Comments on: Ishango, The Cradle of Mathematics

By: Tapiwa Chadenga

Tapiwa Chadenga — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 16:18:42 +0000

Thanks for the delightful read.

By: Tapiwa Chadenga

Tapiwa Chadenga — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 16:03:13 +0000

Thanks Ian, I look forward to investigating your suggestions.

By: Christof Born

Christof Born — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 15:52:51 +0000

New speculations about the Ishango bones: https://christofborn.net/

By: Ian Mordant

Ian Mordant — Sat, 22 Dec 2018 17:49:20 +0000

Hi Tapiwa, Since evolution tends to think that humans first evolved in Southern Africa, it seems perfectly reasonable that the first mathematics done by people was done there.

Incidentally Bertrand Russell was fond of saying something along the lines of ‘the man who first noticed that a brace of pheasants, a man and a woman were examples of the number 2 took the greatest intellectual jump in human history’

Russell was also fond of pointing out that his definition of 2 arose on page 250 of his Pricipia mathematica.

Finally urge you to publicise the World Community Grid, (worldcommunitygrid.org) a platform which enables people to use their computers to find solutions to numerous diseases which afflict people, not least in Africa. I am delightesd to think that when I don’t use my PC it is calculating away 24/7 working to contain or prevent EBOLA, ZIKA< HIV etc. What we mathematically educated people should be pushing.

I'd urge you to expand your article to include the above, unless you can find some fault with it.

All the best at UCT. Where I did my M.Sc in maths, 1971 to 1973.

By: Der Ishango-Knochen und die Primzahlen | guschas

Der Ishango-Knochen und die Primzahlen | guschas — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 09:33:28 +0000

[…] haben, das über ein einfaches Zählen von Dingen hinausging. Er gibt zudem Anlass, über den Beitrag Afrikas südlich der Sahara zu der Entwicklung der Mathematik nachzudenken. Ein faszinierendes […]

By: Mathemafrica - Translation competition: Galileoscope give away!

Mathemafrica - Translation competition: Galileoscope give away! — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 12:47:19 +0000

[…] Ishango, The Cradle of Mathematics A Mathematics Problem from the SBITC Mathematics or dreams, which is more real? […]

By: Tapiwa Chadenga

Tapiwa Chadenga — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 08:06:12 +0000

Hi Michelle, thanks for the compliment. I look forward to sharing more discoveries.

By: Tapiwa Chadenga

Tapiwa Chadenga — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 16:28:26 +0000

Hi Vizicelo. I am glad you enjoyed reading the article; perhaps as much as I enjoyed researching it Sure, Africa’s abilities and contributions have often been down played. This would not be such a stifling thing if we, Africans, were not ourselves passive participants in this deception. Often we feel that things like science and mathematics are not inherent in us, and that we are perpetual consumers – and never producers – in these domains. But this is a deception we can no longer uphold. If Africa is to succeed in this increasingly ‘science and technology’ driven world we must rewrite the narrative. We are fortunate that the truth is on our side. There is nothing foreign about numbers, mathematics and science; they are in our DNA, history assures us of the fact (1st counting devices, 1st notion of numbers as things, pyramids e.t.c). So let us fully embrace this forgotten identity, the Scientific African, and move our beloved mother land forward.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 16:04:15 +0000

A very insightful and well written article. Thanks for sharing this interesting information. I hope you will be sharing more articles like this soon.

By: Tapiwa Chadenga

Tapiwa Chadenga — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 15:43:44 +0000

Fixed, thank you.