AMUCHMA-NEWSLETTER-21
Chairman: Paulus Gerdes (Mozambique)
Secretary: Ahmed Djebbar (Algeria)
Treasurer: Salimata Doumbia (Côte d'Ivoire)
Members: Kgomotso Garegae-Garekwe (Botswana), Maassouma Kazim
(Egypt), Cornelio Abungu (Kenya), Ahmedou Haouba (Mauritania),
Mohamed Aballagh (Morocco), Ruben Ayeni (Nigeria), Abdoulaye Kane
(Senegal), David Mosimege (South Africa), Mohamed Souissi (Tunisia),
David Mtwetwa (Zimbabwe)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
2. Meetings, exhibitions, events
5. Theses
6. Have you read? (#265-#277) --- 2nd web page
7. Announcements --- 2nd web page
8. Addresses of scholars and institutions mentioned in this newsletter --- 2nd web page
Do
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Universidade Pedagógica (UP), Maputo (Mozambique), 27.12.1998
2. MEETINGS, EXHIBITIONS, EVENTS
2.1 First International Congress on Ethnomathematics
The International Study Group on Ethnomathematics
organized from 2 to 5 September 1998 in Granada (Spain) the First
International Congress on Ethnomathematics. The following papers
related to Africa were presented:
* Marcos Cherinda: Basketry and using a weaving board in mathematics
education (Mozambique); * José Barrios García: The
Canary Islands also count: on the ancient number systems of North-West
Africa;
* Franco Favilli: Teaching geometry in Somalia: Linguistic and
cultural aspects;
* Chonat Getz: Fractals and South African basketry;
* Abdulcarimo Ismael: The effect of the use of cultural games
in the teaching of probability on students' performance, motivation
and attitudes towards mathematics (Mozambique);
* Jama Jama Musse: The role of ethnomathematics in mathematics
education: cases from the Horn of Africa;
* Beatrice Lumpkin: Ethnomathematics and the beginnings of mathematics
(Central and Southern Africa);
* Colin Purkey and Mogege Mosimege: Using ethnomathematics material
(South Africa);
* Teresa Vergani: Ethnomathematics and symbolic thought: Dogon's
culture (Mali).
Paulus Gerdes was unable to travel to Granada to present his plenary conference on "From ethnomathematics to ethnomathematicology: perspectives". For more information on the conference and the proceedings, contact Luisa Oliveras (see address below). The venue for the Second First International Congress on Ethnomathematics will be in 2002 in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) at the Santa Ursula University. The coordinator is Eduardo Sebastiani Ferreira (see addresses below).
2.2 Papers presented at recent meetings
* At the International Conference "New Trends in the History
and Philosophy of Mathematics" (August 6-8, 1998), realized
at the University of Roskilde (Denmark), Paulus Gerdes presented
the paper "Ethnomathematics as a new research field, illustrated
by studies of mathematical ideas in African history." For
more information on this conference and its proceedings, contact
Tinne Kjeldsen (see address below).
* At the Avicenna Study days (September 24-26, 1998, Marrakech,
Morocco) Ahmed Djebbar presented the paper "Mathematics in
the work of Avicenna".
* No new research interests were reported.
This section is reserved for questions that readers would like to have answered; these are the 'queries'. The answers will be the 'notes'. If you have questions or answers about sources, dates, names, titles, facts, or other such matters related to the history of mathematics in Africa, frame them in clear and concise language and send them to the editors. If you are answering a question, make clear reference to that question. All readers may send both questions and answers. Each will be published with the name of the sender.
* No new queries were reported.
5.1. Ph.D. theses concluded and in progress
* Alex de Voogt (Leiden University, Netherlands)
earned in 1995 a doctoral degree with a thesis on the memory feats
and calculating skills of master players of the four-row mankala
game known as 'bao' in Zanzibar (Tanzania). The thesis is entitled
"Limits of the mind: towards a characterisation of Boa mastership".
* Ignacio Reyes García is preparing, under the direction
of José Barrios García (Universidad de La Laguna,
Tenerife, Canary Islands), a Ph.D. thesis on the ancient Canarian
mathematical-astronomical-cosmological vocabulary, from an ethnolinguistical
point of view.
* E. Segujja-Munagisa (Institute of Teacher Education Kyambogo,
Uganda) is doing research for a Ph.D. on ethnomathematics in Uganda,
under the direction of P. Mangheni (Makerere University, Kampala,
Uganda) and Paulus Gerdes (Universidade Pedagógica, Mozambique.
5.2 'Habilitation' of Ahmed Djebbar
* Ahmed Djebbar defended successfully on December 10, 1998, at the School of High Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS, Paris) his 'habilitation' thesis entitled "Contribution to the study of mathematical activities in Muslim West (9th-16th centuries)". The international jury was constituted by Jean Dhombres (University of Nantes, France), Jan Hogendijk (University of Utrecht, Netherlands), Julio Samso (University of Barcelona, Spain), Jean Ceylerette (University of Lille II, France), Baber Johansen (EHESS, France) and Menso Folkerts (University of Munich, Germany).
The habilitation is composed of the following
documents:
1. A report (pp. 183) containing:
* List of publications and of research projects in preparation
(11-19);
* Description of the research experience in the history of mathematics
(21-30);
* Evaluation of the research in the history of mathematics of
Andalusia and of the Maghreb since the middle of the 19th century
until 1980 (31-60);
* Presentation of the contents of Djebbar's and others' research
on the same theme from 1980 to 1998 (63-110);
* Appendix entitled "The cultural, economic and political
context of scientific activities in Andalusia and the Maghreb"
(121-153);
* Bibliography (155-183).
2. A collection of papers published or to be published, written
after the defence of the 'doctorat d'état' thesis in June
1990 (PG: The readers of the AMUCHMA newsletter may remember that
Ahmed Djebbar was also during several years in this period Minister
of Education of Algeria):
* [1] Mathematical activities in the cities of the Central Maghreb
(9th - 15th centuries);
* [2] Figurate numbers in the mathematical tradition of Andalusia
and the Maghreb;
* [3] Scientific activities and intercultural relationships in
the Middle Ages: the example of Andalusia;
* [4] On the history of mathematics in North Africa. Part 1: Mathematics
in the medieval Maghreb from the 9th century onwards;
* [5] Some comments on the Arab versions of Euclid's Elements
and on their transmission to the Muslim West;
* [6] The redaction of the 'Istikmal of al-Mu'taman' (11th century)
by Ibn Sartaq, a mathematician from the 13th-14th centuries;
* [7] The arithmetic book of Euclid's Elements in a treatise of
the 11th century: the 'Kitab al-Istikmal' of al-Mu'taman (d. 1085);
* [8] The appearance of the concept of a positive real number
in the epistle of al-Khayyam (1048-1131) on the explanation of
the problematic premises of Euclid's book;
* [9] The life and work of a 14th century mathematician: Ibn al-Banna
(1256-1321).
6. HAVE YOU READ? - 2nd web page
7. ANNOUNCEMENTS - 2nd web page
8. ADDRESSES OF SCHOLARS, INSTITUTIONS AND PUBLISHERS MENTIONED IN THIS NEWSLETTER - 2nd web page
8. SUGGESTIONS
Thanks to Scott Williams, the English language edition of all issues of the AMUCHMA Newsletter is also accessible on the following website: http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/AMU/amuchma_online.html
Please note the address of the above website
has changed. It is new from previous issues and the printed version
of AMUCHMA 21.
The English version of AMUCHMA
21 is reproduced and distributed
with financial support from SIDA-SAREC (Sweden)