THANDI XABA
The first Mathematician was an African woman. This was revealed in a lengthy lecture on the Basotho Origin of Mathematics which author Zulumathabo Zulu hosted at Central University of Technology. Mathematical roots, according to the author were unearthed by African people, including Basotho in ancient times. Adding that Greek Mathematician, Pythagoras spend 23 years studying Mathematics in North Africa.
Zulu says the African people have mathematical knowledge which is integrated as part of their lives, unlike the Western communities, where Mathematics is more abstract. “The African people in a variety of ways have mathematical knowledge and their mathematics follows the dialectics of the situations where they live, while the Western are more abstract and separate mathematics from their lives,” he explains.
The former TV reporter and Journalist went into exile in Botswana in 1986 and later immigrated to Canada. “I was led into the Basotho traditional knowledge by my mother who was a traditional healer. The greatest impact was the discovery of the body of knowledge in the village I grew up in. I felt the conventional knowledge needs to be perceived, documented and appreciated. As a result, I became emerged in this knowledge of Basotho tradition,” he says.
In his lecture, Zulu revealed Basotho have a broader knowledge of Science, saying “Basotho’s knowledge is based on the cosmos, sensory and theoretical basis. The knowledge requires depth.”
Zulu has published 11 scholar articles and papers and an author of ten books. He revealed that the Basotho language (SeSotho) is more continuous, using the number three as an example of this theory. He unveiled that the number three in the English language can only get deciphered in limited forms, while in SeSotho, the number three stretches far beyond the latter, each term with a different connotation.
Japie van Lill Auditorium at the CUT had intellects, scholars and the average person listening intently to the abstract talk. All were wide-eyed as Zulu un-packed the dynamics of traditional Basotho mathematical knowledge.
“Basotho believe they only take from nature what they need, if they have taken more, they then give it back to nature. Ancient Basotho people were very analytical and curious, hence their Mathematical skills brewed from their everyday lives.”
The published author, software engineer and inventor has written hundreds of manuscripts on the studies of Indigenous Mathematical Concepts, African Science and Cosmology.
He holds an impressive list of credentials, including a Diploma in Holistic Science in Colour Therapy, which he obtained in New Mexico, an Online Media Law Course from Florida, USA, a Certificate in Computerised Accounting, a Diploma in Journalism and Professional writing from Jersey, England and few others.
“The future of Mathematics in schools will be fused because there is a global movement towards incorporating traditional knowledge into the mainstream. South Africa, at some point in the future will incorporate Sesotho knowledge into the official curriculum. You cannot teach a subject like Maths as a foreign subject, it does not incorporate the knowledge systems of the local people,” he beamed.
