCO.
207
Almeida, A. 1947. Sobre a matemática dos indígenas da Guiné

Portuguesa. Boletim Cultural da Guiné Portuguesa 6, 389-440.
Anonymous 1987. Traditioneller Wohnungbau in Afrika. Stuttgart:
IRB Verlag.
Anzenge, H. H., Bako, D. W., Ezenduka, P. N., Nyomo, D. J. &
Sambo, M. H. 1988. Indigenous mathematical algorithms. Zaria:
D’Ambrosio, U. 1985a. Socio-cultural bases for mathematics
education. Campinas: University of Campinas.
___ 1985b. Ethnomathematics and its place in the history of
mathematics. For the Learning of Mathematics 5(1), 44-48.
Armstrong, R. G. 1962. Yoruba numerals. Ibadan: Oxford University
Press.
Armstrong, R. G. & Bamgbose, A. 1971. Mathematical concepts in
Yoruba, a manual for Yoruba teachers. Ibadan: University of
Ibadan.
Ascher, M. 1984. Mathematical ideas in non-western cultures. Historia
Mathematica 11, 76-80.
___ 1988. Graphs in cultures (II): a study in ethno-mathematics.
Archive for History of Exact Sciences 39(1), 75-95.
___ 1990. A River-Crossing Problem in Cross-Cultural Perspective.
Mathematics Magazine 63(1), 26-29.
___ 1991. Ethnomathematics: a multicultural view of mathematical
ideas. New York: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
Atkins, W. J. 1961. Notes on the concords and classes of Bantu
numerals. African Language Studies 2, 42-48.
Baker, P. 1987. International Guide to African Studies Research.
London: Hans Zeller Publishers.
Ballou, K. 1978. Règles et stratégies du jeu d’áwélé. Abidjan:
Nouvelles Éditions Africaines.
Bastin, M. 1961. Art décoratif Tchokwé. Lisbon: Publicações Culturais
da Companhia de Diamantes de Angola.
Baumann, H. 1935. Lunda, bei Bauern und Jagern in Inner-Angola.
Berlin: Wurfel Verlag.
Béart, C. 1955. Jeux et jouets de l’Ouest Africain. Dakar: IFAN.
208
Chapter 11
Beidelman, T. O. 1963. Kaguru time reckoning: an aspect of the

cosmology of an East African people, Southwestern Journal of
Anthropology 19, 9-20.
Bell, R. & Cornelius, M. 1988. Board games round the world.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bentley, A. 1977. Symmetry in pattern reproduction by Scottish and
Kenyan children, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 8(4), 415-
424.
Bernal, M. 1987. Black Athena, the Afroasiatic roots of classical
civilization. Vol.1: The fabrication of Ancient Greece 1785-1985.
London: Free Association Books.
___ 1991. Black Athena, the Afroasiatic roots of classical civilization.
Vol.2: The archaeological and documentary evidence. New
Brunswick: Rutgers University.
Bishop, A. 1988a. Mathematical enculturation, a cultural perspective
on mathematics education. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic
Publishers.
Bishop, A., Ed. 1988b. Mathematics Education and Culture.
Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Bogoshi, J., Naidoo, K. & Webb, J. 1987. The oldest mathematical
artefact. The Mathematical Gazette 71, 294.
Bohannan, P. 1953. Concepts of time among the Tiv of Nigeria,
Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 9, 251-262.
Booth, N. 1975. Time and change in African traditional thought,
Journal of Religion in Africa VII(2), 81-91.
Bruel, G. 1932. Noms donnés par des populations de l’Oubangui et du
Chari à des planètes, à des étoiles et à des constellations, Journal
de la Societé des Africanistes II, 49-53.
Campbell, P. 1977. An experimental course on African mathematics,
Historia Mathematica 3, 477-478.
Careccio, J. 1970. Mathematical heritage of Zambia, The Arithmetic
Teacher 18, 391-395.
CASME 1975. Languages and the teaching of science and
mathematics with special reference to Africa. Accra: CASME.
Centner, T. 1963. L’Enfant Africain et ses jeux. Lubumbashi: CEPSI.
209
Changuion, P., Matthews, T. & Changuion, A. 1989. The African

mural. Cape Town: Struik.
Cherinda, M. 1991. Mathematical Olympiads in Mozambique (1981-
1990) (paper presented at the 8th Symposium of the Southern
African Mathematical Sciences Association, Maputo).
Chumovsky, T. & Jirmounsky, J. 1957. Ahmad Ibn-Madjid. Leningrad:
Academy of Sciences.
Courtney-Clarke, M. 1986. Ndebele: The art of an African tribe. New
York: Rizzoli.
___ 1990. African canvas. New York: Rizzoli.
Crane, L. 1982. African games of strategy, a teaching manual. Urbana-
Champaign: University of Illinois.
Crowe, D. 1971. The geometry of African art I. Bakuba art, Journal of
Geometry 1, 169-182.
___ 1973. Geometric symmetries in African art, in Africa Counts, C.
Zaslavsky, pp. 190-196. Boston: Prindle, Weber & Schmidt.
___ 1975. The geometry of African art II. A catalog of Benin patterns,
Historia Mathematica 2, 253-271.
___ 1982a. The geometry of African art III. The smoking pipes of
Begho, in The geometric vein, the Coxeter Festschrift, C. Davis, B.
Grunbaum & F. Sherk Ed., pp. 177-189. New York: Springer
Verlag.
___ 1982b. Symmetry in African art. Ba Shiru, Journal of African
Languages and Literature 3(1), 57-71.
___ 1987. Review of ‘Mancala games’ (Russ) and ‘Code of the Quipu’
(Ascher & Ascher). The Mathematical Intelligencer 9(2), 68-70.
Culin, S. 1894. Mancala, the national game of Africa. Smithsonian
Institution June 30, 597-606.
Cunnington, W. 1906. String figures and tricks from Central Africa,
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute XXXVI, 121-131.
Delafosse, M. 1928. La numération chez les Nègres. Africa, Journal of
the International Institute of African Languages 1(3), 387-390.
Deledicq, A. & Popova, A. 1977. Wari et solo. Le jeu de calcul
africain. Paris: Cedic.
210
Chapter 11
Denyer, S. 1978. African traditional architecture. London:

Heinemann.
Deregowski, J. 1972. The role of symmetry in pattern reproduction by
Zambian children, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 3(3), 303-
307.
___ 1974a. Teaching African children pictorial depth perception: in
search of a method, Perception 3, 309-312.
___ 1974b. Effects of symmetry upon reproduction of Kohs-type
figures: an African study, British Journal of Psychology 65(1), 93-
102.
___ 1976. Coding and drawing of simple geometric stimuli by Bukusu
school-children in Kenya, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology.
7(2), 195-208.
___ 1980. Experienced and inexperienced model makers. Model-
making and drawing in Rhodesia, Journal of Cross-Cultural
Psychology 11(2), 189-202.
Diop, C. A. 1960. L’Afrique noire pré-coloniale. Paris: Présence
Africaine.
___ 1981. Civilisation ou Barbarie, anthropologie sans complaisance.
Paris: Présence Africaine.
___ 1991. Civilization or barbarism, an authentic anthropology.
Brooklyn: Lawrence Hill.
Doumbia, S. 1984. Mathématiques dans l’environnement socio-
culturel Africain. Abidjan: Institut de Recherches Mathématiques
d’Abidjan.
___ 1989a. Review of Béart’s ‘Jeux et jouets de l’ouest africain’,
AMUCHMA-Newsletter 3, 6-8.
___ 1989b. Mathematics in traditional African games, in Mathematics,
Doumbia, S. & Pil, J. C. 1992. Les jeux de cauris. Abidjan: CEDA &
IRMA.
Doumbia, S. & N’guessan, D. 1994. Les jeux de cauris, in Actes du
Seminaire Mathématiques-Philosophie et Enseignement, S.Touré
Ed. Abidjan: Ministère de l’Éducation.
211
Dowson, T. 1992. Rock engravings of southern Africa. Johannesburg:

University of Witwatersrand Press.
Draisma, J. 1985. Curriculum development in the People’s Republic of
Mozambique - the case of mathematics. Maputo: INDE.
___ 1986. Mathematics Education in Mozamique, Proceedings
SAMSA 4, pp. 56-96. Kwaluseni: University of Swaziland.
___ 1993. Numeração falada como recurso na aprendizagem da
Aritmética, in A numeração em Moçambique, P. Gerdes Ed., pp.
134-150. Maputo: Instituto Superior Pedagógico.
Driedger, W. 1972. The game of Bao or Mankala in East Africa, Mila
3(1), 7-17.
Dundas, C. 1926. Chagga Time-Reckoning, Man 87/88, 140-143.
Eglash, R. & Broadwell, P. 1989. Fractal Geometry in Traditional
African Architecture, The Dynamics Newsletter July, 3-8.
Eglash, R. 1994. The African geometry of fractals, African Studies
Review.
El Sawi, M. 1978. Change in Mathematics Education since the late
1950s – ideas and realisation: Sudan, Educational Studies in
Mathematics 9(3), 317-330.
El Tom, M. 1979. The proliferation and popularization of
mathematical results: the needs of the underdeveloped countries, in
Mathematics and the real world, pp. 54-57. Basel: Birkhauser.
___ 1983. Problems of curriculum development in Sudan, in
Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress on Mathematical
Education, pp. 366-368. Basel: Birkhäuser.
___ 1984. The role of Third World University Mathematics institutions
in promoting mathematics. (paper presented at the 5th International
Congress on Mathematical Education, Adelaide, mimeo).
Enukoha, I. 1979. The mathematical heritage of the Igbos. Zaria:
Eshiwani, G. 1979. The goals of mathematics teaching in Africa: a
need for re-examination, Prospects IX(3), 346-352.
___ 1983. A study of the goals of mathematics education in Africa.
Nairobi: Kenyatta University College.
212
Chapter 11
Etuk, E. 1967. The development of number concepts, an examination

of Piaget’s theory with Yoruba Nigerian children. Columbia
Teachers College.
Evans-Pritchard, E. 1955. Zande string figures, Folklore Autumn, 225-
239.
Fataki, K. 1991. Mathematics in the daily lifes of Afrikans, Research
Notes on Africa 3, 28-33.
Fauvel, J. & Gerdes, P. 1990. African Slave and Calculating Prodigy:
Bicentenary of the Death of Thomas Fuller, Historia Mathematica
17, 141-151.
Fauvel, J. & Gray, J. 1987. The history of mathematics - a reader.
London: Macmillan.
Ferreira, E. 1982. Mathematics in ethnoscience and education. (paper
presented at the Carimath Conference, Paramaribo, mimeo).
Fontinha, M. 1983. Desenhos na areia dos Quiocos do Nordeste de
Angola. Lisbon: Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical.
Frankenstein, M. & Powell, A. 1989. Mathematics education and
society: empowering on-traditional students, in Mathematics,
Gafai, M. M. 1987. Basic mathematical knowledge of unschooled
adults of Katsina State. Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University.
Gay, J. & Cole, M. 1967. The new mathematics and an old culture, a
study of learning among the Kpelle of Liberia. New York: Holt,
Rinehart & Winston.
Gay, J. & Welmers, W. 1971. Mathematics and logic in the Kpelle
language. Ibadan: University of Ibadan.
Gerdes, P. 1980a. Mathematics Education in the People’s Republic of
Mozambique, Materialien zur Analyse der Berufspraxis des
Mathematikers 25, 127-142.
___ 1980b. Mathematik in Mozambique: Bildung und Mathematik-
unterricht, Materialien zur Analyse der Berufspraxis des
Mathematikers 25, 143-275.
___ 1981. Changing mathematics education in Mozambique,
Educational Studies in Mathematics 12, 455-477.
213
___ 1984. The first mathematics Olympiads in Mozambique,

Educational Studies in Mathematics 15, 149-172.
___ 1985a. Zum erwachenden geometrischen Denken. Maputo:
Eduardo Mondlane University [Latest edition in English:
Ethnogeometry: Awakening of Geometrical Thought in Early
Culture, ISTEG, Boane & Lulu, Morrisville NC, 2013].
___ 1985b. Three alternate methods of obtaining the Ancient Egyptian
formula for the area of the circle, Historia Mathematica 12, 261-
268.
___ 1986a. How to recognize hidden geometrical thinking: a
contribution to the development of ‘antropological mathematics’,
For the Learning of Mathematics 6(2), 10-12, 17 [reproduced as
chapter 4].
___ 1986b. On culture, mathematics and curriculum development in
Mozambique. In Mathematics and Culture, a seminar report, S.
Mellin-Olsen & M. J. Hoines Ed., pp. 15-42. Radel: Caspar Forlag.
___ 1987. Sobre o despertar do pensamento geométrico. Maputo:
Eduardo Mondlane University. (mimeo).
___ 1988a. On some possible uses of traditional Angolan sand
drawings in the mathematics classroom [1], Abacus, the Journal of
the Mathematical Association of Nigeria 18(1), 107-125.
___ 1988b. On possible uses of traditional Angolan sand drawings in
the mathematics classroom [2], Educational Studies in
Mathematics 19, 3-22 [reproduced as chapter 8].
___ 1988c. A widespread decorative motif and the Pythagorean
Theorem, For the Learning of Mathematics 8(1), 35-39
___ 1988d. On culture, geometrical thinking and mathematics
education, Educational Studies in Mathematics 19, 137-162
___ 1989a. Ethnomathematische Studien. Maputo: Instituto Superior
Pedagógico (mimeo).
___ 1989b. Desenhos tradicionais na areia em Angola e seus possíveis
usos na aula de matemática, BOLEMA Special 1, 51-77.
214
Chapter 11
___ 1990a. Vivendo a matemática: desenhos da África. São Paulo:

Editora Scipione [Latest colour edition in English: Drawings from
Angola: Living Mathematics, Lulu, Morrisville NC, 2012].
___ 1990b. On the teaching of the history of mathematics in
Mozambique, Teacom News 3, 3-4.
___ 1990c. Ethnogeometrie. Kulturanthropologische Beitrage zur
Genese und Didaktik der Geometrie. Hildesheim: Verlag Barbara
Franzbecker.
___ 1990d. On mathematical elements in the Tchokwe ‘sona’ tradition,
For the Learning of Mathematics 10(1), 31-34.
___ 1991a. Lusona: recreações geométricas de Africa. Maputo:
Instituto Superior Pedagógico.
___ 1991b. Fivefold Symmetry and (basket)weaving in various
cultures, in Fivefold symmetry in a cultural context, I. Hargittai
Ed., pp. 243-259. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing.
___ 1991c. On ethnomathematical research and symmetry, Symmetry:
culture and science 1(2), 154-170.
___ 1991d. On mathematical elements in the Tchokwe drawing
tradition, Afrika Matematika 2(3), 119-130.
___ 1991e. On mathematical elements in the Tchokwe ‘sona’ drawing
tradition, Discovery and Innovation 3(1), 29-36.
___ 1991f. Lusona: geometrical recreations of Africa / recréations
géométriques d’Afrique. Maputo: Instituto Superior Pedagógico
[Latest colour edition in English: Lulu, Morrisville NC, 2013].
___ 1992a. On the History of Mathematics in Africa south of the
Sahara, AMUCHMA-Newsletter 9, 3-32.
___ 1992b. Sobre o despertar do pensamento geométrico. Curitiba:
Universidade Federal de Paraná.
___ 1992c. Pitágoras Africano: um estudo em cultura e educação
matemática. Maputo: Instituto Superior Pedagógico [Colour
edition in English: African Pythagoras: A Study in Culture and
Mathematics Education, Lulu, Morrisville NC, 2011].
___ 1993a. Survey of current work in ethnomathematics. (paper
presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, Boston).
215
___ 1993b. Geometria Sona: Reflexões sobre uma tradição de desenho

em povos da África ao Sul do Equador (volumes 1 and 2). Maputo:
Instituto Superior Pedagógico [English language edition of Volume
1: Sona Geometry from Angola: Mathematics of an African
Tradition, Polimetrica, Monza, 2006; English language edition of
Volume 2: Sona Geometry from Angola: Educational and
Mathematical Explorations of African Designs on the Sand, Lulu,
___ Ed. 1993c. A numeração em Moçambique: Contribuição para
uma reflexão sobre cultura, língua e educação matemática.
Maputo: Instituto Superior Pedagógico [Latest edition: Lulu,
Morrisville, 2008].
___ 1993d. Exploring Angolan sand drawings (sona): stimulating
cultural awareness in mathematics teachers, Radical Teacher.43,
18-24.
___ 1994a. Geometria Sona: Reflexões sobre uma tradição de desenho
em povos da África ao Sul do Equador (volume 3). Maputo:
___ 1994b. African systems of numeration, in Encyclopedia of the
History of Science, Technology and Medicine in non-western
cultures. H. Selin Ed., pp. 781-784. Dordrecht: Kluwer (1997).
___ 1994c. Sona geometry, in Encyclopedia of the History of Science,
Technology and Medicine in non-western cultures. H. Selin Ed.,
pp. 367-368. Dordrecht: Kluwer (1997).
___ 1994d. Mathematics in the cultural environment of Southern
Africa: two examples from geometry, in Proceedings of the 9th
Southern Africa Sciences Association Symposium. Gaborone:
SAMSA, 127-132.
Gerdes, P. & Cherinda, M. 1993a. Sistemas africanos de numeração, in
A numeração em Moçambique, P. Gerdes Ed., pp. 5-28. Maputo:
___ 1993b. Words, gestures and symbols, The UNESCO Courier
November, 37-39.
Gerdes, P. & Bulafo, G. 1994. Sipatsi: Technology, art, and geometry
in Inhambane. Maputo: Instituto Superior Pedagógico [Expanded
edition in English: Gerdes, P., Sipatsi: Basketry and Geometry in
216
Chapter 11
the Tonga Culture of Inhambane (Mozambique, Africa), Lulu,

Gillings, R. 1972. Mathematics in the time of the Pharaohs. Boston:
MIT.
Ginsburg, H. 1978. Poor children, African mathematics, and the
problem of schooling, Educational Research Quarterly 2(4), 26-44.
Griaule, M. & Dieterlen, G. 1950. Un système soudanais de Sirius.
Journal de la Societé des Africanistes XX, 273-294.
Griaule, M. 1951. Systèmes graphiques des Dogon, in Signes
graphiques soudanais, Griaule, M. & Dieterlen, G. Ed., pp. 7-30.
Paris: Hermann.
___ 1952. Le savoir des Dogons, Journal de la Societé des Africanistes
22, 27-42.
Griffith, C. 1925. Gold Coast string games, Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute LV, 271-302.
Gwarzo, H. 1967. The theory of chronograms as expounded by the 18th
century Katsina astronomer-mathematician Muhammad B.
Muhammad, Research Bulletin of the Center of Arabic
Documentation 3(2), 116-123.
Haddon, A. 1906. String figures from South Africa. Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Institute XXXVI, 142-149.
Hamelberger, E. 1952. A escrita na areia, Portugal em África 53, 323-
330.
Harris, M. 1988. Cabbage, Mathematics in Work. London: University
of London.
Hazoume, M. 1983. La numération en Gun, Gen et en Bariba, in
Langues Africaines et échange des connaissances. Conseil
Interafricain de Philosophie.
Heinzelin, J. 1962. Ishango, Scientific American 206, 109-111.
Henry-Carmichael, A. 1986. The development of mathematical
concepts and skills among unschooled Nupe children. Zaria:
Herskovitch, M. J. 1939. The numerical system of the Kru, Man 39,
154-155.
217
Hogbe-Nlend, H. 1985. L’Afrique, berceau de la mathématique

mondiale? Nairobi: United Nations University (mimeo).
Hornell, J. 1928. The string games and tricks of Sierra-Leone, Sierra
Leone Studies XIII, 3-9.
___ 1930. String figures from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Zanzibar,
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute LX, 81-114.
___ 1940. String figures from the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Sudan Notes
and Records 23, 99-122.
Houtondji, P. 1987. Philosophical Research in Africa. A bibliographic
survey. Cotonou: Inter-African Council for Philosophy.
INRAP 1986. Langues, cultures et mathématiques, Plot 34, 9-12.
IREM 1977. Mathématique, langues africaines et français. Niamey:
IREM.
Ismael, A. 1991. On the origin of the concepts of “even” and “odd” in
Mozambican cultures. (paper presented at the 3rd Pan-African
Congress of Mathematicians, Nairobi, mimeo).
____ 1994. Motivations for the learning of mathematics – in view of
Mozambique’s historical, social and cultural development, in
Proceedings of the second International Conference on Political
Dimensions of Mathematics Education. Cape Town.
Ismael, A. & Soares, D. 1993. Métodos populares de contagem em
Moçambique, in A numeração em Moçambique, P. Gerdes Ed, pp.
114-120. Maputo: Instituto Superior Pedagógico.
Jacobsen, E. 1984. What goals for mathematics teaching in African
schools?, Educafrica 10, 118-134.
Jahoda, G. 1976. Reproduction of Kohs-type figures by Ghanaian
children, British Journal of Psychology 67(2), 203-211.
Jaritz, W. 1983. Über Bahnen auf Billardtischen – oder: eine
mathematische Untersuchung von Ideogrammen Angolanischer
Herkunft, Berichte der Mathematisch-Statistischen Sektion im
Forschungszentrum Graz 207, 1-22.
Joseph, G. G. 1987. Foundations of Eurocentrism in Mathematics,
Race & Class XXVIII(3), 13-28.
___ 1989. Eurocentrism in mathematics: the historical dimensions, in
Mathematics, Education, and Society, C. Keitel, P. Damerow, A.
Bishop, P. Gerdes Eds., pp. 32-35. Paris: UNESCO.
218
Chapter 11
___ 1991. Crest of the Peacock: non-European Roots of Mathematics.

London: Tauris.
Junod, H. 1974. Usos e costumes dos Bantos. Lourenço Marques:
Imprensa Nacional (original French edition of 1934).
Kagame, A. 1976. The empirical perception of time and the conception
of history in Bantu thought, in Cultures and Time, pp. 89-116.
Paris: UNESCO.
Kane, E. A. 1982. Topologie archaique, Revue Senegalaise de
Philosophie 1, 75-90.
___ 1987. Les systèmes de numération parlée des groupes ouest-
atlantiques et Mandé. Contribution à la recherche sur les
fondements et l’histoire de la pensée logique et mathématique en
Afrique de l’Ouest. Lille: University of Lille III.
Kani, A. M. 1986. The history of ‘Ilm al-Hisab’ (Arithmetics) in
Nigeria with emphasis on Kanem-Borno and Hausaland to 1860
(paper presented at the 2nd Pan-African Congress of
Mathematicians, Jos, mimeo)
___ 1992a. Arithmetic in the Pre-Colonial Central Sudan, in Science
and technology in African history with case studies from Nigeria,
Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, G. Thomas-Emeagwali, G.
Ed., pp. 33-39. Lewiston: Edwin Mellin Press.
___ 1992b. Mathematics in the Central Biläd Al-Sudän, in The
historical development of science and technology in Nigeria, G.
Thomas-Emeagwali Ed., pp. 17-36. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press.
Keller, J. 1902. Astronomische Ansichten der Isubu in Kamerun,
Zeitschrift fur Afrikanische und Ozeanische Sprachen 6.
Ki-Zerbo, J. 1980. General History of Africa. Vol.1: Methodology and
African prehistory. Paris: UNESCO.
___1990. Educate or perish, Africa’s impasse and prospects. Dakar:
UNESCO.
Klepzig, F. 1972. Kinderspiele der Bantu. Meisenheim am Glan:
Verlag Anton Hain.
Kubik, G. 1986. African graphic systems, Muntu, revue scientifique et
culturelle du Centre International des Civilisations Bantu 4-5, 71-
135.
219
___ 1987a. Tusona/Sona – an ideographic script found among the

Luchazi and Cokwe of eastern Angola and adjacent areas, in Les
peuples Bantu: migrations, expansion et identité culturelle, T.
Obenga Ed., pp. 443-483. Paris: Éditions l’Harmattan.
___ 1987b. African space/time concepts and the tusona ideographs in
Luchazi culture with a discussion of possible cross-parallels in
music, African Music 6, 53-89.
___ 1988. Tusona-Luchazi ideographs, a graphic tradition as
practised by a people of West-Central Africa. Fohrenau: Verlag
Stiglmayr.
___ 1990. Visimu vya mukatikati – dilemma tales and ‘arithmetical
puzzles’ collected among the Valuchazi, South African Journal of
African Languages 10(2), 59-68.
Lacroix, P. 1972. L’expression du temps dans quelques langues de
l’Ouest africain. Paris: Selaf.
Lagercrantz, S. 1968. African tally-strings, Anthropos 63, 115-128.
Langdon, N. 1989. Cultural starting points for mathematics: a view
from Ghana. Science Education Newsletter 87, 1-3.
___ 1990. Cultural starting points. (paper presented at SEACME 5,
Brunei, mimeo).
Lassa, P. 1980. The problems of teaching and of learning mathematics
in a second language (African experiment) (paper presented at
ICME IV, Berkeley, mimeo).
Lea, H. 1987. Traditional mathematics in Botswana. Mathematics
Teaching 119.
___ 1989a. Informal mathematics in Botswana. Proceedings of the 41st
CIEAEM Meeting of the International Commission for the Study
and Improvement of Mathematics Teaching, 43-53.
___ 1989b. Mathematics in a cultural setting. Gaborone: University of
Botswana (mimeo).
___ 1990a. Informal Mathematics in Botswana: Mathematics in the
Central Kalahari. Gaborone: University of Botswana (mimeo).
___ 1990b. Informal Mathematics in Botswana: Spatial concepts in the
Kalahari. Gaborone: University of Botswana (mimeo).
220
Chapter 11
___ 1990c. Spatial concepts in the Kalahari. in Proceedings of the 14th

International Conference on Psychology of Mathematics Education
2, 259-266.
Leach, M. 1975. The effects of learning on the pictorial depth
perception of Shona children, Journal of Cross-Cultural
Psychology 6(4), 457-470.
___ 1978. Pictorial depth and space, Journal of Cross-Cultural
Psychology 9(4), 417-438.
Leakey M. & Leakey, L. 1949. Some string figures from North east
Angola. Lisbon: Museu do Dondo.
Legesse, A. 1973. The Calendar, in Gada. Three approaches to the
study of African society, pp. 180-188. New York: The Free Press.
Lindblom, K. 1930. String figures in Africa. Stockholm: Riksmuseets
Etnografiska Avdelning.
Lumpkin, B. 1983. Africa in the mainstream of mathematics history. in
Blacks in science, I. van Sertima Ed., pp. 100-109. New
Lynch, B. M. & Robbins, L. 1983. Namoratunga: the first archaeo-
astronomical evidence in sub-Saharan Africa, in Blacks in science,
I. van Sertima Ed., pp. 51-56. New Brunswick: Transaction Books.
Mann, A. 1886. Notes on the Numeral System of the Yoruba Nation,
Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and
Ireland 16, 59-64.
Mapapá, A. & Uaila, E. 1993. Tabelas e mapas comparativos relativos
á contagem em Moçambique, in A numeração em Moçambique, P.
Gerdes Ed., pp. 121-132. Maputo: Instituto Superior Pedagógico.
Marshack, A. 1972. The roots of civilization. Weidenfeld and
Nicolson. Expanded and revised edition 1991. Colonial Hill Mount
Kisco: Moyer Bell.
Martinson, A. 1992a. The role of rock art in mathematics education.
Johannesburg: University of Witswatersrand (mimeo).
___ 1992b. Mathematics in museums. Johannesburg: University of
Witswatersrand (mimeo).
Mashinda, K. 1988. Some logical and linguistic problems met by
African pupils (in Zaire) (paper presented at the 6th International
Congress on Mathematics Education, Budapest).
221
Masinga, L. C. 1987. The development of mathematics education in

Swaziland in the past two decades, Proceedings of the 6th
Symposium of the Southern Africa Mathematical Sciences
Association, 215-228. Dar es Salaam: University of Dar es Salaam.
Mathews, H. F. 1964. Duodecimal numeration in Northern Nigeria,
The Nigerian Field 34(4), 181-191.
Matthews, T. 1974. Mural painting in South Africa, African Arts
January, 28-33.
Mellin-Olsen, S. 1986. Culture as a key theme for mathematics
education, in Mathematics and culture, a seminar report, S.
Mellin-Olsen & M. Hoines Ed., pp. 99-121. Radal: Gaspar Forlag.
Meurant, G. 1987. Abstractions aux royaumes des Kuba. Paris:
Éditions Dapper.
Mizone, M. 1971. Les jeux stratégiques camerounais et leurs aspects
mathématiques. Annales de la Faculté des Sciences du Cameroun
6, 19-38.
Mmari, G. 1978. The United Republic of Tanzania: mathematics for
social transformation, in Socialist Mathematics Education, F.
Swetz Ed., pp. 301-350. Southampton PA: Burgundy Press.
___ 1980. Secondary Mathematics in the United Republic of Tanzania,
Studies in Mathematics Education 1, 106-126.
___ 1991. On the history of the Mathematical Association of Tanzania.
Dar es Salaam: MAT.
Moore, C. 1986. The implication of string figures for native American
mathematics education. Northern Arizona University (mimeo).
Mubumbila, M. 1988. Sur le sentier mystérieux des nombres noirs.
Paris: L’Harmattan.
___ 1992. Sciences et traditions africaines: les messages du Grand
Zimbabwe. Paris: L’Harmattan.
Mubumbila, M. & Bum, S. 1992. De la pyramide a la case, le secret
du bâtiment africain. Strasbourg: Association Culturelle et
Philosophique Bantu.
Mugambi, P. 1991. On mathematics in Uganda, personal
reminiscences. (paper presented at the 3rd Pan-African Congress of
Mathematicians, Nairobi).
222
Chapter 11
Musa, M. 1987. The mathematical heritage of the Hausa people: a

resource guide for mathematics teaching. Zaria: Ahmadu Bello
University.
Mve Ondo, B. 1990. L’Owani et le Songa. Deuz jeux de calculs
africains. Libreville: Sépia.
NCTM 1984. Multicultural mathematics – Posters and activities.
Reston: NCTM.
N’Guessan, A. 1988. L’awélé – acquisition des tactiques et des
strategies, in Apprentissage et cultures, les manières d’apprendre,
R. Bureau & D. Saivre Ed., pp. 230-244. Paris: Éditions Karthala.
Niangoran-Bouah, N. 1984. L’univers Akan des poids a peser l’or /
The Akan world of gold weights. Abidjan: Les Nouvelles Editions
Africaines.
Nicolas, G. 1968. Un système numérique symbolique: le quatre, le
trois et le sept dans la cosmologie d’une societé hausa (vallée de
Maradi), Cahiers d’Études Africaines 32, 566-616.
Nicholson, J. & Seddon, G. M. 1977. The understanding of pictorial
spatial relationships by Nigerian secondary school students,
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 8(4), 381-399.
Njock, G. E. 1985. Mathématiques et environnement socio-culturel en
Afrique Noire, Présence Africaine 135, 3-21.
Nsimbi, M. B. 1968. Omweso: a game people play in Uganda. Los
Angeles: African Studies Center.
NTTC 1976. Litema, designs collected by students of the National
Teacher Training College of Lesotho. Maseru: NTTC.
NUL 1980. Language in the mathematics and science lesson. Roma:
National University of Lesotho.
O., A. V.1936. The Hima method of counting. Uganda Journal 4(1),
91.
Obenga, T. 1973. Système opératoire négro-africain, in L’Afrique dans
l’Antiquité. Egypte pharaonique – Afrique noire, T. Obenga Ed.,
pp. 333-353. Paris: Présence Africaine.
___ 1982. Temps et Astronomie chez les Mbochi de l’Alima, Cahiers
Congolais d’Anthropologie et d’Histoire 7, 7.
___ 1987. Notes sur les connaissances astronomiques bantu, MUNTU,
revue scientifique et culturelle du CICIBA 6, 63-78.
223
___ 1991. La Philosophie africaine de la période pharaonique, 2780-

330 avant notre ère. Paris: L’Harmattan.
Ohuche, R. O. 1978. Change in Mathematics Education since the late
1950’s – ideas and realisation: Nigeria, Educational Studies in
Mathematics 9, 271-282.
Ojoade, J. O. 1988. The number 3 in African Lore, Abacus, the
Journal of the Mathematical Association of Nigeria 18(1), 21-43.
Oladimeji, F. 1977. A brief study of Yoruba traditional mathematics.
Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University.
Page, D. 1987. Two, three, four: multiples in African art. Allentown:
Muhlenberg College.
Pankhurst, R. 1971. Gabata and related board games of Ethiopia and
the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia Observer 14(3), 154-206.
Pappademos, J. 1983. An outline of Africa’s role in the history of
physics, in Blacks in Science, I. van Sertima Ed., pp. 177-196. New
Parkinson, J. 1906. Yoruba string figures, Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute XXXVI, 132-141.
Paul, S. 1971. Afrikanische Konzentrationsspiele, in Afrikanische
Sprachen und Kulturen, pp. 358-367. Hamburg: Deutsches Institut
für Afrika-Forschung.
Paula, L. & Paula, E. 1988. Xema’eãwa, jogos de barbante entre os
índios Tarirapé. Campinas: University of Campinas (mimeo).
Pearson, E. 1977. People of the Aurora. San Diego: Beta Books.
Petitto, A. 1978. Knowledge of arithmetic among schooled and
unschooled tailors and cloth merchants in Ivory Coast.
(Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Cornell University, Ithaca).
___ 1982. Practical arithmetic and transfer, a study among west
African tribesmen, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 13(1),
15-28.
Petitto, A. & Ginsburg, H. 1982. Mental arithmetic in Africa and
America: strategies, principles, and explanations, International
Journal of Psychology 17, 81-102.
Posner, J. 1978. The development of mathematical knowledge among
Baoulé and Dioula children in Ivory Coast. (Unpublished doctoral
dissertation, Cornell University, Ithaca).
224
Chapter 11
___ 1982. The development of mathematical knowledge in two West

African societies, Child Development 53, 200-208.
Posner, J. & Baroody, A. 1979. Number conservation in two West
African societies, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 10(4),
479-496.
Prussin, L. 1986. Hatumere, Islamic design in West Africa. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Pythiam, J. E. 1971. Mathematical Kujitegemea in Tanzania,
Educational Studies in Mathematics 4(2), 187-200.
Ratteray, J. 1991. African-based themes for mathematics classrooms,
Research Notes on Africa 3,16-27
Raum, O. 1938. Arithmetic in Africa. London: Evans Brothers.
Redinha, J. 1948. As pinturas rupestres do Alto-Zambeze e primeira
tentativa da sua interpretação, Publicações Culturais da
Companhia de Diamantes de Angola 2, 65-91.
Retschitzki, J. 1988. L’apprentissage des stratégies dans le jeu
d’awélé, in Apprentissage et cultures, les manières d’apprendre, R.
Bureau & D. Saivre Ed., pp. 213-229. Paris: Éditions Karthala.
Rohrmann, G. 1974. House decoration in southern Africa, African Arts
Spring, 18-21.
Russ, L. 1984. Mancala games. Algonac: Reference Publications.
Santos, E. 1960. Sobre a matemática dos Quiocos de Angola, Garcia
da Orta 8(2), 257-271.
___ 1961. Contribuição para o estudo das pictografias e ideogramas
dos Quiocos, Estudos sobre a etnologia do ultramar português 2,
17-131.
Schmidl, M. 1915. Zahl und Zählen in Afrika, Mitteilungen der
Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien 45, 165-209.
Scripture, E. W. 1891. Arithmetical prodigies, American Journal of
Psychology 4, 1-59.
Seidenberg, A. 1959. On the eastern Bantu root for six, African Studies
18(1), 28-34.
___ 1963. On the eastern Bantu root for six: correction, African
Studies 22(3), 116-117.
225
___ 1976. km, a Widespread Root for Ten, Archive for History of
Exact Sciences 16(1), 1-16.
Seka, B.R. 1987. History of mathematics in Tanzania. Dar es Salaam:
Institute of Education. (mimeo)
Serpell, R. 1971. Preference for specific orientation of abstract shapes
among Zambian children, Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology
2(3), 225-239.
Sertina, I. van 1983. Blacks in science, ancient and modern. New
Shapiro, M. 1960. The rotation of drawings by illiterate Africans,
Journal of Social Psychology 52, 17-30.
Shirley, L. 1980. Recent developments in mathematics education in
Nigeria. (paper presented at the 4th International Congress on
Mathematics Education, Berkeley, mimeo).
___ 1986a. History of mathematics in Nigerian mathematics
classrooms: values and problems, Abacus, Journal of the
Mathematical Association of Nigeria 12, 123-133.
___ 1986b. Ethnomathematics and the history of African mathematics.
(paper presented at the 2nd Pan-African Congress of
Mathematicians, Jos, mimeo).
___ 1988a. Historical and ethnomathematical algorithms for
classroom use. Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria . (mimeo)
___ 1988b. Counting in Nigerian languages. (paper presented at the 6th
International Congress on Mathematics Education, Budapest,
mimeo).
Soares, D. 1991. On popular counting practices in Mozambique (paper
presented at the 8th Symposium of the Southern Africa
Mathematical Sciences Association, Maputo).
Stott, L. & Lea, H. 1993. Common threads in Botswana. Gaborone:
British Council.
Struik, D. J. 1942. On the sociology of mathematics, Science & Society
6, 58-70.
___ 1948a. Stone age mathematics, Scientific American 179, 44-49.
___ 1948b. A concise history of mathematics. New York: Dover.
226
Chapter 11
___ 1980. Why study the history of mathematics?, The Journal of

Undergraduate Mathematics and its Applications 1(1), 3-28.
___ 1986. The sociology of mathematics revisited: a personal note,
Science & Society 50(3), 280-299.
Stuhlmann, F. 1910. Handwerk und Industrie in Ostafrika,
kulturgeschichtliche Betrachtungen. Hamburg: Friedrichsen.
Tarbo, B. T. 1987. A comparative study of mathematics concepts and
skills possessed by Tiv and Idoma unschooled children in Bebue
state, Nigeria. Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University.
Tekane, I. 1963. Symmetrical pattern completions by illiterate and
literate Bantu, Psychologia Africana 10, 63-68.
Thomas, N. W. 1920. Duodecimal base of enumeration, Man 20, 25-
29.
Thomas-Emeagwali, G. 1987. Reflections on the development of
science in the Islamic world and its diffusion into Nigeria before
1903, Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society.
___ 1988. Oral historiography and the history of technology in
Nigeria: problems and prospects, Muntu 8, 65-73.
___ Ed. 1992a. The historical development of science and technology
in Nigeria. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press.
___ Ed. 1992b. Science and technology in African history with case
studies from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, and Zambia.
Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press.
___ Ed. 1993. African systems of science, technology and art: the
Nigerian experience. London: Karnak House.
Thornton, R. 1980. Space, time, and culture among the Iraqw of
Tanzania. New York: Academic Press.
Torday, E. & Joyce, T. 1911. Notes ethnographiques sur les peuples
communément appelés Bakuba, ainsi que les peuplades
apparentées – Les Bushongo. Bruxelles: Musée du Congo Belge.
Torday, E. 1925. On trail of the Bushongo. Philadelphia: Lippincott.
Torrey, V. 1963. Old African number games?, Science Digest .
Townshend, P. 1977. Les yeux de mankala au Zaire, au Rwanda et au
Burundi. Bruxelles: Cahiers du CEDAF.
227
___ 1979. African Mankala in anthropological perspective, Current

Anthropology 20, 794-796.
Tro, G. 1980. Étude de quelques systèmes de numération en Côte
d’Ivoire. Abidjan: Tro.
Uaila, E. 1992. Simetrias em ornamentos em cestos do tipo ‘khuama’.
Maputo: Instituto Superior Pedagógico (unpublished M.Ed. thesis).
UNESCO 1975. Final report of the symposium ‘Interactions between
linguistics and mathematical education’. Paris: UNESCO.
UNESCO 1980. Historical relations across the Indian Ocean. Paris:
UNESCO.
Vellard, D. 1988. Anthropologie et sciences cognitives: une étude des
procédures de calcul mental utilisées par une population
analphabète, Intellectica 2(6), 169-209.
___ 1993. Numeration systems and colonisation. A case study in Mali.
(paper presented at the 19th International Congress of History of
Science, Zaragoza)
Vergani, M. 1981. Analyse numérique des idéogrammes Tshokwe de
l’Angola. Geneva: University of Geneva.
Wallman, S. 1965. The communication of measurement in Basutoland,
Human Organization 24(3), 1-11.
Washburn, D. & Crowe, D. 1988. Symmetries of Culture, Theory and
Practice of Plane Pattern Analysis. Washington: University of
Washington Press.
Washburn, D. 1990. Style, classification and ethnicity: design
categories on Bakuba raffia cloth. Philadelphia: American
Philosophical Society.
Wedgwood, C. & Schapera, I. 1930. String figures from Bechuanaland
protectorate, Bantu Studies IV, 251-268.
Weule, K. 1921. Die Anfänge der Naturbeherschung. Vol.1:
Frühformen der Mechanik. Stuttgart: Kosmos.
Whitcombe, A. & Donaldson, M. 1988. Shongo networks, a
multicultural theme for the classroom, Mathematics in School
November, 34-38.
Wilder, R. L. 1975. Review of AFRICA COUNTS by Claudia
Zaslavsky, Historia Mathematica 2, 207-210.
228
Chapter 11
Williams, A. 1978. Change in Mathematics Education since the late

1950’s - ideas and realisation: Sierra Leone, Educational Studies in
Mathematics 9(3), 297-302.
Williamson, J.1943. Dabida numerals. African Studies 2, 215-216.
Williamson, K.& Timitimi A. 1970. A note on Ijo number symbolism,
African Notes 5(3), 9-16.
Wilson, B. 1981. Cultural contexts of Science and Mathematics
Education. A bibliographic guide. Leeds: Centre for Studies in
Science Education.
Yohannes, G. 1974. Linguistic problems in mathematics education in
Ethiopia. Paris: UNESCO (mimeo).
Zahan, D. 1951. Études sur la cosmologie des Dogon et des Bambara
du Soudan français – I. La notion d’écliptique, Africa. XXI(1), 18.
Zaslavsky, C. 1970a. Black African traditional mathematics, The
Mathematics Teacher 63(4),345-356.
___ 1970b. Mathematics of the Yoruba people and of their neighbours
in Southern Nigeria, Two-Year College Mathematics Journal 1, 76-
99.
___ 1973a. Africa Counts: number and pattern in African culture.
Boston: Prindle, Weber and Schmidt. Paperback edition 1979:
Brooklyn: Lawrence Hill Books. Hungarian translation 1984:
Africa Szamol. Budapest: Gondalet.
___ 1973b. Mathematics in the study of African culture, Arithmetic
Teacher 20, 532-535.
___ 1975. African network patterns, Mathematics Teaching 73, 12-13.
___ 1976a. The Afro-American mathematical heritage, Outlook 20, 3-
8.
___ 1976b. African stone game, Teacher 94(Oct.), 110-112.
___ 1976c. African numbers, Teacher 94 (Nov.), 91-96.
___ 1977. The African stone game, Mathematical Digest 26.
___ 1979. Symmetry along with other mathematical concepts and
applications in African life, in Applications in School Mathematics,
pp. 82-97. Reston: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
___ 1980. Count on your finger: African style. New York: Crowell.
229
___ 1981a. The shape of a symbol / the symbolism of shape, Teacher

98, 37-43.
___ 1981b. Networks – New York York subways, a piece of string,
and African traditions, Arithmetic Teacher 29(2), 42-47.
___ 1982.Tic Tac Toe and other three-in-a-row games, from Ancient
Egypt to the modern computer. New York: Harper & Row.
___ 1989a. Integrating mathematics with the study of cultural
traditions, in Mathematics, Education, and Society, C. Keitel, P.
Damerow, A. Bishop, P. Gerdes Ed., pp. 14-15. Paris: UNESCO.
___ 1989b. People who live in round houses, Arithmetic Teacher 37
(September), 18-21.
___ 1989c. Mathematical aspects of traditional African games,
AMUCHMA Newsletter 3, 6.
___ 1991a. Multicultural mathematics education for the middle grades,
Arithmetic Teacher 39(Feb.), 8-13.
___ 1991b. Women as the first mathematicians, Women in
Mathematics Education Newsletter XIV(1), 4.
___ 1994. Mathematics in Africa: explicit and implicit, in Companion
Encyclopedia of the History and Philosophy of the Mathematical
Sciences, I. Grattan-Guinness Ed., pp. 85-92. London: Routledge.
Zepp, R. 1982a. Bilinguals’ understanding of logical connectives in
English and Sesotho, Educational Studies in Mathematics 13, 205-
221
___ 1982b. Correlation of English, mathematics, and science in a
Lesotho high school, Journal of Southern African Studies 1, 8-11.
___ 1983a. Inclusive disjunction in West African languages,
Perceptual and Motor Skills 56, 322.
___1983b. A West african replication of the four card problem,
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 14, 3, 323-327.
___ 1983c. L’apprentissage du calcul dans les langues de Côte
d’Ivoire. Abidjan: Institut de Linguistique Appliqueé.
___1990. Language and mathematics education. Hong Kong: API
Press.
230
Appendices
231
232
Chapter 12
Chapter 12
Conditions and Strategies for Emancipatory
Mathematics Education in Underdeveloped Countries *
Reflecting on the author’s experiences in Mozambique, he

suggests some conditions and strategies for mathematics education to
become emancipatory in underdeveloped countries.
Point of departure: mathematics education cannot be neutral
By its physical and intellectual labour, mankind is able to create an

ever more human society. Reflecting on its realisations, discovering
the laws of nature and society, mankind creates its material and
intellectual tools to transform reality, both nature and society.
Mathematics constitutes an integrated body of those means to
understand and transform reality. An ever more human society is the
most rational direction. However, mankind has at its disposal,
nowadays, the means to destroy itself. Neither mathematics, nor
* This is a revised version of an invited paper presented at the

Caribbean Conference on Mathematics for the Benefit of the
Caribbean Communities and its Reflection in the Curriculum,
organised by the Inter-American Committee on Mathematical
Education, Paramaribo, Suriname, October 18-21, 1982.
Published in: For the Learning of Mathematics, Montreal, Vol.
5, No. 1, 15-20 (February 1985); Reproduced in: Is mathematics
teaching neutral?, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, 1987,
10-15; Reproduced in: Alan J. Bishop (Ed.), Mathematics
Education: Major Themes in Education, Routledge, London,
2010, Volume 1, 179-189.
233
mathematics education nor mathematicians can be indifferent towards

these diametrically opposed possibilities:
more human more inhuman

peaceful war-like
liberating ←→ oppressing
creating destructive
emancipating exploiting
The history of Mozambique shows very clearly that mathematics

education cannot be neutral [see Gerdes 1980, 1981 b]. During the
Portuguese domination, mathematics was taught, in the interest of
colonial capitalism, only to a small minority of African children [see
Mondlane 1969]. And those Mozambicans were taught mathematics to
be able to calculate better the hut tax to be paid and the compulsory
quota of cotton every family had to produce. They were taught
mathematics to be more lucrative “boss-boys” in South African mines.
After ten years of the people’s war, led by the liberation movement
FRELIMO, Portuguese colonialism was defeated and Mozambique
achieved its Independence in 1975. Post-independence objectives of
mathematics education are in the service of the construction of a
socialist society [cf. Machel 1977, Ganhão 1978]. Mathematics is
taught to “serve the liberation and peaceful progress of the people”.
Mathematics is taught to place its applications within the reach of the
worker and peasant masses. Mathematics is taught to stimulate the
broad masses to take an interest and delight in mathematical creation.
These are general objectives. But how are they to be achieved?
Mathematics education for emancipation. How?
Independence and the option for socialism have implied an overall

democratisation of mathematics education in Mozambique: the
majority of children, and hundreds of thousands of adults, have already
gained access to the science of mathematics; the mathematics teaching
234
Chapter 12
profession has been opened up for children of peasants and labourers;

and the discussion on how to improve the quality of mathematics
education is not any more reserved for an elite but is becoming the
object of reflection of the mass the teachers, from adult education and
primary school teachers to university professors [cf. Gerdes 1981 b].
Overall democratisation is a necessary but not sufficient condition for
mathematics education to become really emancipatory – everyone
mastering mathematics and capable of thinking mathematically, to the
benefit of society as a whole. On the basis of the author’s experience
in the training of mathematics teachers, some other necessary
conditions will be presented.
Problemising reality in classroom situations
Let us briefly listen to some dialogues occurring in our lessons:
* A student enters the classroom, late and noisy. Confrontation.

Could your parents study in colonial times? No ... Who pays for
your study? (With Independence, education became free of
charge in Mozambique) The peasants and labourers ... How
many days does a peasant have to work to pay for your being
late? What do you mean? How much does it cost? What do we
have to know to calculate it? (In a concrete case it was
calculated, by the class, that one student coming one hour late
corresponds to throwing away one day of a peasants’ work.)
* Newspaper reading, a photograph: a truck crossing a bridge over
the Changana River, the bridge collapsed. Why? Was the truck
too heavy? The bridge ill-built?
* In a report by the Centre of African Studies at our University it is
told that a tractor driver drove his machine at full speed for two
hours to fetch only three loaves of bread (from a state farm in
Moamba). Why did he do so? Was it justifiable? Is it
reasonable? Why? Why not? How can his behaviour be
explained? How can the cost be evaluated?
* For a certain period, sugar production was going down. Why?
Changes in the way of paying the labourers had been introduced:
235
from payment in terms of the number of rows of sugarcane cut

down to the number of kilograms of sugarcane. Why? How can
we explain the economic consequences? How can production be
raised? Is mathematics involved?
* Our country suffered floods in 1977 (Limpopo River) and in
1978 (Zambeze River). Why didn’t we have any floods in the
early eighties? Is mathematics involved? How?
* To combat speculation a food distribution system has been
introduced in the city of Maputo (1981). How much rice for each
person this month? How much rice a family of five persons can
eat each day?
These dialogues are examples of problemising reality (Freire’s

terminology). “Reality is thrown before our feet” (in the deep sense of
the original Greek “προ-βαλλειν”); one cannot fly from reality, one
has to reflect. Experience shows that problemising reality leads to
consciousness, to awareness of the relevance of mathematics as a tool
to understand and transform reality. It leads to political awareness (as
in the case of the student who came late); to physical awareness (as in
the case of the bridge that collapsed); to economical awareness (as in
the example of the tractor driver), etc.
Let us give some more examples of problemising reality before
drawing a second conclusion – examples that give a meaningful, rich
context to mathematics education.
* In Cabo Delgado province some students were told that the area
of a cotton field is so many metres. Area measured in m and not
in m2? Does it make sense? Why?
* Mozambique’s soap production was 16300 t in 1980 and 23700 t
in 1981. What will the national needs be in 1990? How can they
be calculated? What will the soap production be in 1990?
Regular growth of production capacities or not? Regular in what
sense? Why?
* In order to win the battle against underdevelopment during the
decade of the eighties, the People’s Assembly approved a
National State Plan for the decade. We need x school buildings
by 1990. In 1981 we already had y school buildings and will
236
Chapter 12
construct z more school buildings. How do we have to extend

production capacities for the construction of schools? Regular
growth? How regular? Linear? Parabolic? Exponential? (A
possible entrance to the study of geometric or exponential
progressions.)
* Women fetch water in their tins, cylindrical cans, on their heads.
Are they exploited? Development will lead to piped water in
each house. And in the meantime? Could the tin cans be less
heavy? Could more cans be produced out of the same quantity of
raw materials? How? What changes are implied? (A possible
entrance to the study of differential calculus.)
Here it should be emphasized that a problemising reality

approach leads to a real understanding of reality, it leads to an
understanding of mathematics as a tool to transform reality.
Let us give one more example to reinforce this second
conclusion [see Gerdes 1982].
* Rickettsiosis is a disease that kills a lot of cattle in our country.
Veterinarians discovered a medicine to cure sick animals
(terramycine). How much medicine is needed for each animal?
This quantity depends on what? On the colour of the animal? Its
height? How does this quantity depend on the weight of the
cow? Linear dependence? Exponential? Why? How do we weigh
a cow? Only on well-equipped farms will you find scales able to
do so. What can be done in the less developed countryside? The
weight of an animal is related to ...? Why? How? Is it possible to
determine the weight of a cow in an indirect way? A cow knows
how to swim? What does this imply? Relation weight-volume?
How can the volume of a cow be determined? Let us take a very
close look at the cow: approximation to a cylinder! (See Figure
1). And so on.
Reality can be changed. More animals will survive. People will
have more meat and milk. Improved calculations lead to a
reduction in the quantity of medicine. And, as these medicines
still have to be imported, well-applied arithmetic will save
foreign currency.
237
Approximate cylinder
Figure 1
238
Chapter 12
Creating confidence
For mathematics education to become emancipatory, it is

necessary to stimulate confidence in the creative powers of every
person and of every people, confidence in their capacities to
understand, develop and use mathematics. At least three types of
strategies to produce such confidence have to be considered.
A. Cultural strategies
Colonization has implied the underdevelopment of Mozambique

as of most Third World countries. Underdevelopment is not only an
economic process. Foreign domination also caused mathematical
underdevelopment: African and American-Indian mathematics became
ignored or despised; the mathematical capacities of certain peoples
were negated or reduced to rote memorization; mathematics was
presented as an exclusively white men’s creation and ability. Of the
struggle against the mathematical underdevelopment and the combat
against racial and colonial prejudice, a cultural reaffirmation makes a
part. It is necessary to encourage an understanding that:
1) The people have been capable of and will be capable of developing

mathematics
Examples:
a) In coastal zones of Mozambique fish is dried to be sold in the

interior. How should the fish be dried? What if you place the fish
at different distances from the fire? Some fish will be grilled,
while others are kept wet. Through experience, the fishermen
discovered that it is necessary to place the fish equidistant from
the fire. They discovered a circle-concept, constructing a circle
in sand using two sticks and a rope (see Figures 2 and 3).
239
Figure 2
Figure 3
(Drawings by Marcos Cherinda)
b) How can the rectangular base of a house be constructed? In some

parts of Mozambique, peasants use the following technique. One
starts by laying down on the floor two long sticks of equal length
(see Figure 4). Then the first two sticks are combined with two
other sticks, also of equal length (Figure 5).
240
Chapter 12
Figure 4 Figure 5
Now one moves the sticks until the closure of the quadrangle
(one obtains a parallelogram: Figure 6). One further adjusts the
figure until the diagonals are of equal length (so a rectangle is
obtained: Figure 7). Now where the sticks are lying on the floor
lines are drawn and the building of the house can start.
Figure 6 Figure 7
This empirical knowledge of the peasants has been propagated

on a national scale, during the rabbit-raising campaign, for the
construction of hutches.
2) The people’s mathematics can and will enrich the understanding of

mathematics, its education and its history
Examples:
a) In the north of Mozambique, traditional villages are structured in

a “circular” way (Figure 8). This village structure and e.g. the
241
structure of a bird’s nest led to the formation of one circle-

concept “to belong to” (already a high-level abstraction). The
concept is extended by comparison of form or content
(“belonging to”) to e.g. the border of a basket (Figure 9).
street
houses
Figure 8
Circular winnowing basket

Figure 9
242
Chapter 12
The fabrication of a sisal mat leads to the formation of another circle-

concept (“spiral-circle”: Figure 10). We have still a third circle-
concept, that of the fishermen. In the official language of
Mozambique, Portuguese, there are two “circle” concepts, one
referring to the area and the other to the circumference of a circle. By
interference between the mother tongue and Portuguese, the medium
of instruction, we have the following matrix (Figure 11).
Rolling up a string of sisal

Figure 10
Mother tongue
M1 M2 M3
Portuguese P1 P1 = M1 P1 = M2 P1 = M3
P2 P2 = M1 P2 = M2 P2 = M3
Matrix of language interference: circle-concepts

Figure 11
So six different, rather complicated, situations may be

encountered: now I have to use the third word (= M3 ) in my
243
mother language but the second word ( = P2) in Portuguese ... ,

etc. How can this be avoided? Comparing the Portuguese
“circle” concepts with the square concept, we can see that there
is no need to have more than one “circle” concept: it is possible
to speak about the area of a square and about the circumference
of a square using the same work “square”. Paradoxically, by
abolishing one of the two words in Portuguese, one enriches the
scientific language: only one “circle” concept is retained and so
one facilitates the learning processes of the students in this
multilingual context.
b) In some regions of Mozambique, there exists a “cylinder”

concept that can be described as a rolled-up rectangular mat (see
Figure 12). This concept can be used as a way to discover a
formula for the volume of a cylinder. It can be used not only in
education, but also in formulating hypotheses on how long ago
the first (approximating) formulas for the volume of cylinders
could have been discovered [cf. Gerdes, 1985 b].
Figure 12
3) Every people is capable of developing mathematics
This can be shown by the cultural history of mathematics. By

public lectures and by the publication of booklets on African, Indian,
Chinese and Arabic mathematics, attention is drawn to the fact that
many people have contributed to the development of mathematics. In
this manner an attempt is made to combat a Eurocentric and distorted
244
Chapter 12
vision of the history of mathematics. The booklets try to analyse, in a

way accessible to a broad public, not only how, but also why and for
whom, mathematics was developed in different societies at distinct
times [see Gerdes 1981a, 1984 a].
B. Social strategies
Within colonial society, as in every class society, prejudices

about the mathematical talents of discriminated and exploited social
strata and of women are widespread. For mathematics education to
become emancipatory, it is necessary to encourage an understanding
that:
Children of all social classes and of both sexes have been
capable and will be capable of mastering, developing and using
mathematics.
By means of counterexamples, ranging from Hypathia of
Alexandria and Gauss to the winners of our National Mathematics
Olympiads, sexist prejudices as well as those against children of
peasants and factory workers are demystified. Special awards and
scholarships are attributed to the best-qualified girls in the
Mathematics Olympiads [see Gerdes 1984 b].
C. Individual-collective strategies
All the aforementioned strategies are already individual in the

sense that they enhance personal self-confidence by stimulating the
individual’s relatedness to mathematics through the problemising
reality approach, by supporting the comprehension of the relevance of
mathematics, and by cultural and social self-confidence. More specific
– say individual-collective strategies – are presented here by examples
drawn from teaching experiences.
245
a) Reflection on errors
Usually “solutions” of problems are collected and presented to

the students, e.g., the following two solutions of the same problem:
!!! !!!. !!! !!!. !!! !!!. !!!

1) = = ! = =
!!! !!!. !!! !!! !!!√!
(!!!)√! !√!
!!!√!
= !!!√!
2)
!!! ( !!!).( !!!) !!√! !!√! !!! !
!!!
= ! = !!!√! = !!!√! = !!! = !! =
!!!
0.
The students have to analyse these trial solutions, individually.

Which transitions are right, which are wrong and why? In a second
stage, they are asked to compare their analyses at group level and to
try to achieve a common improved examination. The groups report
their findings in a classroom session for a final analysis.
It is interesting to see that the students like this type of
“exercise”, because it urges them to reflect, argue and rethink
b) Reflection on concept building
The students know the following definition:

!
When b ∈ ℝ! ! and n ∈ ℕ, we define ! as the positive solution
in ℝ of the equation ! ! = b.
We ask them to debate questions such as the following:
!
Is it possible to define ! ? For which numbers? Does it make
any sense?
!
Is it possible to define ! ? Is it necessary to do so?
!! !!
Is it possible to define ! ? If so, calculate 8.
246
Chapter 12
The questions are open-ended. E.g., in the last case, one finds answers
!!
by analogy: ! is the positive solution of the equation ! !! = b or by
!! !
a supposed property: ! = ! .
!
This reflection stimulates further debate and so provides a more
profound understanding of the original concept.
c) Learning to discover by discovering together
What will be the derivative function of f: ℝ! → ℝ, defined by f(x)

= ! ?
The students know:
!! ! !!∆! !!(!) !!∆! ! !
!!
= ∆!
= ∆!
!!
How do we calculate lim∆!→! !! ?
How do we divide Δ! by Δ! ?
We have ! + ∆! = ... ?
! + ∆! = ! + ∆!, Pedro suggests.
Is it true?
Another suggestion by Lázaro: Square all the terms:
( ! + ∆! − !)! = ...
Not that way? Why?
Ferdinand: Use another notation
! !
! + ∆! − ! = (! + ∆!)! – ! !
How do we continue?
! ! !! !!
(! + ∆!)! – ! ! = (! + ∆!)! – !! = ( (! + ∆!)! − ! ! )!!
Why do you want to work with squares?
( ! + ∆!)! – ( !)! = (! + ∆!) − ! = ∆!
How do we arrive there?
247
In general !! − ! ! = ... ?
!! − ! ! = (a − b). ... ?
!! − ! ! = (a − b).(a + b).
And now every student advances:
!! !!∆! ! ! ( !!∆! ! !)( !!∆! ! !)
!!
= ∆!
= ∆! ( !!∆! ! !)
=
( !! ∆!)! ! ( !)! !! ∆! ! ! ∆!
= ∆! ( !!∆! ! !)
= ∆! ( !!∆! ! !)
= ∆! ( !!∆! ! !)
=
!
= !!∆! ! !
and obtains the end result

!! ! !
! ! (x) = lim∆!→! !! = lim∆!→! !!∆! ! !
=! !
By discovering together and reflecting on their process of

discovery, the students enlarge their creative powers and gain self-
confidence. They learn to understand the non-tautological nature of
mathematical knowledge [for a more profound analysis, see Gerdes,
1985 a].
Concluding remarks
A problemising reality approach as starting point is in itself

already a confidence-creating activity. Problemising reality, reinforced
by cultural, social and individual-collective confidence-stimulating
activities will contribute substantially to an emancipatory mathematics
education, to enable everyone and every people to understand, develop
and use mathematics as an important tool in the process of
understanding reality, the reality of nature and of society, an important
tool to transform reality in the service of an ever more human world.
248
Chapter 12
References
Cherinda, M (1981) Secando peixe, descobrir a circunferência, Tlanu,

Revista de Educação Matemática, Maputo, 1, 13-15.
Freire, P (1970) Pedagogy of the oppressed, Continuum, New York.
Ganhão, F (1978) The struggle continues: Mozambique s
revolutionary experience in education. Development Dialogue, 2,
25-36.
Gerdes, P (1980) Mathematik in Mozambique, Materialien zur
Analyse der Berufspraxis des Mathematikers, 25, 143-275.
Gerdes, P (1981 a) A ciência matemática. INDE, Maputo.
Gerdes, P (1981 b) Changing mathematics education in Mozambique,
Educational Studies in Mathematics, 12, 455-477.
Gerdes, P (1982) Exemplos de aplicações da matemática na
agricultura e na veterinária. TLANU-booklet 3, Maputo [New
edition: Lulu, Morrisville NC, 2008; English language edition:
Examples of applied mathematics in agriculture and veterinary
science, NECC Mathematics Commission, Cape Town, 1991].
Gerdes, P (1984 a) Para que? Para quem? A matemática nos países
islâmicos. TLANU-booklet 11, Maputo.
Gerdes, P (1984 b) The first Mathematics Olympiads in Mozambique,
Educational Studies in Mathematics, 15, 149-172.
Gerdes, P (1985 a) Marx demystifie calculus. MEP, Minneapolis MN.
Gerdes, P (1985 b) Three alternate methods of obtaining the ancient
Egyptian formula for the area of a circle, Historia Mathematica,
12, 261-268.
Machel, S (1977) Le processus de la Révolution Démocratique
Populaire au Mozambique. Editions L’Harmattan, Paris.
Macome, E (1983) Hipatia de Alexandria, Tlanu, Revista de Educação
Matemática, Maputo, 2, 28-33.
Mondlane, E. (1969) The struggle for Mozambique. Zed Press,
London.
249
250
Chapter 13
Chapter 13
African Slave and Calculating Prodigy:
Bicentenary of the Death of Thomas Fuller *
Abstract
Thomas Fuller (1710-1790) was an African, shipped to America

as a slave in 1724. He had remarkable powers of calculation, and late
in his life was discovered by antislavery campaigners who used him as
a demonstration that blacks are not mentally inferior to whites. This
paper describes what we know of Fuller, discusses the various uses
made of his story since his death, and appeals for further study of the
18th-century African ethnomathematical context.
Thomas Fuller (1710-1790) était un Africain, emmené comme

esclave en Amérique en 1724. Il avait des capacités remarquables en
calcul mental, et tard dans sa vie il a été découvert par des militants
anti-esclavage, qui l’utilisaient pour démontrer que l’homme noir n’est
pas mentalement inférieur par rapport à l’homme blanc. Cet article
décrit ce que nous savons de Fuller, discute les différents usages de
son histoire, faites après sa mort, et lance un appel à plus d’études sur
le contexte africain ethnomathématique du XVIIIème siècle.
* Published in: Historia Mathematica, New York, 17 (1990), 141-

151. Co-author: John Fauvel (1947-2001), Faculty of
Mathematics, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA,
England.
251
In most discussions of people with extraordinary powers of

mental calculation, there is brief mention of a black calculator by the
name of Thomas Fuller. It is interesting to discover how he has come
to join the assorted ranks of recorded calculating prodigies, for his
story is located where black history, American history, and the history
of African mathematics meet the history of public perceptions of
mathematics and mathematicians. Just as during his life, the story of
Thomas Fuller since his death 200 years ago has been one of people
using him for various purposes of their own.
First, let us trace back to see how Fuller’s story has come down
to us. We can start with any modern account, for example, J. Fey and
J. W. Alexander’s paper bout calculating prodigies:
Thomas Fuller, brought to Virginia as a slave in 1724,
could multiply two nine-digit numbers, state the number
of seconds in a given period of time, and calculate the
number of grains of corn in a given mass even though he
never learned to read or write. [Fey and Alexander 1969,
160].
Fey and Alexander took their information from the essay by the
Cambridge don W. W. Rouse Ball (1850-1925) which appeared in
James R. Newman’s The World of Mathematics [Rouse Ball 1956,
478], reprinted from Ball’s amiable collection of Mathematical
Recreations and Essays written earlier this century [Rouse Ball 1917,
252]. In its turn, Rouse Ball’s account is based, as is the description
and analysis by Fred Barlow [1951, 17-18, 155], on papers in The
American Journal of Psychology by F. D. Mitchell [1907, 62-63] and
E. W. Scripture [1891, 2-3, 34, 58]. The latter is the source for Fuller’s
appearance in the somewhat unexpected context of a tome on
psychical research [Myers 1903 I, 80]. Scripture’s article and several
earlier accounts of Fuller [Anonymous 1792, 265; Brissot de Warville
1794 I, 243; Stedman 1796 II, 260-261; Grégoire 1810, 183-185;
Needles 1848, 32; Hoefer 1857; Williams 1883, 398-400] derive from
only two independent original sources, the account written by Dr.
Benjamin Rush [Rush 1789; also Dickson 1789, 185-187] and Fuller’s
obituary in a Boston journal [Anonymous 1790]. We reproduce these
documents in full in Appendixes 1 and 2.
252
Chapter 13
On examining the contexts in which Fuller’s story has been

retold and handed down over the past 2 centuries, and the emphases
placed on different aspects of the sources, we can distinguish three
broad phases, which may be called the liberatory, the psychologistic,
and the mathematical. Again we take these in reverse time order. It is
noticeable that in recent years Fuller’s black significance has been lost
sight of; he does not feature, for example, in either of the recent
standard works V. Newell et al. [1980] or Claudia Zaslavsky [1973].
The emphasis in the most recent phase, from Rouse Ball’s work
onward – in [Smith 1983, 178- 80], for example – has been simply on
the comparative efficiency of Fuller and others as mathematical
calculators. Thus Rouse Ball wrote of Fuller, “although more rapid
than Buxton, he was a slow worker as compared with some of those
whose doings are described below” [Rouse Ball 1917, 252].
Judgements of this kind are made in a context where the topic of
concern is the concept and analysis of the mathematical processes of
“mental prodigies.” Barlow observed in his preface, “This book has
been written to satisfy the curiosity of the ever-growing public
interested in abnormal mentalities and their practical manifestations”
[Barlow 1951, 9]. In this sense such studies overlap with the interest
shown during this century, for educational and other reasons, in the
process of mathematical discovery and conceptual development, of
which the works by Henri Poincaré [1908], Jacques Hadamard [1945],
and Jean Piaget [1952] are well-known examples.
The seminal paper by E. W. Scripture (1864-1945) from which
much of this century’s knowledge of Fuller and other arithmetical
prodigies immediately derives [Scripture 1891] was, however, written
in a different context. It appeared the year before Scripture was
appointed to head the psychological laboratory at Yale University. He
was dedicated to developing psychology as an experimental science,
which he took to mean achieving a mathematization akin to that of
physics, an ambitious quest as may be seen from his remark,
“Experimental psychology can never rise above a rather amateurish
level till the leaders can handle vectors, Hamiltonians, potentials, as
well as the representatives of the physical sciences” [Thomson 1968,
143]. Although in his article of 1891 Scripture lid draw some
conclusions that bear on mathematics education, the overall
253
perspective of the paper is of building up a collection of empirical

facts preparatory to a psychological analysis of mental processes. It is
noteworthy, too, that the French psychologist who showed the most
interest in Fuller was the founder of experimental psychology in
France, Alfred Binet [1894, 4-5], later to develop a metrization of
intelligence. Binet had a noticeably more critical approach to the data,
drawing attention to suspicious inconsistencies in details of Fuller’s
reputed calculations. This phase of using Fuller as an empirical fact
within a scientization of psychology reached its apogee in Myers’
massive Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death. F. W. H.
Myers (1843-1901) was a founder of the Society for Psychical
Research, which aimed to place the study of spiritual and paranormal
phenomena on an empirical scientific basis, much as Scripture and
Binet intended for psychology. It was as part of his study of
supernormal human faculties that he turned to the work of Scripture
and Binet on arithmetical prodigies, and proffered the clearest
explanation of the appeal of Fuller and the rest for this kind of
investigation:
For the purpose of present illustration of the workings of
genius it seems well to choose a kind of ability which is
quite indisputable, and which also admits of some degree
of quantitative measurement. I would choose the higher
mathematical processes, were data available; […]
Meantime there is a lower class of mathematical gift,
which by its very specialization and isolation seems likely
to throw light on our present inquiry. [Myers 1903, 78-79]
The psychologistic approach still periodically surfaces; for
instance, a recent study goes far beyond the available evidence in
attempting to assess Fuller’s state of mind by 20th-century criteria: “No
IQ tests or other clinical descriptions are available to precisely
establish his intellectual level, but the information available certainly
points toward serious mental handicap” [Treffert 1989, 56].
The context in which Fuller’s abilities first came to light,
however, was completely different from the concerns of scientific
psychology which arose a full 100 years after his death. The early
writers and commentators were all working in, or sympathetic to, the
254
Chapter 13
antislavery movement. We only know of Fuller, indeed, because

people wanted to use him as evidence in the abolitionist cause. For the
earliest account of Fuller (Appendix 1) we are indebted to Benjamin
Rush (1745/1746-1813). Rush was a man of remarkable energy –
physician, psychiatrist, professor of chemistry, signatory to the
Declaration of Independence, and ceaseless worker for a host of
radical causes – and was Secretary to the Pennsylvania Society for the
Abolition of Slavery when word reached Philadelphia of the
remarkable abilities of this slave living in Virginia. Rush wrote up an
account 1 of the visit paid to Fuller by two members of the society,
William Hartshorne and Samuel Coates, to send to the British hub of
the movement. The reason for this is clear from Rush’s covering letter
to an early report of Fuller’s abilities [Rush 1788, 306], as well as
from the note, which accompanied Rush’s account in the American
Museum:
The abolition society in London, having requested the
society for the abolition of slavery in Philadelphia, to
transmit to them such accounts of mental improvement, in
any of the blacks, as might fall under their notice, in order
the better to enable them to contradict those who assert
that the intellectual faculties of the negroes are not capable
of improvement equal to the rest of mankind, these
certificates were accordingly forwarded to London, with
the society’s last letters, in addition to others heretofore
sent. [Rush 1789, 62]
1 Rush’s letter to the London Society about Fuller (Appendix 1) is

not reproduced in the two-volume Princeton edition of Rush’s
letters [Rush 1951], the editor of which was presumably faithful
to his own conception of significance in interpreting his principle
of selection:
The intention has been to print all the available letters that
have some literary distinction or that tell something
significant about the writer or his times. [Rush 1951,
Introduction]
255
Fuller was, then, a clear demonstration that black people were

not to be distinguished from others by intellectual criteria; under the
circumstances of the slave trade, he was one of the few documented
demonstrations of this.
Why was such a demonstration necessary? A common
justification for slavery was that blacks were intrinsically, naturally,
inferior to whites [Barker 1978]. This view was promoted in the works
of philosophers who influenced the thinking of the age. John Locke
(1632-1704), for example, had showed how by reflecting on
differences of colour a child might “demonstrate by the Principle, It is
impossible for the same Thing to be, and not to be, that a Negro is not
a Man” [Locke 1690, 607] – a significant choice of example
[Caffentzis 1989, 193-202]. And notwithstanding his radical free-
thinking reputation, David Hume (1711-1776) inserted is footnote to
one of his essays:
I am apt to suspect the Negroes to be naturally inferior to
the Whites. There scarcely ever is a civilized nation of that
complexion, nor even any individual, eminent in either
action or speculation. No ingenious manufactures amongst
them, no arts, no sciences. … Such a uniform and constant
difference could not happen, in so many countries and
ages, if nature had not made an original distinction
between these breeds of men. Not to mention our colonies,
there are Negro slaves dispersed all over Europe, of whom
none ever discovered any symptoms of ingenuity, though
low people, without education, will start up amongst us,
and distinguish themselves in every profession. In
Jamaica, indeed, they talk of one Negro as a man of parts
and learning; but it is likely he is admired for slender
accomplishments, like a parrot who speaks a few words
plainly. [Hume 1741-1742, 123]
So blunt an assertion provided a guide for abolitionists in
suggesting how to set about refuting the argument, and thus knock out
a linchpin of the proslavery ideology: find a counterexample – a black
of parts, learning, or ingenuity. But as Hume’s comments on the
Jamaican make clear, a reported counterexample could simply be
256
Chapter 13
denied or laughed away if it clashed with one’s preconceptions. It is in

this context that we can better understand Rush’s concern to point out
that Hartshorne and Coates were “men of probity and respectable
characters” [Rush 1789], and his formally certifying the truth and
faithfulness of his report [Dickson 1789, 187]. Establishing the
reliability of the testimony was crucial to the purpose it was intended
to serve; the abolitionists were not interested in the information about
Fuller for academic reasons, as it were, and it would be useless if
discounted as unreliable or exaggerated. But if accepted as properly
attested, it would be a powerful weapon in serving the cause.
And so it proved; it is just this aspect that is picked up by the
writers who cited Fuller over the next few years and beyond. News of
his abilities spread fast through the antislavery community, and we
find a shorter account by Rush in an Oxford tract [Burgess 1789, 132-
133, 149-150], and his longer account [Appendix 1] reproduced
verbatim, the same year, in William Dickson’s passionate Letters on
Slavery [Dickson 1789, 185-7]. 2 The story had already appeared in
the monthly magazines, in the Universal Magazine for December
1788, and the Gentleman’s Magazine for the same month. The latter
pointed out the moral in terms that its readers could understand:
This is the more extraordinary as it is somewhere
remarked that few of the race of woolley-headed blacks
2 The antislavery tract by Dickson, who had been private secretary

to the Governor of Barbados, is interesting to us in making brief
mention of a Negro Poet and Mathematician by the name of
Francis Williams; little about Williams’ mathematics has come
to light yet, but the sample of his verse on Dickson’s title page
[Dickson 1789] should have sufficed to remove all doubts of
black mental capacity:
Pollenti stabilita manu (Deus almus eandem Oigenis
animam, nil prohibente dedit)
Ipsa coloris egens virtus, prudentia; honesto Nullus inest
animo, nullus in arte color.
257
can go farther in the art of enumeration than the number 5.

[Anonymous 1788, 1112] 3
At this period there was much French interest too. J. P. Brissot
de Warville (1754-1793), for example, the French revolutionary
politician who toured North America in 1788 as representative of the
Societé des Amis des Noirs, noted:
It has been generally thought, and even written by some
writers of note, that the Blacks are inferior to the Whites in
mental capacity. This opinion begins to disappear; the
Northern States furnish examples to the contrary. I shall
cite two, which are striking ones: the first [James Derham,
a black physician] proves that, by instruction, a Black may
be rendered capable of any of the professions: the second
[Thomas Fuller], that the head of a Negro may be
organized for the most astonishing calculations, and
consequently for all the sciences. [...] These instances
prove, without doubt, that the capacity of the Negroes may
be extended to anything; that they have only need of
instruction and liberty. [1794 I, 243]
Another French revolutionary, who cited Fuller in this context,
in his efforts to ensure equal rights for black and white in French
colonies, was the Abbé Henri Gregoire (1750-1831) [1810, 183-185].
And the most eloquent location of Fuller within this argument came
later in the 19th century, when the first black member of the Ohio
Legislature wrote his History of the Negro Race in America:
One of the standing arguments against the Negro was, that
he lacked the faculty of solving mathematical problems.
This charge was made without a disposition to allow him
3 The writer had evidently not read Barbot [1732, 414], which
gives the counting words from one to a thousand, in various
languages found along the Slave Coast (Togo and Benin),
showing various sophisticated numerations on a basically 5-20
system.
258
Chapter 13
an opportunity to submit himself to a proper test. It was

equivalent to putting out a man’s eyes, and then asserting
boldly that he cannot see; of manacling his ankles, and
charging him with the inability to run. But
notwithstanding all the prohibitions against instructing the
Negro, and his far remove from intellectual stimulants, the
subject to whom attention is now called [Thomas Fuller]
had within his own untutored intellect the elements of a
great mathematician. [...] That he was a prodigy, no one
will question. He was the wonder of the age. [Williams
1883, 398-399]
This vigorous rhetoric raises the question, which would surface
increasingly in the psychologistic phase that followed Scripture’s work
on prodigies a few years later, of how good a mathematician Fuller
was: did he indeed possess “the elements of a great mathematician”?
One obvious fact to emerge from the later comparative work on
calculating prodigies is that some – the mathematical Mozarts, as it
were – do turn into, or are already, notable mathematicians: Wallis,
Gauss, Ampere. At the other extreme, there are arithmetical prodigies
of the idiot savant kind, who combine this single remarkable skill with
no other apparent mathematical insight or creativity. It is well known,
too, that popular opinion regards any mathematical activity as
remarkable, and uses genius and similar words somewhat more freely
than historians might feel justified [Anonymous 1913]. We cannot
now tell into which category Fuller should be placed; whether he was
really a mute inglorious Newton is essentially unknowable, and indeed
a somewhat foolish line of inquiry. The following considerations are
more helpful in reaching an understanding of the significance of
Thomas Fuller.
Fuller was about 70 years old when he was visited by Hartshorne
and Coates, and correctly answered all their questions. His memory
was already failing, by his own account [Rush 1789, 62], and we have
no information about what he was capable of when in his prime, still
less what he would have been capable of under other circumstances. In
particular, there is insufficient evidence for the judgments made by
analysts in the later phases of inquiry, who felt the need to classify
Fuller and the other prodigies in various ways: Rouse Ball spoke of
259
him as a relatively “slow worker” [1917, 252], and Myers classified

his intelligence as “low” [1903, 80] – a claim which is belied by his
final response to Coates [Rush 1789, 62]. Fuller was brought to
America when he was 14 years old [Anonymous 1790, 123], that is, in
about 1724. Most probably he had already developed his mental
calculation abilities by then; certainly his exceptional abilities cannot
be understood except through closer examination of the cultural
context that stimulated their development.
This poses the question of Fuller’s African education: his
learning of number words, of a numeration system, of arithmetical
operations, of riddles and mathematical games, and so on. The extant
evidence on this in the early 18th century is as yet not great, although
we do know of an astronomer and mathematician of that period,
Muhammad ibn Muhammad, from the Fulani people of Katsina (now
northern Nigeria) [Zaslavsky 1973, 138-151], of whom an Egyptian
contemporary wrote, “He acquired this learning in his own country”
[Zaslavsky 1973, 151]. Among the sparse other evidence for 18th-
century sub-Saharan mathematical practice which we have at present,
the abilities of the inhabitants of Fida (on the coast of Benin) were
attested by John Barbot:
The Fidasians are so expert in keeping their accompts, that
they easily reckon as exact, and is quick by memory, as
we can do with pen and ink, though the sum amount to
never so many thousands: which very much facilitates the
trade the Europeans have with them; and is not half so
troublesome, as with other Guineans, who are commonly
very dull on this head. [Barbot 1732, 339]
Later in the century, the fervent antislavery crusader Thomas
Clarkson (1760-1846) gave a fuller comparative account of the
calculating abilities of African slave-traders:
It is astonishing with what facility the African brokers
reckon up the exchange of European goods for slaves. One
of these brokers has perhaps ten slaves to sell, and for each
of these he demands ten different articles. He reduces
them immediately by the head into bars, coppers, ounces,
260
Chapter 13
according to the medium of exchange that prevails in the

part of the country in which he resides, and immediately
strikes the balance.
The European, on the other hand, takes his pen, and with
great deliberation, and with all the advantages of
arithmetick and letters, begins to estimate also. He is so
unfortunate often, as to make a mistake; but he no sooner
errs, than he is detected by this man of inferiour capacity,
whom he can neither deceive in the name or quality of his
goods, nor in the balance of his account. Instances of this
kind are very frequent: and it is now the general complaint
of the captains sent upon the coast, that the African
brokers are so nice in their calculations, that they can
scarcely come off with a decent bargain.
I presume that instances of this kind will be received as
proofs of the existence of their understandings, all
arithmetical calculations being operations of the mind.
[Clarkson 1788, 125]
It is of course possible, as Scripture [1891, 2] suggests, that these
mental computational abilities of African slave-dealers were “brought
to the front or produced by the necessity of competing with English
traders armed with pencil and paper”; but this judgement shows an
over-willingness to ignore the social context of the traders’ lives. Their
abilities could have been brought to the fore only if there existed a
fertile cultural ground for their development, just as in the case of
Fuller’s talents.
Although it may be that the slave trade stimulated in some way
the powers of mental calculation among African brokers, it clearly
influenced in a very destructive way the subsequent development of
mathematics in sub-Saharan Africa. Recent research by one of us
[Gerdes 1989] has shown the destructive influence of the slave trade,
and colonialism in general, on the mathematical heritage embedded in
the sand-drawing tradition of the Tchokwe people of North-east
Angola. A systematic analysis of their standardized drawings,
collected by missionaries and ethnographers in the period 1930-1955,
makes explicit the mathematical knowledge of the akwa kuta sona
261
(professional drawing experts), especially of the properties of single

closed line patterns, and has also made possible the reconstruction of
their further mathematical knowledge, lost over time. Like the
professional knowledge of Tchokwe smiths, the knowledge of the
akwa kuta sona was mostly secret, transmitted from father to son.
When a blacksmith or a drawing expert was taken prisoner and sold as
a slave, his specific professional knowledge might disappear
completely from his village or region. Thus the slave trade was
extremely destructive of the development of the existing mathematical
traditions and potential, through breaking the professional continuity
and depriving Africa of bearers of mathematical knowledge and skill
such as Thomas Fuller.
Recent ethnomathematical research in Nigeria, as summarized
by Shirley [1988], shows the survival, nonetheless, of a rich tradition
of mental calculations among illiterate people. It would be interesting
and valuable to search for new records with data on the geographical
or ethnic origin of Thomas Fuller, 4 and to correlate this information
with ethnomathematical and historical research on the same region or
ethnic group. An ethnomathematical phase of investigations into Fuller
would be a suitable start to the third century after his death.
4 The gross statistics for the decade 1721-1730 show that nearly a
quarter of slaves transported in that period were from the Gold
Coast, and a further 20% from each of the Windward Coast
(Ivory Coast/Liberia) and the Bight of Benin (Volta to Benin)
[Curtin 1971, 367]. So Fuller was probably one of the 150,200
slaves shipped in the 1720s from somewhere between Liberia
and Benin. In that decade only 2% of slaves came from the Bight
of Biafra (including the Niger Delta), although the proportion
from here rose considerably later in the century.
262
Chapter 13
Appendix 1: From The American Museum, Vol. V (1789), pp. 62-63
Philadelphia, November 14, 1788
Account of a wonderful talent for arithmetical calculation,

in an African slave, living in Virginia.
There is now living, about four miles from Alexandria, in the

state of Virginia, a Negro slave of seventy years old, of the name of
Thomas Fuller, the property of Mrs. Elizabeth Coxe. This man
possesses a talent for arithmetical calculation; the history of which, I
conceive, merits a place in the records of the human mind. He is a
native of Africa, and can neither read nor write. Two gentlemen,
natives of Pennsylvania, viz. William Hartshorne and Samuel Coates,
men of probity and respectable characters, having heard, in traveling
through the neighbourhood, in which this slave lived, of his
extraordinary powers in arithmetic, sent for him, and had their
curiosity sufficiently gratified by the answers which he gave to the
following questions.
First. Upon being asked, how many seconds there are in a year
and a half, he answered in about two minutes, 47,304,000.
Second. On being asked how many seconds a man has lived,
who is seventy years, seventeen days and twelve hours old, he
answered, in a minute and a half, 2,210,500,800.
One of the gentlemen, who employed himself with his pen in
making these calculations, told him he was wrong, and that the sum
was not so great as he had said upon which the old man hastily replied,
“top, massa, you forget de leap year.” On adding the seconds of the
leap years to the others, the amount of the whole in both their sums
agreed exactly.
Third. The following question was then proposed to him:
suppose a farmer has six sows, and each sow has six female pigs, the
first year, and they all increase in the same proportion, to the end of
263
eight years, how many sows will the farmer then have? In ten minutes,
he answered, 34,588,806. The difference of time between his
answering this, and the two former questions, was occasioned by a
trifling mistake he made from a misapprehension of the question.
In the presence of Thomas Wistar and Benjamin W. Morris, two
respectable citizens of Philadelphia, he gave the amount of nine
figures, multiplied by nine.
He informed the first-mentioned gentlemen that he began his
application to figures by counting ten, and that when he was able to
count an hundred, he thought himself (to use his own words) a very
clever fellow.”
His first attempt after this was to count the number of hairs in a
cow’s tail, which he found to be 2872.
He next amused himself with counting, grain by grain, a bushel
of wheat and a bushel of flax-feed.
From this he was led to calculate with the most perfect accuracy,
how many shingles a house of certain dimensions would require to
cover it, and how many posts and rails were necessary to enclose, and
how many grains of corn were necessary to sow a certain quantity of
ground. From this application of his talents, his mistress has often
derived considerable benefit.
At the time he gave this account of himself, he said his memory
began to fail him – he was gray-haired, and exhibited several other
marks of the weakness of old age – he had worked hard upon a farm
during the whole of his life, but had never been intemperate in the use
of spirituous liquors. He spoke with great respect of his mistress, and
mentioned in a particular manner his obligations to her for refusing to
sell him, which she had been tempted to do by offers of large sums of
money, from several curious persons.
One of the gentlemen (mr. Coates) having remarked in his
presence, that it was a pity he had not had an education equal to his
genius; he said, “no massa – it is best I got no learning; for many
learned men be great fools.”
264
Chapter 13
Appendix 2: From the Columbian Centinel, December 29, 1790, No.

707, p. 123, col. 2, Boston, MA
Died – NEGRO TOM, the famous African Calculator, aged 80

years. He was the property of Mrs Elizabeth Cox of Alexandria. Tom
was a very black man. He was brought to this country at the age of 14,
and was sold as a slave with many of his unfortunate Countrymen.
This man was a prodigy. Though he could neither read nor write,
he had perfectly acquired the art of enumeration. The power of
recollection and the strength of memory were so complete in him, that
he could multiply seven into itself, that product by 7, and the product,
so produced, by seven, for seven times. He could give the number of
months, days, weeks, hours, minutes, and seconds in any period of
time that any person chose to mention, allowing in his calculation for
all the leap years that happened in the time; and would give the
number of poles, yards, feet, inches, and barley-corns in any given
distance, say the diameter of the earth’s orbit; and in every calculation
he would produce the true answer in less time than ninety-nine men in
a hundred would produce with their pens. And, what was, perhaps,
more extraordinary, though interrupted in the progress of his
calculation, and engaged in discourse upon any other subject, his
operations were not thereby in the least deranged, so as to make it
necessary for him to begin again, but he would go on from where he
had left off, and could give any, or all, of the stages through which the
calculation had passed. His first essay in numbers was counting the
hairs in the tails of the cows and horses, which he was set to keep.
With little instruction he would have been able to cast up plats of land.
He took great notice of the lines of land, which he had seen surveyed.
He drew just conclusions from facts; surprisingly so, for his
opportunities. Thus died Negro Tom, this self-taught Arithmetician,
this untutored scholar! Had his opportunity of improvement been
equal to those of thousands of his fellow-men, neither the Royal
Society of London, the Academy of Sciences at Paris, nor even a
NEWTON himself, need have been ashamed to acknowledge him a
Brother in Science.
265
REFERENCES
Anonymous 1788. Gentleman’s magazine 58, December, 1112.

Anonymous 1790. Died – NEGRO TOM, the famous African
calculator, aged 80 years. Columbian Centinel 707, December
29, 123. [= Appendix 2]
Anonymous 1792. Universal magazine 90, April, 265.
Anonymous 1913. A Negro mathematical genius. Literary digest 46,
April 26, 971-972.
Barbot, J. 1732. A description of the coasts of North and South
Guinea, Vol. 5 of Churchill, A and J. A collection of voyages and
travels. London: Walthoe.
Barker, A. J. 1978. The African link: British attitudes to the Negro in
the era of the Atlantic slave trade, 1550-1807. London: Cass.
Barlow, F. 1951. Mental prodigies. London: Hutchinson’s Scientific
and Technical Publications.
Binet, A. 1894. Psychologie des grands calculateurs et joueurs
d’echecs. Paris: Hachette.
Brissot de Warville, J. P. 1794. New travels in the United States of
America performed in 1788. London: Jordan.
Burgess, T. 1789. Considerations on the aholition of slavery and the
slave trade, upon grounds of natural, religious, and political
duty. Oxford: Prince and Cooke.
Caffentzis, C. G. 1989. Clipped coins, abused words, and civil
government: John Locke’s philosophy of money. New York:
Autonomedia.
Carison, E. T. 1975. Rush, Benjamin. In Dictionary of scientific
biography, C. C. Gillispie, Ed., Vol. XI, pp. 616-618. New York:
Scribner’s.
Clarkson, T. 1788. An essay on the slavery and commerce of the
human species, particularly the African. London: Phillips.
266
Chapter 13
Curtin, P. D. 1971. The Atlantic slave trade 1600-1800. In History of

West Africa, J. F. A. Ajayi and M. Crowder, Eds., Vol. 1, pp.
240-268. London: Longman.
Dickson, W. 1789. Letters on slavery. London: Phillips.
Fey, J & Alexander, J. W.1969. Calculating prodigies. In Historical
topics for the mathematics classroom, pp. 159-160. Washington:
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
Gerdes, P. 1989. Rekonstruktion und Analyse von mathematischen
Elementen in der Tchokwe Sandzeichnen Tradition. In
Ethnomathematische Studien, P. Gerdes. Maputo: ISP [English
language edition: Sona Geometry from Angola: Mathematics of
an African Tradition, Polimetrica International Science
Publishers, Monza, 2006, 232 pp.].
Grégoire, H. B. 1810. An enquiry concerning the intellectual and
moral faculties, and literature of Negroes. Brooklyn: Warden.
Hadamard, J. 1945. The psychology of invention in the mathematical
field. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.
Hair, P. E. H. 1978. The Atlantic slave trade and black Africa.
London: The Historical Association.
Hoefer, J. C. F. 1857. Nouvelle biographie générale, Vol. 9, art.
Fuller. Paris: Didot.
Hume, D. 1741-1742. Of national characters, Essay XX. In Essays,
literary, moral, and political. Edition used London: Ward, Locke
and Tyler, n.d.
Locke, J. 1690. An essay concerning human understanding; the edition
used is that edited by P. H. Nidditch. Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1975.
Mitchell, F. D. 1907. Mathematical prodigies. American Journal of
Psychology 18, 61-143.
Myers, F. W.H. 1903. Human personality and its survival of bodily
death. London: Longmans, Green.
Needles, E. 1848. An historical memoir of the Pennsylvania Society
for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery; the relief of free Negroes
unlawfully held in bondage, and for improving the condition of
the African race. Philadelphia: Merrihew and Thompson.
267
Newell, V., Gipson, J., Waldo Rick, L., and Stubblefield, B. (Eds.)
1980. Black mathematicians and their works. Ardmore, PA:
Dorrance.
Piaget, J. 1952. The child’s conception of number. London: Routledge
& Kegan Paul.
Poincaré, H. 1908. Science et méthode. Paris: Flammarion.
Rouse Ball, W. W. 1917. Mathematical recreations and essays, 7th ed.
London : Macmillan & Co.
___ 1956. Calculating prodigies. In The world of mathematics, J.
Newman, Ed., Vol. I, pp. 467- 487. New York: Simon &
Schuster.
Rush, B. 1788. An account of the extraordinary powers of calculation,
by memory, possessed by a Negro slave, in Maryland,
communicated in a letter from Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, to a
gentleman in Manchester. Universal Magazine 83, December,
306.
___ 1789. Account of a wonderful talent for arithmetical calculation,
in an African slave, living in Virginia. American Museum V, 62.
[= Appendix 1]
___ 1951. Letters, L. H. Butterfield, Ed. Princeton: Princeton Univ.
Press.
Scripture, E. W. 1891. Arithmetical prodigies. American Journal of
Psychology 4, 1-59.
Shirley, L. 1988. Historical und ethnomathematical algorithms for
classroom use, preprint. Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University.
Smith, S. B. 1983. The great mental calculators. New York: Columbia
Univ. Press.
Stedman, J. G. 1796. Narrative of a five years expedition against the
revolted Negroes of Surinam, South America. London: Johnson.
Thomson, R. 1968. The pelican history of psychology.
Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Treffert, D. A. 1989. Extraordinary people: An exploration of the
savant syndrome. London: Bantam Press.
268
Chapter 13
Williams G. W. 1883. History of the Negro race in America from 1619

to 1880. New York: Putnam’s.
Zaslavsky, C. 1973. Africa counts. Boston: Prindle, Weber & Schmidt.
269
270
Author
About the author
Paulus Gerdes has been a professor of mathematics at universities

in Mozambique. He served as Head of the Department of Mathematics
and Physics (1981-1983), as Dean of the Faculty of Education (1983-
1987), and as Dean of the Faculty of Mathematical Sciences (1987-
1989) of the Eduardo Mondlane University.
From 1989 to 1996 he was the President (Vice-Chancellor) of the

Pedagogical University, with branches in the South, Centre and North
of Mozambique. He was a visiting professor at several universities in
Brazil, France, Peru, South Africa, and the United States.
Since 1998 Professor Paulus Gerdes has been Director of the

Mozambican Ethnomathematics Research Centre in Maputo. From
2000 to 2004 he was the senior advisor to the Minister of Education. In
2006-2007, he was president of the founding commission of the Lurio
University, Mozambique’s third public university established in
Nampula in the north of the country. Currently, he is senior advisor for
research and quality of education at the ISTEG-university in Boane, in
the south of Mozambique.
Among his international functions it may be mentioned that Dr.

Paulus Gerdes was, from 1986 to 2013, Chair of the African
Mathematical Union Commission for the History of Mathematics in
Africa (AMUCHMA). He was President of the International
Association for Science and Cultural Diversity (2001-2005). From
1991 to 1995 he was Secretary of the Southern African Mathematical
Sciences Association (SAMSA). He was a member of the Executive
Committee of the African Mathematical Union (1986-1995, 2000-
2004). Since 2000, he has been President of the International Study
Group for Ethnomathematics. He is a fellow of the African Academy
of Sciences (AAS) and of the International Academy for the History of
271
Paulus Gerdes: AWAKENING OF GEOMETRICAL THOUGHT IN EARLY CULTURE
Science. He was elected, in 2005, and re-elected in 2011, AAS Vice-

President, responsible for the Southern African region.
In 2012 Professor Gerdes received the highest distinction “Prize

for Excellence in Higher Education (Research and Teaching)” on the
occasion of the commemoration of 50 years of Higher Education in
Mozambique.
272
Books
Books in English authored by Paulus Gerdes
* Ethnomathematics and Education in Africa, ISTEG, Boane &

Lulu, Morrisville NC, 2014, 270 pp. (expanded edition) #
[First edition: Institute for International education, University of
Stockholm (Sweden), 1995, 184 pp.]
* Ethnogeometry: Awakening of Geometrical Thought in Early
Culture, ISTEG, Boane & Lulu, 2014, 210 pp. #
(Foreword: Dr. Dirk Struik, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, USA)
[First edition: Awakening of Geometrical Thought in Early
Culture, MEP Press (University of Minnesota), Minneapolis
MN, 2003, 200 pp.]
* Sona Geometry from Angola: Volume 2: Educational and
Mathematical Explorations of African Designs on the Sand,
ISTEG, Boane & Lulu, 2013, 220 pp. #
(Foreword: Dr. Mohamed El Tom, Garden City College for
Science and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan; Translation: Dr.
Darrah Chavey, Beloit College WI, USA);
* Women, Culture and Geometry in Southern Africa, Mozambican
Ethnomathematics Research Centre, Maputo & Lulu, 2013, 276
pp. (expanded edition) #
(Foreword: Dr. Sibusiso Moyo, Secretary of the African
Mathematical Union Commission on Women in Mathematics in
Africa, and Research Director of the Durban University of
Technology, South Africa);
# Distributed by Lulu, Morrisville NC, USA:

273
Afterword: Dr. Ubiratan D’Ambrosio, University of São Paulo,

Brazil, and Dr. Jens Hoyrup, Roskilde University, Denmark)
[Earlier editions: Women, Art and Geometry in Southern Africa,
Africa World Press, Lawrenceville NJ, 1998, 244 pp.; Women
and Geometry in Southern Africa, Universidade Pedagógica,
Maputo, 1995, 201 pp.]
(Special Commendation, Noma Award for Publishing in Africa
1996)
* Geometry and Basketry of the Bora in the Peruvian Amazon,
Mozambican Ethnomathematics Research Centre, Maputo &
Lulu, 2013, 176 pp. (full colour edition) #
(Foreword: Dr. Dubner Tuesta, Instituto Superior Pedagógico de
Loreto, Peru)
[Earlier black-and-white edition: Centre for Mozambican Studies
and Ethnoscience, Maputo, Lulu, 2009, 176 pp. (with colour
supplement, 36 pp.)]
* 1000 Doctoral Theses by Mozambicans or about Mozambique,
Academy of Sciences of Mozambique, Maputo & Lulu, 2013,
236 pp. #
(Foreword: Dr. Orlando Quilambo, President of the Academy of
Sciences of Mozambique)
[First edition: Lulu, 2007, 124 pp.; Second edition: Doctoral
Theses by Mozambicans or about Mozambique, Academy of
Sciences of Mozambique, Maputo & Lulu, 2011, 204 pp.]
* Otthava: Making Baskets and Doing Geometry in the Makhuwa
Culture in the Northeast of Mozambique, ISTEG, Boane & Lulu,
2012, 290 pp. (full colour edition) #
(Foreword: Dr. Abdulcarimo Ismael, Lurio University, Nampula,
Mozambique;
Afterword: Dr. Mateus Katupha, former Minister of Culture of
Mozambique)
[Earlier black-and-white edition: Lúrio University, Nampula &
Lulu, 2010, 290 pp. (with colour supplement, 68 pp.)]
* Lusona – Geometrical Recreations from Africa: Problems and
Solutions, ISTEG, Boane & Lulu, 2012, 216 pp. (Colour edition)
#
274
Books
(Forewords: Dr. Dirk Huylenbrouck, Sint-Lucas College,

Brussels, Belgium; Dr. Jaime de Carvalho e Silva, Secretary-
General, International Commission for Mathematics Instruction)
[Earlier black-and-white bilingual editions without solutions:
Universidade Pedagógica, Maputo, 1991, 118 pp.; L’Harmattan,
Paris, 1997, 127 pp. (English-French)]
* Drawings from Angola: Living Mathematics, Lulu, 2012, 72 pp.
(Children’s book) (Colour edition) #
[First black-and-white edition: Lulu, 2007] #
* History of Mathematics in Africa: AMUCHMA 25 Years (co-
author Dr. Ahmed Djebbar), AMUCHMA & Lulu, 2011, 2
volumes (Volume 1: 1986-1999; Volume 2: 2000-2011), 924 pp.
#
(Forewords: Dr. Saliou Touré, President, African Mathematical
Union; Dr. Craig Fraser & Dr. Elena Ausejo, Chair & Secretary,
International Commission for the History of Mathematics; Dr.
Eberhard Knobloch, President, International Academy for the
History of Science;
Afterwords: Dr. Aderemi Kuku, Honorary President, African
Mathematical Union; Dr. Jean-Pierre Ezin, Commissioner for
Human Resources, Sciences and Technology of the African
Union)
* African Pythagoras: A Study in Culture and Mathematics
Education, Mozambican Ethnomathematics Research Centre,
Maputo & Lulu, 2011, 124 pp. (Colour edition) #
[First black-and-white edition: Universidade Pedagógica,
Maputo, 1994, 103 pp.]
* Tinhlèlò, Interweaving Art and Mathematics: Colourful Circular
Basket Trays from the South of Mozambique, Mozambican
pp. (Colour edition) #
(Foreword: Aires Aly, Prime Minister of Mozambique)
* Hats from Mozambique / Chapéus de Moçambique, Associação
Índico, Maputo & Lulu, 2010, 52 pp. (Bilingual edition) (Colour
edition) #
275
* Sipatsi: Basketry and Geometry in the Tonga Culture of

Inhambane (Mozambique, Africa), Lulu, 2009, 422 pp. & Sipatsi
Images in Colour: A Supplement, 56 pp. #
(Foreword: Alcido Guenha, Minister of Education of
Mozambique;
Afterword: Dr. Hippolyte Foffack, Nelson Mandela Institution &
Worldbank, Washington DC, USA; Afterthoughts: Dr. Joan
Conolly, Durban University of Technology, South Africa)
* Adventures in the World of Matrices, Nova Science Publishers
(Series Contemporary Mathematical Studies), New York, 2008,
196 pp.
(Foreword: Dr. Gaston N’Guerekata, Morgan State University,
USA)
* African Basketry: A Gallery of Twill-Plaited Designs and
Patterns, Lulu, 2007, 220 pp. #
(Foreword: Dr. Donald Crowe, University of Wisconsin, USA)
* Lunda Geometry: Mirror Curves, Designs, Knots, Polyominoes,
Patterns, Symmetries, Universidade Pedagógica, Maputo &
Lulu, 2007, 198 pp. #
[First edition: Universidade Pedagógica, Maputo, 1996, 149 pp.]
* Mathematics in African History and Cultures. An annotated
Bibliography (co-author Dr. Ahmed Djebbar), African
Mathematical Union & Lulu, 2007, 430 pp. #
(Foreword: Dr. Jan Persens, President of the African
Mathematical Union)
(Special Mention, Conover-Porter Award, African Studies
Association USA)
[First edition: African Mathematical Union, Cape Town, 2004,
262 pp.]
* African Doctorates in Mathematics: A Catalogue, African
Mathematical Union & Lulu, 2007, 383 pp. #
(Foreword: Dr. Mohamed Hassan, President of the African
Academy of Sciences)
276
Books
* Sona Geometry from Angola: Mathematics of an African

Tradition, Polimetrica International Science Publishers, Monza
(Italy), 2006, 232 pp.
(Foreword: Dr. Arthur B. Powell, Rutgers University, Newark,
USA)
[First edition: Sona Geometry: Reflections on the sand drawing
tradition of peoples of Africa south of the Equator, Universidade
Pedagógica, Maputo, 1994, Vol. 1, 200 pp.]
* Basketry, Geometry, and Symmetry in Africa and the Americas,
E-book, Visual Mathematics, Beograd (Serbia), 2004
[http://www.mi.sanu.ac.yu/vismath/, ‘Special E-book issue’
(2004)].
* Geometry from Africa: Mathematical and Educational
Explorations, The Mathematical Association of America,
Washington DC, 1999, 210 pp.
(Foreword: Dr. Arthur B. Powell, Rutgers University)
(Outstanding Academic Book 2000, Choice Magazine)
* Sipatsi: Technology, Art and Geometry in Inhambane (co-author
Gildo Bulafo), Universidade Pedagógica, Maputo, 1994, 102 pp.
* Marx: ‘Let us demystify calculus’, MEP-Press (University of
Minnesota), Minneapolis MN, 1985, 129 pp.
* Examples of applied mathematics in agriculture and veterinary
science, NECC Mathematics Commission, Cape Town, 1991, 54
pp. (booklet)
Puzzle books:
* Enjoy puzzling with biLLies, Lulu, 2009, 248 pp. #
* More puzzle fun with biLLies, Lulu, 2009, 76 pp. #
* Puzzle fun with biLLies, Lulu, 2009, 76 pp. #
* The Bisos Game: Puzzles and Diversions, Lulu, 2008, 72 pp. #
Books edited:
* Explorations in Ethnomathematics and Ethnoscience in
Mozambique, Universidade Pedagógica, Maputo, 1994, 76 pp.
277
* Mathematics, Education and Society (co-editors: Cristine Keitel,

Alan Bishop, Peter Damerow), Science and Technology
Education Document Series No. 35, UNESCO, Paris, 1989, 193
pp.
The following book presents an introduction to Paulus Gerdes’

ethnomathematical studies:
* Introducing Paulus Gerdes’ Ethnomathematics Books: A
Collection of Prefaces, Forewords, Afterwords, and
Afterthoughts, Lulu, 2009, 134 pp. #
278
Books
Books in Portuguese authored by Paulus Gerdes
* Aventuras no Mundo dos Triângulos (Adventures in the World

of Triangles), Alcance Editores, Maputo, 2013, 104 pp.
(Foreword: Dr. Marcos Cherinda, Universidade Pedagógica,
Maputo, Mozambique)
[Earlier editions: Lulu, 2008; Ministério da Educação e Cultura,
Maputo, 2005, 114 pp.] #
* Viver a matemática: Desenhos de Angola, Edições Húmus,
Ribeirão, 2013, 64 pp. (colour edition)
(Foreword: Joana Latas, Associação de Professores de
Matemática, Lisbon, Portugal)
[Earlier editions: Desenhos de Angola: Viver a matemática,
Editorial Diáspora, São Paulo, 2010; Desenhos da África,
Scipione, 1990, 64 pp. (Foreword: Márcio Imenes, São Paulo,
Brazil)]
* Tinhlèlo, Entrecruzando Arte e Matemática: Peneiras Coloridas
do Sul de Moçambique, Alcance Editores, Maputo, 2012, 132
pp. (colour edition)
(Foreword: Aires Ali, Prime Minister of Mozambique)
[First edition: Lulu, 2010, 132 pp.] #
* Lusona: Recreações Geométricas de África: Problemas e
Soluções, Lulu, 2012, 216 pp. (colour edition) #
(Forewords: Dr. Dirk Huylenbrouck, Sint-Lucas College,
Brussels, Belgium; Dr. Jaime Carvalho e Silva, University of
Coimbra, Portugal)
[Earlier black-and-white editions: Moçambique Editora, Maputo
& Texto Editora, Lisboa 2002, 128 pp.; Universidade
Pedagógica, Maputo, 1991, 117 pp.]
279
* Otthava: Fazer Cestos e Geometria na Cultura Makhuwa do

Nordeste de Moçambique, ISTEG, Boane & Lulu, 2012, 292 pp.
(colour edition) #
(Foreword: Dr. Abdulcarimo Ismael, Lurio University, Nampula,
Mozambique;
Afterword: Dr. Mateus Katupha, former Minister of Culture of
Mozambique)
[First black-and-white edition: Universidade Lúrio, Nampula &
Lulu, 2007, 292 pp.] #
* Geometria Sona de Angola: Matemática duma Tradição
Africana, ISTEG, Boane & Lulu, 2012, 244 pp. (Colour edition)
#
(Foreword: Dr. Arthur Powell, Rutgers University, Newark,
USA)
[Expanded and updated black-and-white edition: Lulu, 2008, 244
pp. #; First edition: Universidade Pedagógica, Maputo, 1993,
199 pp.]
* Etnogeometria: Cultura e o Despertar do Pensamento
Geométrico, ISTEG, Boane & Lulu, 2012, 230 pp. #
[Earlier editions: Sobre o despertar do pensamento geométrico,
Universidade Federal de Paraná, Curitiba (Brazil), 1992, 105
pp.; Cultura e o Despertar do Pensamento Geométrico,
Universidade Pedagógica, Maputo, 1992, 146 pp.]
(Forewords: Dr. Ubiratan D’Ambrosio, University of Campinas,
Brazil; Dr. Dirk Struik, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge MA, USA)
* Etnomatemática: Cultura, Matemática, Educação, ISTEG,
Boane & Lulu, 2012, 172 pp. #
(Foreword: Dr. Ubiratan D’Ambrosio, University of Campinas)
[Earlier edition: Universidade Pedagógica, Maputo, 1992, 115
pp.]
* Teses de Doutoramento de Moçambicanos ou sobre
Moçambique (Doctoral dissertations by Mozambicans or about
Mozambique), Academia de Ciências de Moçambique, Maputo,
2011, 177 pp.
280
Books
(Foreword: Dr. Orlando Quilambo, President of the Academy of

Sciences of Mozambique)
[Updated edition. First edition: Ministério da Ciência e
Tecnologia, Maputo, 2006, 115 pp. (Foreword: Dr. Venâncio
Massingue, Minister of Science and Technology of
Mozambique)]
* Mundial de Futebol e de Trançados, Lulu, 2011, 76 pp. #
(Foreword: Dr. Maria do Carmo Domite, Rodrigo Abreu, Eliane
dos Santos, São Paulo University, Brazil) (Children’s book)
* Geometria dos Trançados Bora na Amazônia Peruana, Livraria
da Física, São Paulo, 2011, 190 pp.
[First edition: Geometria e Cestaria dos Bora na Amazónia
Peruana, Centro Moçambicano de Pesquisa Etnomatemática
(Mozambican Ethnomathematics Research Centre), Maputo &
Lulu, 2007, 176 pp.] #
(Preface: Dr. Dubner Tuesta, Instituto Superior Pedagógico de
Loreto, Iquitos, Peru)
* Mulheres, Cultura e Geometria na África Austral, Centro
Moçambicano de Pesquisa Etnomatemática, Maputo & Lulu,
2011, 200 pp. #
* Aventuras no Mundo das Matrizes, Lulu, 2011, 258 pp. #
(Preface: Dr. Sarifa Magide Fagilde, Universidade Pedagógica,
Maputo)
* Pitágoras Africano: Um estudo em Cultura e Educação
Matemática, Centro Moçambicano de Pesquisa Etnomatemática,
Maputo & Lulu, 2011, 118 pp. (colour edition) #
[First black-and-white edition: Universidade Pedagógica,
Maputo, 1992]
* Da etnomatemática a arte-design e matrizes cíclicas (From
ethnomathematics to art-design and cyclic matrices), Editora
Autêntica, Belo Horizonte, 2010, 182 pp.
(Foreword: Dr. Marcelo Borba, State University of São Paulo,
Brazil;
Afterword: Dr. Ubiratan D’Ambrosio, São Paulo University,
Brazil)
281
* Exemplos de aplicações da matemática na agricultura e na

veterinária, Lulu, 2008, 72 pp. #
[First edition:, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, 1982,
64 pp.]
* Os manuscritos filosófico-matemáticos de Karl Marx sobre o
cálculo diferencial. Uma introdução (The philosophical-
mathematical manuscripts of Karl Marx about differential
calculus), Lulu, 2008, 108 pp. #
[First edition: Karl Marx: Arrancar o véu misterioso à
matemática, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, 1983,
112 pp.]
* Etnomatemática: Reflexões sobre Matemática e Diversidade
Cultural (Ethnomathematics: Reflections on Mathematics and
Cultural Diversity), Edições Húmus, Ribeirão (Portugal), 2007,
281 pp.
(Foreword: Dr. Jaime Carvalho e Silva, University of Coimbra,
Portugal)
* Sipatsi: Cestaria e Geometria na Cultura Tonga de Inhambane
(Geometry and Basketry in the Tonga culture of Inhambane),
Moçambique Editora, Maputo & Texto Editora, Lisbon, 2003,
176 pp.
(Foreword: Alcido Nguenha, Minister of Education of
Mozambique)
* Sipatsi: Tecnologia, Arte e Geometria em Inhambane (co-author
Gildo Bulafo), Universidade Pedagógica, Maputo, 1994, 102 pp.
* Geometria Sona: Reflexões sobre uma tradição de desenho em
povos da África ao Sul do Equador (Sona Geometry: Reflections
on a drawing tradition among African peoples South of the
Equator), Universidade Pedagógica, Maputo, 1993/1994, 3
volumes, 489 pp.
* Teoremas famosos da Geometria (Famous theorems of
geometry) (co-author Marcos Cherinda), Universidade
Pedagógica, Maputo, 1992, 120 pp.
* Trigonometria, Manual da 11ª classe (Trigonometry book for
grade 11), Ministério da Educação e Cultura, Maputo, 1981, 105
pp.
282
Books
* Trigonometria, Manual da 10ª classe (Trigonometry book for

grade 10), Ministério da Educação e Cultura, Maputo, 1980, 188
pp.
Puzzle books:
* Aprende brincando: Puzzles de bisos e biLLies, Alcance
Editores, Maputo, 2014, 208 pp.
* Mais divertimento com puzzles de biLLies, Lulu, 2010, 76 pp. #
* Divertimento com puzzles de biLLies, Lulu, 2010, 76 pp. #
* Divirta-se com puzzles de biLLies, Lulu, 2010, 250 pp. #
* Jogo dos bisos. Puzzles e divertimentos, Lulu, 2008, 68 pp. #
* Puzzles e jogos de bitrapézios, Lulu, 2008, 99 pp. #
* Jogos e puzzles de meioquadrados, Lulu, 2008, 92 pp. #
* Jogo de bissemis. Mais que cem puzzles, Lulu, 2008, 87 pp. #
* Puzzles de tetrisos e outras aventuras no mundo dos poliisos,
Lulu, 2008, 188 pp. #
Books edited:
* A numeração em Moçambique: Contribuição para uma reflexão
sobre cultura, língua e educação matemática (Numeration in
Mozambique: Contribution towards a reflection on culture,
language, and mathematics education), Mozambican
pp. #
[First edition: Universidade Pedagógica, Maputo, 1993, 159 pp.]
* Matemática? Claro!, Manual Experimental da 8ª Classe
(Experimental mathematics book for grade 8), Instituto Nacional
para o Desenvolvimento da Educação (INDE), Maputo, 1990, 96
pp.
283
284

Etnomatemática e Educação Na África

Diunggah oleh

Informasi Dokumen

Judul Asli

Hak Cipta

Format Tersedia

Bagikan dokumen Ini

Bagikan atau Tanam Dokumen

Opsi Berbagi

Apakah menurut Anda dokumen ini bermanfaat?

Apakah konten ini tidak pantas?

Hak Cipta:

Format Tersedia

Etnomatemática e Educação Na África

Diunggah oleh

Hak Cipta:

Format Tersedia

Copyright ©2014 by Paulus Gerdes

Second Edition (January 2014):

Author: Paulus Gerdes

Photograph on the front cover:

About the author 271

The book Ethnomathematics and Education in Africa was

The first of these two papers is the revised version of an invited

1 Faculty of Mathematics, The Open University, Milton Keynes,

The Secretary of the International Study Group on

1 See K. Keitel, A. Bishop, P. Damerow, P. Gerdes (eds.) (1989):

doing and elaborating mathematics in the classroom.

2 Supported by SAREC (Sweden)

mathematics. As many traditions are nowadays rather obsolete, the

3 Franzbecker Verlag, Bad Salzdethfurth, Germany, 1992, 360 pp.

elements into mathematics education is presented. The paper confronts

I am grateful to SAREC (Swedish Agency for Research

Societal and educational background

Three important publications on the challenges to the South in

* Updated version of an invited paper presented at the Symposium

These profound studies delineate the societal and educational

that “Africa is in serious trouble, not because its people have no

A major challenge to mathematics education

African countries face the problem of low ‘levels’ of attainment

4 Cf. P.Gerdes, ‘On the history of mathematics in Africa South of

* Langdon, N. (1989): Cultural starting points for

Ethnomathematics Research Project in Mozambique

Ki-Zerbo stresses (p. 87) that all educational renovation in

* Bishop, A. (1988a): Mathematical enculturation, a cultural

* Draisma, J. et al. (1986): Mathematics Education in

anthropological contributions to the genesis and didactics of geometry

basket weavers ‘prefer’ certain symmetries: Fivefold Symmetry

14 Namnären, Göteborg (Sweden), Vol. 15, No. 1, 38-41.

geometrical recreations of Africa (1991) 19 mathematical amusements

19 Portuguese, English and French language editions,

Draisma a communication on “Mental addition and subtraction in

The concept of ethnomathematics is relatively new among

In the ethnological dictionary of Panoff and Perrin are presented

* Translation of the first part of the introduction to the book

2 Cf. the definition of Lévi-Strauss of ethnozoology: “... the

considers ethnoscience in a very different way. E.g., C. Favrod

Genesis of the concept of ethnomathematics among

Colonial education presented mathematics generally as

against the racist and (neo)colonial prejudices, that it reflects, against

experienced teachers and teachers in training some of the ‘non-

5 Students and colleagues of D’Ambrosio, like Carraher,

* Folk mathematics [Mellin-Olsen, 1986]: the mathematics

The proposals of new concepts are provisional. They belong to a

Concept, accent or movement?

According to the editorial comment, entitled

the plaiting methods used by fishermen to make their fish traps,

mathematics and of cultural anthropology (ethnography). At a first

(1) ethnomathematics ⊂ mathematics.

At the same time, however, the investigation of a concrete ethno-

same Ferreira in 1986, that ethnomathematics constitutes a branch of

(2) ethnomathematics ⊂ ethnology,

as it analyses “the mathematical knowledge, practised in the daily life

(3) ethnomathematics ⊂ didactics of mathematics.

The same idea is also stressed at the end of the aforementioned

7 Cf. the earlier studies of the ethnologist White and of the

reality, however, an important of the contents of this school

8 Cf. e.g. Bishop: “One of the greatest ironies … is that several

* ‘Ethnomathematical studies’ also look for other culture

D’Ambrosio, Ubiratan [1976]: Matemática e sociedade, Ciência e