African Mathematics and Mathematicians

“Ibn Battuta’s stories give us a picture of Africa through eyes of a devote Muslim traveling all over the continent of Africa and the world. In his accounts sub-Saharan Africa is described prior to colonialism and racism. Ibn Battuta’s stories as they are transcribed in “Ibn Battuta, In Black Africa” by Said Hamdun and Noel King are representative of the only written account of this period and give us the most realistic and accurate account of this time in history.

Almost every day, people use things like iron and mathematics, and they fail to notice how it started. Some of the most remarkable West African inventions are iron, mathematics, and boats. They will be explained in the following paragraph.

Logical-Mathematical Intelligence is the ability to “calculate, quantify, consider propositions and hypotheses, and carry out complete mathematical operations” (Gardener 1). Symbolic deductive and inductive thinking patterns are the result of this. Tallies of the Lebombo Bone portray the use of the oldest mathematical instrument of existence, found in 35,000 B.C.E. at the age of the Neanderthals. For counting the Neanderthals had 29 markings upon this baboon bone. A later Ishango Bone was found in 20,000 B.C.E. This shows that the complex algorithms solved today started from the counting upon bones in Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens.

According to document 4, Al-Khwarizmi, a Muslim mathematician wrote a textbook in the 800’s about algebra which was later adopted throughout Europe. Muslim mathematicians also adopted Arabic numerals from Indians and used them in place-value system. (Doc. 4) These mathematical advances also led to the creation of simple yet complicated structures. Also, after using their observations and their understanding of mathematics, Muslim scholars were able to make an advancement in mapmaking. They used astrolabe and armillary sphere to help study skies and make calculations for calendars and maps. (Doc.

The Nature of Ronald CoaseDecember 29, 2014The Ideas That Shaped AfricaJanuary 7, 2015 As protests in Ferguson and elsewhere have brought police militarization to the forefront of public debate, some voices suggest that reigning in police militarization requires stricter gun control laws. For example, Matthew Yglesias argues at Vox that “when civilians are well-armed, police have to be as well.” Yglesias claims, “The officer always has to worry that if he doesn’t reach for and use his own gun, the suspect will.” He further contends that the disproportionate rate at which blacks are shot by police means “Young black men pay the price for gun rights.” While “officer safety” is the common refrain used to justify police violence and police militarization,

They made measurements of the body and other living things and objects. They solved algebra equations, and they did multiplication problems, they used fractions too. There are still papyruses with medicine and math systems in

“I know no national boundary where the Negro is concerned. The whole world is my province until Africa is free” (Garvey). These words by Marcus Garvey perfectly illustrate the spirit of unification that characterized the attitude of many people of African Descent as a direct result of the callous treatment that Africa as a whole suffered at the hands of Europeans. Europe not only ravished Africa of a significant resource in the millions of lives that it stole and enslaved. Europe also pillaged the continent with the brutal institution of colonization. The manacles of colonization inspired great suffering in the lands and lives of Africans examples include Land exploitation, labor exploitation and most significantly exploiting the minds

African advancement continues to grow in America, despite some lack of global recognition. There are many African innovators in the past and present who created new approaches and technologies that were able to benefit to Americans daily life. African innovators have contributed to the American culture, such as worldview, music, religion, dance, clothing, language, methods of nutrition preparation, business, etc. There are immeasurable African American innovators that continue to have a profound and enriched influence on the mainstream American culture.

Consider how Africa’s geography has changed over time. What positive and negative effects would these changes have had on human populations on the continent? As their new homes changed they were able to adapt due to their innovative mindset. This can be attributed to the new found organization thanks to language. Allowing Africans to grow and expand throughout the entire continent. Other factors that can be attributed are the change in geography for some parts such as the Sahara drying out and swamps and lakes disappeared.

Many different races once considered Africa, as a continent that could not support itself since Africans were savages who were not able to prosper on their own. Because of this, life was not easy for Africans and their way of living was very mediocre. Africans’ weakness eventually became evident to the other nations of the world. The European system for instance, fortunately for them, decided to take control of Africa. This was a decision that benefited them financially as they exploited the richness that Africa enfolded. Although many Europeans believed that Africans were much more inferior to them because of their skin color, they knew the significance of the richness that Africa’s soil could give them. It is true that the European’s

When learning about the history of the world, we can not ignore the fact that Africa plays a significant role. Many believe that Africa is the birth place of all races, and although that is true, the history and cultures of Africa and its natives are misunderstood among Americans. People do not take the time to expand their knowledge about Africa, yet they create their own perceptions of the continent based upon the image that America created. America creates this stereotype that Africa is inferior to the other continents by picturing them as savage like individuals who live an insufficient life. To truly understand Africa, you must understand these two important elements: the demographics of Africa and the true history of Africa

A similarity between the ancient Egyptians and Greek is the use of what is now known as geometry. It is currently thought that the Egyptians had introduced the earliest fully-developed base-ten numeration system, this system was introduced around 2700 BCE, and was based. On people having ten fingers (story of mathematics). A famous document of the time was the Rhind Papyrus, created 1650 BC, and contained information and exercises to show the “Correct method of reckoning, for grasping the meaning of things and knowing everything that is, obscurities and all secrets.” (Washington.edu). The Egyptians had also approximated the area of

My research of interest is to identify appropriate mental health approaches to the African American population. I am interested in examining how successful Afro-Centric approach to therapy would be for African American families who are dealing with mental health. Over the years of working in the mental health field, it seems that traditional counseling approaches are not practical with this population. Families are not trusting of the therapeutic relationships and there continues to be persistent issues regarding racial disparities and disproportionate service delivery in health care for African American youth and families. My objective is to determine if the Afro-Centric theory will improve mental health in the underserved communities

The people that are one of the most oppressed and restricted throughout recent history, if not the most, are considered to be the those of African descent. There was, and arguably, still is institutionalized racism against people of African descent in the Americas, with a prime example being the peculiar institution of slavery. This institution was so peculiar that, in many countries, the long, entire process of capturing, enslaving, and forcing of people to work, primarily those that were of African descent, became so profitable and efficient that slavery became the backbone of an entire country in terms of labor, such as the United States. Naturally, of course, there was always a constant resistance to this oppression, no matter where the enslaved people were, or under which circumstances they were subject to. The Africans that were brought to the Americas as captives by Europeans would resist against their captors in different ways, and so would their descendants, until they were liberated.

The mathematics had been developed for four thousand years, and Muslim inherited mathematics from Egyptian, Mesopotamians, Sumerian and Babylonian. Greek geometry and Hindu arithmetic and algebra reached at an early stage in Muslim lands and were translated in centers such as Gondeshapur and Baghdad. Starting out at intellectual center of Islam, they soon criticizing those concepts and formulation by finding inaccurate and inconsistent information and adapt their own ideas. At the same period in Western Europe, they still use Roman numerals and abacus to calculate numbers. The Babylonian already had concept of bases sixty computation with place value numerals. Muslim then developed a decimal arithmetic based on place value and joint concept of zero. In the ninth century, Banu Musa brothers who were three gifted sons of Musa, Muhammad, Ahmad, and Hassan ibn Musa lived in Baghdad studied problems in constructing interrelated geometrical figures. Later the characteristic of those line, space of geometrical shape was given intense study and utilized sophisticated geometry in designing waterwheels, in improving farming equipment, in developing new type of weapon used at war. Another person who make significant contribution on mathematics is Muhammad ibn al-Khwarizmi, a Persian born in the eighth century. He was the first person who originated both terms “algebra”, and