Africa Made Math: The Original Mathematicians

It is very unfortunate that history books only dedicate a few pages to Ancient Egypt and Northern Africa during the ‘Middle Ages.’ Too much of this history has European views all over it. Even as I did my research for this article, I had to do some deep reading to get in the depth of how much we have learned and borrowed from Africa with Mathematics.

Thousands of years ago Africans were using Geometry, Algebra and numerals in their daily life but of course with the European and Asian invaders in Africa, they took what Africans already knew and began to piggy back off the Mathematics already existed. The development of geometrical thinking started in early African history as hunter-gatherers of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa learned to track animals by getting to know the shape of their feces in order to understand which animal had passed by, how long ago, whether it was hungry or not, etc.

Digital computer systems:

These originated from ancient African cultural practices. Have you heard of the term geomancy, earth divination, or African Astrology? In some cultures and periods of history, the term geomancy has referred to a divinatory system whereby foretelling was done principally by some method of sand or earth casting.

The earliest styles of divination involved reading cracks in the ground, throwing handfuls of earth onto the ground, striking the sand with a stick to create random patterns, or randomly drawing a number of stones, seeds, or roots, and recording the odd or even numbers of dots generated as a single or two points. Performing this four times generates one of sixteen binary tetragrams – the geomantic tableaux – each with associated meanings and astrological correspondences. The top line of one or two points is the ‘head’, of the fire element, the second line the ‘neck’ – air element, the third line the ‘body’ – water element, and the bottom line the ‘feet’ – earth element.

Stick with me.

Astrological Geomancy is still practiced within the tribal traditions today. It includes tribal divination, astronomical configurations, the zodiac signs, tarot, math and science calculations, etc., using the map of the heavens to accurately make individual and event predictions that are influenced by the magnetic planetary forces and its influences on the earth. In North Africa it has developed into Afa (Afá in Mina, Fa in Fon) and Ifa in Nigeria (Ifá in Yoruba). Europeans would say the modern binary code, essential to every digital circuit we have, such as computers and alarm clocks, was introduced by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in 1670, a German mathematician and philosopher who is credited for inventing calculus. We all know Leibniz findings are a piggy back from what was already “adopted” from our ancestors.

So, our digital world is spiritual if you think about it. It’s a shame that while the world is led to believe that African spirituality has nothing to offer, our indigenous science (and spirituality) is interwoven with our every day life.

Complex Counting System:

The Yoruba people from present-day Nigeria created their own complex counting system based on units of 20 (instead of 10) and use subtraction to express numbers. They have addition, subtraction, division and multiplication but no negative numbers (because they can’t have negative cowrie). They also do not have the number zero nor do they use decimals.

The numbers 11-14 were written additively and the numbers 15-19 were written using subtraction from 20. The pattern continues through the number 30. Each number after 30 is written as a multiple of 20 plus or minus tens and units. The pattern is also repeated until the number 200 and then the system becomes irregular.

1=ikan, 2=meji, 3=meta, 4=merin, 5=marun, 6=mefa, 7=meje, 8=mejo, 9=mesan, 10=mewa

40 cowries = 1 string; 2000 cowries = 1 head or 50 strings; 20,000 cowries = 1 bag or 10 heads.

One must be a Mathematician in order to understand and study their intricate system. Many Westerners find the system strange but Yoruba people still use it to this day. Scholars have lauded this system, as it required much abstract reasoning.

The Lebombo bone

This is the oldest known mathematical artifact in the world. Discovered in the 1970s in Border Cave, a rock shelter on the western scarp of the Lebombo Mountains in an area near the border of South Africa and Swaziland (now Eswatini). The bone was found on the Eswatini side, and dates from 35,000 BC, making it 44,200 and 43,000 years old. It consists of 29 distinct notches that were deliberately cut into a baboon’s fibula. According to The Universal Book of Mathematics, the Lebombo bone’s 29 notches “may have been used as a lunar phase counter, in which case African women may have been the first mathematicians, because keeping track of menstrual cycles requires a lunar calendar.” However, the bone is clearly broken at one end, so the 29 notches may or may not be a minimum number.

The reason they are so familiar with bones like this is because it resembles the calendar sticks still used today by Bushmen in Namibia. The Egyptians had a calendar as early as 4800 BC, but in 4200 BC their mathematics and astronomy produced a 365 day calendar (12 months of 30 days + 5 feast days).

Papyrus-Moscow(2000 BC)

The Papyrus was copied by an unknown scribe (~1850 BC). It was brought to Russia during the middle of the 19th century, and is located in the Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, and contains mathematics problems (simple equations) and solutions. It is one of the oldest written mathematical texts from ancient Egypt around 2000 B.C to 1800 B.C. It contains 25 mathematical problems. Some of the problems are unreadable or too damaged to translate but some Mathematicians and Historians can make out a lot between the images. For example, Problem 56 which is translated below as

These are just the tip of the iceberg of what we know about Mathematics and the origins of Africa. I could write on and on about what has been developed from Africa, but the amount of information can put you into overload. Even a century before U.S. slavery was ended, slaves and even ordinary African slave traders demonstrated mathematical abilities more sophisticated than the European buyers.

Somewhere down the line of history, after the European and Spanish invasions, Africa became a large consumer rather than a producer of the technologies it needs. If this doesn’t change, Africa will remain dependent and subject to outside control, its economies dominated by others’ exploitation of its natural resources. Africa will never escape from its reliance on international aid until it builds the capacity to develop itself. Africa is full of extravagant technical savvy human beings. After all, you invented it! Take the reins again and show the world that you are the technical geniuses of the world.

Powered by WPeMatico

Share This Post

More To Explore