Sona Geometry from Angola: Mathematics of an African Tradition

by Paulus Gerdes

"This volume provides readers with a glimpse into Paulus Gerdes's seminal work on the mathematics of an African tradition-sona geometry, a drawing and narrative tradition from Angola with embedded mathematical ideas. The work represented in this book contributes significantly to efforts by other African mathematicians and mathematics educators to recuperate and valorize mathematical ideas and reasoning that reside in African material culture and cultural practices [. . .]. Moreover, Gerdes is a prolific contributor of work that reinforces a growing literature available in English of a dynamic research program in ethnomathematics. Uncovering the mathematical ideas embedded in a Cokwe cultural practice and providing access to the richness of these ideas are part of the concerns of ethnomathematics. As an ethnomathematician, Gerdes is not a neutral researcher but rather a public intellectual committed to finding ways not only to understand the mathematics of the Cokwe sona tradition but also to raise important questions such as [. . .] when he observes that the profoundness of the mathematical ideas expressed in the sona "had started to build up." With this, his reader is then prompted to ask questions: What happened to the building up of the sona tradition and its mathematical ideas? Why was this development arrested? Answering these questions along with enjoying the beautiful presentation of the mathematics of the sona tradition are the gifts that readers will receive from this wonderful volume. Professor Arthur B. Powell, Rutgers University NJ, USA"

232 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2006