New expanded edition: «Women, Culture and Geometry in Southern Africa»
Dear colleagues and friends,
I have the honour and pleasure to announce the new expanded edition of «Women, Culture and Geometry in Southern Africa«, available from the distributor www.lulu.com:
New edition of award winning book «Women and Geometry in Southern Africa: Suggestions for Further Research», published by the «Universidade Pedagógica» (Mozambique) in 1995. The original book contains chapters on geometrical ideas embedded in basket weaving, bead work, wall decoration, tattooing, and ceramics. The expanded edition includes a foreword by Sibusiso Moyo (Secretary of the African Mathematical Union Commission on Women in Mathematics in Africa, and Research Director of the Durban University of Technology, South Africa), afterwords by Ubiratan D’Ambrosio (São Paulo, Brazil) and Jens Hoyrup (Roskilde, Denmark), and the papers “Makwe colour inversion, symmetry and patterns” (Northeastern Mozambique) and “Symmetries on mats woven by Yombe women from the area along the Lower Congo.» The book contains also a chapter written by Salimo Saide on the geometry of pottery decoration among Yao women (Nyassa Province, Mozambique). (ISBN 978-1-304-10560-8, 276 pp.)
The first edition received a “Special Commendation” in the 1996 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa Competition. The jury writes in its report that the book combines “… in an ingenious way the study of geometry with that of the visual arts, presenting an important challenge and stimulant to the future of mathematics education in Africa. It demystifies mathematics in relation to gender and race, and erases the borders between mathematics and popular culture as experienced in the work and crafts of women in Southern Africa. The book’s importance lies in its prospective impact on the education of African women in mathematics.”
Also available in Portuguese:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/paulus-gerdes/mulheres-cultura-e-geometria-na-áfrica-austral/paperback/product-15208836.html
The French language version of the first edition is available from L’Harmattan, Paris.
Best regards,
Paulus Gerdes
Professor of Mathematics
Vice-President for Southern Africa, African Academy of Sciences
Chairman, AMU Commission for the History of Mathematics in Africa
President, International Studygroup for Ethnomathematics
Former Rector / President, Pedagogical University, Mozambique
Senior Advisor for Research and Quality, ISTEG-University, Boane, Mozambique
Postal adress: C.P. 915, Maputo, Mozambique
paulus.gerdes@gmail.com
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/pgerdes
