[Maths-Education] Basketry & Geometry, Education, Makhuwa Culture, Mozambique

[Paulus Gerdes]

Please forward to other colleagues who may be interested: 

Dear colleagues,

for those of you who read Portuguese or like to see the pictures and
drawings, the book Otthava: Fazer Cestos e Geometria na Cultura Makhuwa do
Nordeste de Mocambique [Otthava: Making Baskets and Doing Geometry in the
Makhuwa Culture of Northeast Mozambique], published by the Lurio University
(Nampula, Mozambique), is now internationally available, both in print (292
pp.)and as a download, from Lulu.com in Morrisville NC (search paulus gerdes
or go to http://stores.lulu.com/pgerdes).

The book results of over 25 years of involvement with the Makhuwa culture,
research and experimentation.  About 4 million Makhuwa live in the Northeast
of Mozambique. The Makhuwa culture, in particular basketry, is rich in
geometric exploration.  The book analyzes woven hats, fish traps, musical
instruments, baskets, bowls, bags, mats, etc.  Mathematical topics that are
revealed and explored are, among others, polygons, polyhedra, spirals,
symmetries, linear and plane patterns, knots, circles ...  The book includes
activities for the reader.  It is written for a large public, from (future)
mathematics teachers to all with an interest in African cultures or in
ethnomathematics. The chapters include also comparative ethnographic notes.

The preface (Ethnomathematics: Let us value our culture) and the afterword
(Otthava: Three proposals for reading the book) are authored by the
ethnomathematician Abdulcarimo Ismael and the linguist Mateus Katupha
(Minister of Culture of Mozambique, 1991-2000).  They are the first Makhuwa
with doctorates about Makhuwa culture - language and mathematics.

Paulus Gerdes

Vice-President, African Academy of Sciences

Research Center for Mathematics, Culture and Education

C.P. 915, Maputo, Mozambique

Other books by the same author available from
http://stores.lulu.com/pgerdes:

* Mathematics in African History and Cultures. An Annotated Bibliography
(co-author: Ahmed Djebbar);

* African Doctorates in Mathematics: A Catalogue;

* Doctoral Theses of Mozambicans and about Mozambique;

* Drawings from Angola: Living mathematics (book for children).