Table of contents
- Editorial: Francophone West Africa
by Gloria Emeagwali, Chief Editor
- Map of pre-modern African kingdoms
(98Kb), from M. Kwamena-Poh, et al, African History in Maps
- Map of modern Sénégal,
from Software Toolworks, World Atlas (260Kb)
- Programme Officer for Academic Freedom, CODESRIA,
C O D E S R I A Academic Freedom Programme
- Femi Ojo-Ade, Professor of French, St. Mary's College
of Maryland, Francophone African Women Writers:
African Feminism and Womanhood
- Maimouna Diallo-Seydi, Les femmes
et les plans d'adjustment structurel au Sénégal
- Ibrahima Ouedraogo, Cinema-Africa:
After Cinema Fest Comes the Hangover
- Jeanne Doiron, student at C.C.S.U., Ousmane
Sembene's Camp de Thiaroye
- Haines Brown, History Dept., C.C.S.U., Africa
and the Net
- Vanessa Tralongo, Student C.C.S.U., Med
Hondo's Sarraounia
- Rachel E. Hyland, African Studies
Notebook. A review of Paulus Gerdes, editor, Explorations
in Ethnomathematics and Ethnoscience in Mozambique (Maputo: Instituto
Superior Pedagogico, Mozambique, 1994. Pp. 77)
- A subscription form for the
mailed edition of AfricaUpdate
Editorial: Francophone West Africa
by Prof. Gloria T. Emeagwali
Chief Editor of AfricaUpdate
In this issue of Africa-Update we pay some attention to
Francophone West Africa, a region which includes Senegal, Guinea, Mali,
Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin and Togo amongst others. In
reality three of Africa's four language families, namely, Niger-Kongo,
Nilo-Saharan and Afro-Asiatic, are associated with this area. Languages
such as Mossi, Mande, Fulani, Senufo, Dyula, Hausa, Mandinga, Wolof
and Serer, are some of the indigenous languages of the region spoken
by large numbers of people. The concept "francophone" is therefore useful
insofar as it refers to a significant historical encounter between France
and the peoples of the region, albeit in the context of sustained and
fierce battles of resistance in some cases and the adaptation of some
aspects of French culture in others.
The region is also associated with important centers of
power which include the influential empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhai
in the medieval era. The region of Senegambia was host to several historically
significant political formations including the Wolof empire and the
commercially significant state of Takrur, which eventually seceded from
Malian hegemony. In the 19th century this region was the stage for some
of the most dedicated statesmen and political activists in the region,
including the famous Samory Tour� of Guinea, who organised well coordinated
and sustained guerrilla campaigns against French expansionism over a
twenty year period.
In Medieval times Timbuctu in Mali was a center of intellectual
activity in West Africa. Today Ouagadougou of Burkina Faso is its counterpart
in the cinematic world and no less a contributor to intellectual discourse.
In this issue we include relevant discussions on this
matter, including perspectives on some of the prevailing difficulties
faced by African film producers and critiques of productions by the
pioneer Senegalese film producer, Sembene Ousmane and the Mauritanian,
Med Hondo.
Dr.Ojo-Ade of St.Mary's College gracefully agreed to contribute
a short piece related to his area of specialization and by so doing
shed additional light on another significant aspect of intellectual
development in the region, the literary field.
We note as well the significance of women in this area.
Maimouna Diallo-Seydi, one of our regional contributors,
discusses the impact of Structural Adjustment programs on Senegalese
women, pointing out that the program has led to the emergence of new
patterns of migration and major destabilisations in the region. She
points to the various ways in which Senegalese men and women try to
cope with the new dispensation.
Return to Table of Contents.
Map
of pre-modern African kingdoms
Return to Table of Contents.
Map
of modern Sénégal
Return to Table of Contents.
CODESRIA Academic Freedom Programme
Programme Officer for Academic Freedom, CODESRIA
The Lima Declaration on Academic Freedom and Autonomy
of Institutions of Higher Education (1988), The Dar-es-Salaam
Declaration on Academic Freedom and Social Responsibility of Academics
(April 1990) and the Kampala Declaration on Intellectual Freedom
and Social Responsibility define "Academic Freedom" as "the freedom
of members of the academic community [which covers all those persons
teaching, studying, researching or otherwise working at an institution
of higher education], individually or collectively, in the pursuit,
development and transmission of knowledge, through research, study,
discussion, documentation, production, creation, teaching, lecturing
and writing" (See Diouf and Mamdani, editors, Academic Freedom in
Africa [Dakar, CODESRIA, 1994, p. 362]).
As part of its programme on Academic Freedom, CODESRIA
has set up an Academic Freedom Monitoring Unit at its secretariat in
Dakar and will henceforth be publishing an annual report on The State
of Academic Freedom in Africa. The Monitoring Unit has embarked on a
systematic collection of information on cases of violation of academic
freedom. Eg: actual, or threats of detention, dismissal, expulsion,
shooting and assassination of academics; university closures; policy/army
raids on university campuses; banning of organizations of academic and
/or non-academic staff; censorship; and other forms of harassment. The
list is long.
CODESRIA is inviting members of the Academic Community
in African universities to report on infringements of academic freedom.
Information should be sent to:
The Programme Officer for Academic Freedom
CODESRIA
Box 3304
Dakar, Senegal, West Africa
Return to Table of Contents.
FRANCOPHONE AFRICAN WOMEN WRITERS:
AFRICAN FEMINISM AND WOMANHOOD
by Femi Ojo-Ade
Professor of French, St. Mary's College of Maryland
Introduction: Francophone Writers and their World
Francophone African literature was used as a weapon in
the political struggle. Most interestingly as in other areas, women
were left out of the mix, which does not at all mean that they did not
participate in the struggle. The Senegalese Sembène Ousmane's writings
recount their heroic deeds (cf. Les bouts de bois de Dieu,
God's Bits of Wood). After Independence, women have become involved
in the literary art and, of course, the themes have had to change with
the times.
Mariama Bâ, Trailblazer
From all indications, it would be right to state that
the number of African women writers is much less than that of their
male counterparts. Furthermore, one feels that francophone women writers
are not as many as anglophones. Whatever may be the reasons for this
situation and, indeed, the assumption may be wrong, what is beyond debate
is the prominence of one particular francophone writer from Senegal,
the late Mariama Bâ.
Bâ's novel, Une si longue lettre (So Long
A Letter), has become a classic in African women's literature. A visibly
autobiographical text written in the epistolary form, it tells the story
of Ramatoulaye, her journey from a happy youth through a marriage wrecked
by her husband's infidelity, polygamy and a convoluted divorce, to a
final widowhood marked by a determination to be happy. "The word happiness,
does mean something, doesn't it? I shall go in search of it," affirms
the tragedy-struck heroine of Bâ's deep novel.
Critics, especially those from America and Europe, have
held up this novel as a feminist masterpiece as they have made a feminist
martyr of the novelist. However, those of us from Africa with knowledge
of and belief in African culture, have continued to advise caution:
Bâ's novel would be a feminist piece of art since it raised issues
about woman's condition in a reactionary society but, on the other hand,
it underscored the importance of family as nucleus of the nation. Ramatoulaye's
friend, Aissatou, in a situation similar to the heroine's, decides to
cross the Atlantic and to live in New York. Feminists have praised to
high heavens her act of freedom and emancipation. The contention here
is, however, that such is not the message that Mariama Bâ wanted
to pass to her public. Aissatou's choice, personal and self-centered,
is, of course, viable in a restricted, individualistic sense. For the
larger community (the African concept must be borne in mind), her action
does not resolve much.
For a more rounded understanding of Mariama Bâ's
complex and thought-provoking ideology, one ought to read also her second
novel, Un chant éclarte (A Scarlet Song), which addresses
the issues of mixed marriage, cultural conflict, the colonial experience
and, most poignantly, the human dilemma. Given today's very problematic
realities in which religion and the advocates of its primacy are contesting
the heart and soul of our communities, one is urged to re-read Bâ's
Letter and Song in which some form of humanism, deeper and
wider in scope than feminism, remains.
Aminata Sow Fall and other Women Writers
While Mariama Bâ was the toast of the literary community
(she won the Noma Award in 1980), the work of her compatriot Aminata
Sow Fall (her first novel, Le Revenant, The Ghost, was published
in 1976) was already in print. The difference between the two is, that
Sow Fall has not limited herself to "women's issues," as it were. "The
writer is the witness of her time. . . Writing is a testimony, a means
of filtering social reality at a given moment," affirmed Sow Fall (interview
in ALA Bulletin, 14, 4, 1988: 24).
Sow Fall's novels deal with the myriad problems of post-colonial
or, neo-colonial, Africa, and they no doubt include issues particular
to women. What is most significant is, that the novelist presents an
all-inclusive picture which, to my mind, bodes well for Africa. Her
latest novel, L'ex-père de la nation (The Former Father
of the Nation), 1987, recounts the life of a former Head of State and
many have claimed that it is a criticism of the revered Senghor. Sow
Fall has denied the charge, but the very notion proves that her work
attacks societal ills while castigating the shameless authors of Africa's
demise.
Viewed from that perspective, Sow Fall and other women
writers of francophone Africa, such as the Cameroonian Werewere Liking,
the Ivoirian Véronique Tadjo, Rawiri of Central Africa, Nafissatou
Diallo and Catherine N'Diaye of Senegal, show their commitment to ameliorating
Woman's lot in rejecting approval by author, but not in exclusivist
terms. As I have stated elsewhere (see African Literature Today,
13, 1988: 158-179), any struggle bent upon creating new conflicts and
polarizing relationships will mainly work towards the destruction of
the communal fabric. It will play into the hands of those more interested
in personal objectives of self-promotion and survival, rather than make
for the liberation of the millions shackled by a clique of robbers leading
naturally blessed countries toward the abyss of impoverishment. If African
women writers are to be called feminists, their Africanity must not
be forgotten.
Return to Table of Contents.
LES FEMMES ET LES PLANS D'ADJUSTEMENT STRUCTUREL AU SÉNÉGAL
by Maimouna Diallo-Seydi
L'oppression des femmes et leur exploitation en tant que
travailleuses se sont particulièrement accentuées sous l'effet
des plans d'ajustement structurel.
Cependant, un des aspects marquants de l'évolution
de la femme sénégalaise ces dernières années est
sa capacité à resister. Cela est visible tant au niveau des
strategies alternatives qu'elle developpe pour accroitre le revenu familial
que dans la façon dont elle utilise certaines structures sociales
traditionnelles, telles que les associations feminines pour élaborer
ces strategies. D'autre part, on note une mobilisation croissante de
la femme sénégalaise au sein d'organisations ou se pose de
manière sénégalaise au sein d'organisations ou se pose
de manière plus systematique la necessité pour les femmes
de s'engager davantage dans la lutte pour changer le système actuel
qui les opprime et les exploite.
La situation de l'emploi et du chômage
Les statistiques montrent que la situation de l'emploi
est fortement degradée ainsi qu'on peut le voir sur le tableau
ci-dessous:
&$233;volution
de taux activité (en %) |
|
Total |
Hommes |
Femmes |
1972/73 |
55.5% |
59.0% |
42.0% |
1985 |
46.0% |
55.2% |
37.0% |
1990 |
33.5% |
50.9% |
17.0% |
Source: BIT - 1990
Ces chiffres indiquent clairement que le déclin de
ce taux est plus marqué en ce qui concerne les femmes.
Ils sont confirmés par le Rapport des Nations Unies
sur la situation sociale dans le monde, selon lequel, les femmes en
Afrique, risquent deux fois plus que les hommes d'�tre au chômage
dans le secteur structuré.
En effet, le nombre d'emplois saisonniers et jounaliers
representent déjà 28.5% du total des emplois dans le secteur
privè pour l'année 1983 (contre 25.4% en 1982).
Dans les zones rurales
Les femmes en tant que productrices de vivriers jouent
un rôle crucial dans la reproduction de la force de travail sociale.
Cependant, l'échec de la politique néo-coloniale, aggravée
par les differentes politiques d'ajustement, ont des répercussions
désastreuses sur le statut de celles-ci mais aussi sur la capacité
du pays à se nourrir. Elles sont la plupart du temps exclues des
plans de developpement. L'accent mis sur la production des cultures
d'exportation implique que ce secteur les ressources humaines et les
moyens techniques modernes au détriment du secteur vivrier dans
lequel les femmes jouent un rôle capital. Ainsi, ces dernieres
sont exclues de l'acces à la terre et au crédit. De ce fait,
ce secteur est "delaissé dans des conditions d'arrieration technologique,
d'insuffisance de l'investissement et de la surexploitation de la force
de travail feminine qui s'offre à bon marché ou m�me gratuitement."
Aussi, le pays s'est trouvé incapable de subvenir
à ses besoins. Il y a donc ici une correlation entre l'accroissement
de l'exploitation du travail feminin en milieu rural et le déficit
en vivrier dont souffrent les pays africains.
Il n'est donc pas étonnant de constater que les importations
de céréales sont passées de 341,000 tonnes en 1974 à
431,000 en 1987 alors que les dons de céréales atteignent
80,000 tonnes en 1986-87 (contres 27,000 tonnes en 1974/75) selon les
chiffres fournis par la Banque Mondiale dans son rapport sur le développement
pour 1989.
Les migrations et leurs consequences
Le Sénégal conna�t un profond desequilibre dans
la repartition de sa population.
Les villes concentrent, en effet, près des 37% de
la population totale tandis que Dakar, a elle seule, regroupe les 83%
de la population urbaine.
L'emigration masculine a commencé surtout vers les
années 1920/25. Aujourd'hui, elle s'est modifiée tant par
son importance que par sa destination, plus lointaine, vers l'Europe.
Ce second phenomène a contribué a une détérioration
du statut économique de la femme qui va devenir la pièce essentielle
assurant la survie des unites familiales profondement bouleversées
par le manque de main d'oeuvre masculine.
Mais la dégradation continue de la situation économique
dans les zones rurales. On conduit de plus en plus de femmes à
emigrer vers les villes à la recherche de meilleures conditions
d'existence. Si l'on reconnait que ces migrations touchent toutes les
zones geographiques, il semblerait que les structures sociales traditionnelles
jouent un role non negligeable sur les conditions de celles-ci. Les
Sereres et les Diolas accorderaient plus de liberté, alors qu'un
controle social très strict emp�cherait les jeunes filles Peuls
ou Toucouleurs d'emigrer si ce n'est pour aller retrouver leur mari.
Quoique soit la raison pour laquelle elles emigrent, les
femmes profitent de leur nouvelle situation pour développer des
activités économiques.
Return to Table of Contents.
CINEMA-AFRICA:
AFTER CINEMA FEST COMES THE HANGOVER
by Ibrahima Ouedraogo
OUAGADOUGOU, Mar 14 The Pan-African film festival "Fespaco"
ended last week with organisers congratulating themselves on a huge
success. But after the hooplah comes harsh reality the very insecure
world of African cinema.
From a small event first organised by a group of friends
in 1969, Fespaco has snowballed into an international cultural event,
which this year drew representatives from 66 countries.
Visitors to the 14th Fespaco included celebrities such
as Senegalese film guru Sembene Ousmane and South African Deputy Culture
Minister Winnie Mandela.
Thousands of film lovers and hundreds of directors, distributors
and producers attended the week-long event making Burkina Faso's capital
bubble with energy.
To mark the centenary of film, the theme of this year's
festival was 'cinema and history.' Prizes were awarded to film and video
productions assessed in various categories.
The Malian production, Guimba, carried off the
"Yennenga Stallion," the prize for the best full-length feature film.
Set in a changing Africa in the early 1990s, the 102-minute-long
feature depicts the monopolisation of power in a village.
"This film is fiction that takes its roots in today's
reality on the continent, pulled apart between tyrants and democrats,"
explained producer Cheick Oumar Cissoko, who now has four films under
his belt.
Some consider the film a satire of the regime of former
Malian president Moussa Traore, overthrown in a coup in 1991after his
forces killed hundreds of demonstrators demanding the end of oppression
and one party rule.
Cissoko, a caustic critic of the regime at that time admitted,
"politics have led me to the world of cinema."
Guimba, which cost about 1.4 million dollars,
has been praised for its use of the African oral tradition, languages,
clothes and actors. It won no less than nine special prizes at the festival,
including a prize awarded by the Organisation of African Unity and one
from the European Union.
And Guimba was not the only successful film screened
here. Generally, critics agreed, the quality of the films was high this
year.
But now that the festival has ended, many African film
makers and fans have something of a hangover.
Many of the films screened at Fespaco may be doomed to
gather dust until the next festival is staged.
African film makers are still battling for adequate distribution
to gain a foothold in the Europe and American markets. Cissoko explained
that he wrote to distributors in many countries to get Guimba
on the screens, but "so far we have only contacts for distribution in
Mali and in Burkina Faso."
"I am asking Europeans to strive to learn our culture
so that they can understand our films. At school we learned their culture
and that is why we accept their movies," he added.
According to some, the continent's film makers hassled
with insufficient funding should opt to make video films. That way,
they argue, Africa will be better able to compete with cheaper films
from abroad.
"Cinema is very expensive and video seems to be the only
way out for African movie makers," said Jean Maou, a French consultant.
A feature film, Maou said, costs around 200,000 dollars at least, while
a video can be made for as little as 7,000 dollars.
Cissoko, however, was hopeful that African film has a
future without film makers have to resort to cheaper alternatives.
"Through solidarity between movie makers and regional
solidarity we can do better so that cinema will survive. We have the
staff for good productions, countries must now sign agreements for co-
productions," he recommended.
Kenyan Director Ann Mungai suggested that African films
be given preferential treatment to enhance their chances on the world
market.
Her documentary Usilie Mtoto wa Africa (Don't
Cry, Child of Africa) was named best television and video film. This
short film shows the plight of a young street girl in Nairobi seeking
her mother who has fled from economic hardships at home caused by her
husband's drinking.
Opinion here was also divided over the future of Fespaco
itself, as some people suggested that fespaco become itinerant in the
future, visiting the continent's countries in turn.
Permanent Secretary of Fespaco, Filipe Sawadogo, strongly
objected. "The French festival of Cannes or the festival of Venice will
never go to another European country. Nomadism never serves a purpose."
Published by InterPress Service Harare (ipshre@gn.apc.org)
Distributed by Pan-Africa discussion list (Africa-L@vtvm1.cc.vt. edu),
and reprinted here with permission.
Return to Table of Contents.
Ousmane Sembene's Camp de Thiaroye
by Jeanne Doiron, student at C.C.S.U.
Ousmane Sembene's film "Camp de Thiaroye" exposes not
only French colonial attitudes but the ugliness of racism and, ultimately,
the human capacity for cruelty and ignorance.
The "tirailleurs," or riflemen, are praised by the French
officers for their bravery for France during World War II, but are daily
debased and denied their humanity as French subjects after the war.
The irony of having fought for the lives and freedom of the French people,
only to come home to Colonial Senegal and be treated as sub-human, is
brought out in the references and flashbacks to the Nazi POW camp where
the tirailleurs were incarcerated. The French proved themselves
to be as blood-thirsty and barbaric as the Nazis when they commit "the
final solution" upon the tirailleurs.
The French rationalisation for giving the tirailleurs
substandard housing and unpalatable food (rationed according to skin
color) is that they don"t have it that good in their villages. Cheating
the tirailleurs out of a fair exchange rate for the money owed
to them is justified the same way. What will they do with money in huts,
they ask. To further justify their racist actions, the French call the
tirailleurs "communists."
Sergeant Master Diatta, who plays an important role in
the film, recognises that the great "civilised" nation of France has
two sets of laws-one for Blacks and the other for Whites. But the French
are blind to this reality, and in the film call the Americans racist.
As French subjects the African soldiers are used, discarded
and brutally eliminated when they assert their rights. The final irony
is the scene of new African recruits boarding a ship destined for France,
perhaps to give their life in battle for France, a country for whom
Africans are no more than pawns. . .
Return to Table of Contents.
Africa and the Net
by Haines Brown, C.C.S.U. (brownh@ccsua.ctstateu.edu)
This is one of a continuing series of brief reports on
Africa and the Internet that will chronicle the growth of African connectivity,
take note of significant events and new resources, and occasionally
reflect on its import for Africa's future. You are reminded that this
and former issues of Africa_Update are archived as hypertext at:
http://neal.ctstateu.edu/history/africa_update/africa_update.html
The McBride Roundtable, which is a communications rights
advocacy group, met in Tunis on 16-18 March for its seventh meeting.
Some seventy-four representatives from twenty countries discussed "Africa
faces the Internet."
The focus of the final report, commissioned by UNESCO,
was on Africa and the Information Superhighway the implications of the
next generation of information technology. In planning for it, in the
absence of the motivation of superpower rivalry, "now would be the time
to show honest and active solidarity with the hard pressed peoples of
the continent, starting from their real needs and not from the global
strategic needs of the corporate-driven North."
The McBride Report recommended in general terms that all
African communications media, including texts and other books, be digitalized
and integrated through Internet; that in lieu of alternatives traditional
media be supported; that there be democratic accountability; and that
telecommunications policy support development. The issue is not simply
Africa's getting onto the global Information Highway, but to do it in
a way that supports social and economic development.
This contrasts sharply with the week-long Addis Ababa
Telematics symposium for Development in Africa, which ended on 7 April.
The 250 electronic mail service providers gathered in African Hall focused
rather on how existing resources could benefit from mounting global
connectivity. They hoped that new governmental initiatives would recognize
existing local systems, the past service they provided and their independence,
and that new initiatives be sub-regional in scope and aim for a transition
from existing levels of service, such as dial-up store and forward systems,
to full IP connectivity. The delegates felt now was the time to ease
national regulations and fees and to usher Africa into the "Information
Age."
However, not everyone was quite so anxious to jettison
state monopoly in the name of neoliberalism, arguing that in the absence
of developed civil society, only the state could "take care of the social
aspect of telematics development."
Return to Table of Contents.
Med Hondo's Sarraounia
by Vanessa Tralongo, Student CCSU
The film Sarraounia is set in Niger, West Africa, and
focuses on European expansionism in the late 19th century. In most African
films I have seen, women have not been given significant main character
roles. In Sarraounia, the film centers on the courageous stance
of Sarraounia, an African woman who is leader and Queen of
the Aznas. It is true that in the film female roles are shown to be
contradictory, but by the end of the movie, Med Hondo shows the true
role of women.
In the film, Med Hondo begins much like others have, by
portraying women as useless commodities, good for only one thing. An
example of this is in the scene where two soldiers have been fighting,
and one has had his ears cut off. The victim was accused of "screwing
the other soldier's woman." The woman was said to be nothing but trouble
and had run off. There is no attempt to get the woman's side of the
story, and she is just immediately labelled. Another example is in the
scene after the French soldiers had taken over a village. The head French
soldier (an African working for the French) is going down the ranks
to allot booty to each soldier. In the allotment, women are ranked alongside
goats, cows, and grain. In this respect, Med Hondo"s film seems to follow
the traditional stereotypes of women.
As the film continues, however, Hondo makes a quick about
face, and the image of women is one of strength and power. This image
begins in the French camp when the women can no longer stand the treatment
they have been receiving. The women feel that, in order to secure their
freedom and their dignity, they must flee to Sarraounia. Their strength
is shown in their courage to aid Sarraounia by warning her of the impending
French attack. They also show courage by a willingness to risk their
own lives. Sarraounia's power is displayed through the French soldiers'
fear of her and their reluctance to stay and fight her. The French soldiers
would rather take what they had and leave than to prolong the fight
and anger her. Her strength is also revealed as she leads her people,
rallies them and guides them through battle, and again later when she
shows them the patience needed to win victory. Finally it is a woman
who first kills a French commander.
This scene sums up the African woman's real role in the
film and clears Med Hondo of having stereotyped women as weak.
Return to Table of Contents.
Student Notebook
A review of Paulus Gerdes, editor, Explorations in
Ethnomathematics and Ethnoscience in Mozambique (Maputo: Instituto
Superior Pedagogico, Mozambique, 1994. Pp. 77)
by Rachel E. Hyland, C.C.S.U. Student
With their eyes on the 21st century, Paulus Gerdes and
his colleagues at the Instituto Superior Pedagogico in Maputo, Mozambique
seek educational systems more firmly grounded in traditional African
experience and practice.
This collection of eleven papers ably presents the foundations
of a body of historical and educational research in both mathematics
and science, based upon what Gerdes himself calls the "African scientific
heritage."
In his preface to the work, Gerdes emphasizes the importance
of cultural compatibility in pedagogical methods, and stresses the alienation
of present African educational theory and practice from the African
population and their cultural identity.
The eleven essays in this volume detail some of the rich
tradition of African knowledge in Mozambique in the fields of math and
science, and examine several practical applications of this indigenous
knowledge toward the teaching of these subjects with the end of developing
a "culture-oriented curriculum."
The essays explore mathematical concepts long used in
the context of handicrafts such as basket weaving, wood carving, and
symmetrical metal grate patterns. There is discussion of more abstract
mathematical principles such as popular counting practices, the concepts
of even and odd, systems of number-words, addition algorithms, and mental
arithmetic. The sciences are approached from a unique ethnic perspective
as in the relationship of traditional Mozambican interpretations of
Thunder and lightning as they relate to the teaching of physics. Included
also are synopses of the ongoing research in the topics of ethnobiology
and ethnochemistry.
Because the Instituto Superior Pedagogico is deeply involved
in curriculum development in Mozambique, much of this book is concerned
with teacher education and educational theory. Yet, the information
is presented clearly and in a highly readable form for the general student
of African history. This book proves to be a valuable resource for the
growing research into the field of African science and mathematics,
and cultural studies.
Return to Table of Contents.
Send comments to Haines Brown
brownh@ccsua.ctstateu.edu
or Compuserve 70302,2206