I Cronje: Educator resource book and Africa meets Africa implementation
programme launch

24 October 2006

"Making a living through the Mathematics of Zulu Design"

This morning I awarded first prize in the prestigious annual Golden Circle
Schools Art competition to a delicate piece of beadwork made by one of our
learners from Margot Fonteyn High School. I know Jannie van Heerden is thrilled
about this, and rightly so.

We can take pride in the fact that the fine technique and design in this
exquisite piece of beadwork is part of an aesthetic tradition that developed in
our part of the world long before the first paint brush or the first pen was
ever put to paper in our schools!

When Arab traders first brought brightly coloured beads to our shores to
trade for African ivory, gold and hide as early as the 9th and 10th centuries,
who would have guessed that besides being used as currency, eventually we would
speak with beads as a visual language.

The colours, combined in patterns declaring regional identities and social
status, have also evolved into a language that helps solve problems for us
today, such as the drive for HIV/AIDS awareness. Do have a close look inside
the museum at the precious historic beaded adornments and woven baskets from
the Killie Campbell Collection, displayed specially for us here today. The
pieces exhibited here outside, you can touch and enjoy directly. As you can see
I am wearing a beaded apron myself. (1)

These things were after all made to serve a useful purpose, as part of
people's everyday lives.

But then they are much more than useful things. I am sure you will agree
that they are also very beautiful. One's eye just cannot resist taking in the
rich colours and enjoying the complex patterns they are made of. They are
useful, beautiful, and in the market place they are helping entrepreneurs at
both formal and informal levels of our economy, to make a living.

I wonder how many of you have ever come across the idea of linking
mathematical understanding to them. What kind of thinking are we doing when we
enjoy these patterns (2) and their perfect symmetry? I am
holding up one of Jannie's own favourite pieces here, an ubeschwana or back
apron from Nongoma that a young Zulu maiden would wear. And Helene's favourite
bandolier or imitamtama, worn across one shoulder and the chest by a Zulu man.
When enjoying these designs, are you and I responding through the visual
language of art, or through a sense of the mathematical concepts inherent in
symmetry?

The 'Africa meets Africa' resource book tells us that we bring our own sense
of order and design to these objects. Master weavers Reuben Ndwandwe and Elliot
Mkhize (Elliot is here today) say they never draw a design before they start
weaving a basket. In fact they do not know what a basket is going to look like
until it has grown to completion in their hands. Each basket grows to
symmetrical perfection in their hands and is absolutely unique, like a puzzle
of geometric shapes that fit perfectly together.

But the weavers do say they count their stitches as they weave each new
colour in and that says Eliot Mkhize, makes his designs straight. You might
suggest the word geometrical.

Mathematics also starts with counting. One could argue that as much as
styles of beadwork have been read as a coded visual language, so is algebra.
One of the key outcomes of our Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS)
holds that learners should be aware of the fact that life consists of sets of
related systems, and that problems seldom exist in isolation.

In the 'Africa meets Africa' book and film, mathematician and artist Dr
Chonat Getz takes us on a strangely familiar journey of discovery as we trace
in the perfect forms, shapes and patterns of actual pieces of beadwork, in
baskets and Zulu pots, the same concepts of numeracy, the polygons,
tesselations and symmetries that our educators and learners are dealing with,
and often struggling with, in the classroom. She does so at varying levels of
sophistication, to support, enrich and challenge educators as they take the
idea further.

'Africa meets Africa: Making a Living through the Mathematics of Zulu
Design' draws therefore on our aesthetic enjoyment of familiar objects of
cultural expression, beautiful things used in everyday life and shows us how to
find and teach with the general mathematical ideas reflected in them. Beadwork
makers, grass weavers and pot makers in both rural and urban contexts are
invited into the classroom, to teach learners and talk about their making and
marketing experience.

In this process the indigenous heritage is validated in a formal learning
context. The artists are shown both to be making a living and to be preserving
a tradition of knowledge as precious heritage of the many local communities
within our province - they are playing a key part in preserving what is
commonly referred to as Indigenous Knowledge Systems.

It is to the rural areas, the street vendors of the informal economic sector
in our cities, as well as museums such as the Killie Campbell Collection that
we must look when seeking out our own Indigenous Knowledge systems, as
prescribed in the Revised National Curriculum Statement.

There is presently some debate about a negative connotation to the word
indigenous, with some preferring the term southern African knowledge
systems.

Over the last 20 years in particular, there has been growing recognition all
over the world of existing indigenous, non-European, knowledge systems and of
the fact that peoples from many countries have contributed to the development
of knowledge - to art, science and mathematics alike. Many contributions have
remained hidden and many people still remain unaware of the contributions made
by the peoples of Africa, Asia and South America. Martin Bernal in his seminal
work (3) exploring the Afro-Asiatic roots of European
Classical Civilisation, states that the contribution of Africa and Asia have
been systematically suppressed since the 18th Century.

In the history of the world, during the periods of slavery and colonialism,
there was a deliberate attempt by the European countries to impose their own
values, knowledge systems and technologies on the countries they had colonised.
Anything that was not of European origin was underplayed and the conquerors
ensured that the peoples of Africa, Asia and South America were made to feel
that their own cultures were in some way inferior and that their own
contribution to philosophy, art and science was non-existent or minimal.

Yet the Hindus in India invented the number zero, the South American
civilisations had invented instruments to measure time and the movements of
planetary bodies, and Africa was the continent in which great architectural
feats were achieved in Egypt and at Monomotapa in Zimbabwe.

In terms of art, an interesting process of acculturation can be traced
between Europe and Africa. The beaded jacket (ihantsi) you saw on your
invitation and on the cover of the 'Africa meets Africa' educator resource
book, shows the resilience of a Zulu migrant worker in transforming a worker's
jacket into something that speaks very clearly of African identity. This jacket
is from the Standard Bank African Art Collection. The Standard Bank Gallery was
recently instrumental, with the Pablo Picasso Museum in Paris and the Iziko
Museum in Cape Town in curating an exhibition which traced the influence of
African art on Picasso as the great master of the 20th century European
art.

The peoples of the developing nations have begun to reclaim their own
heritage. Whether at the philosophical level of the values of Ubuntu, or at the
more practical level of basket weaving and beadwork, local communities are
rediscovering elements of indigenous knowledge. What is equally important is
that in this is a willingness and pride in transmitting these elements to
future generations. This awareness is not just confined to KwaZulu Natal or
South Africa. There is a global economic dimension to it as well. It is a well
known fact that a growing demand for African beadwork and other crafts exists
in many countries overseas and that African design is making its mark
there.

There is also a growing recognition globally of the wide diversity of
knowledge systems through which people make sense of the world in which they
live. This recognition of Indigenous Knowledge Systems has also occurred in
South Africa and is reflected as a key principle in our National Curriculum
Statement (NCS). It states that "indigenous knowledge systems in the South
African context refer to a body of knowledge embedded in African philosophical
thinking and social practices that have evolved over thousands of years." The
National Curriculum Statement has infused Indigenous Knowledge Systems into the
Subject Statements and acknowledges the rich history and heritage of this
country as important contributors to nurturing the values contained in our
Constitution.

But what do educators say of integrating our traditions of weaving and
beadwork, and the indigenous knowledge contained in them, with Arts and
Culture, and Mathematics, with the two learning areas being linked also? Well,
Jannie van Heerden has spoken and indeed acted for the arts for many years.

When one of our Mathematics specialists, Moses Mogamberry first encountered
the 'Africa meets Africa' Project he wrote: "A lot has been written about
African Mathematics and art, notably by the mathematicians Paulos Gerdes (from
Mozambique) and George Joseph. The power of the 'Africa meets Africa' resource
is that it gives life to the link between African design and Mathematics. For
learners in school the familiarity and immediacy of the medium� bridges the
concrete and the abstract. The real life content presented �forms a valuable
platform from which mathematical abstractions can be developed."

Another mathematics educator, Cynthia Malinga, grew up in the Hlabisa area
in Northern KwaZulu-Natal. She is now education programmes manager at the
Sci-Bono Science and Mathematics Centre in Johannesburg and a teacher trainer
herself.
When the Africa meets Africa material was piloted at Sci-Bono she said of this
project:

"Indigenous styles of making beadwork involve mathematical thinking.
Beadwork in the classroom can bridge the gap learners experience between the
concrete and the abstract. The ability to fit circles into squares and
triangles, the number patterns, sequences and series that determine which bead
and which colour comes next, is in fact what learners are struggling with when
thinking numerically. Beadwork can also develop creativity in learners,
encouraging them to use other theoretical and abstract sequences to create new
beadwork deigns. This kind of engagement with beadwork and weaving would cover
a great deal of the current learning prescribed in the RNCS for
Mathematics.

Currently learners struggle with Geometry and doing beadwork and recognising
polygons in the pleasing patterns of a piece of beadwork, rather than in a
textbook, can be much less intimidating. Educators need to be exposed to this
combination of theoretical and practical thinking in order to engage learners
early in their school career, and so address current weak performances in
Geometry in the whole Further Education Training (FET) band, and especially at
Grade 12 level."

I am certainly hopeful that presenting algebra and geometry in a more
familiar and home-grown context will make the mathematics more accessible and
reduce the fear and anxiety that many of our learners experience when doing
mathematics. I am also sure that the beauty of the cultural artefacts that are
created and used in the lesson plans will make the experience of mathematics
less boring, and far more exciting and creative for our learners.

I have personally looked through some of the lesson plans in the educator
resource and was impressed to note that the planned learning activities address
many of the important critical and developmental outcomes of our new
curriculum, and create opportunities for the integration of knowledge across
different learning areas as diverse as Arts and Culture, Technology,
Mathematics, Economic and Management Sciences, and History.

There are opportunities for learners:

* to identify and solve problems and make decisions involving critical and
creative thinking
* to demonstrate an understanding of the world as a set of related
systems
* to be culturally and aesthetically sensitive across a range of social
contexts
* to develop entrepreneurial opportunities.

The educator's resource that is being launched today is indeed one which
will give learners an opportunity to engage in the holistic approach to
education that our new curriculum calls for.

Today we are celebrating the weaving together of many different strands or
threads of knowledge. The 'Africa meets Africa' Project, thanks to the generous
sponsorship of both the Shuttleworth Foundation and the Royal Netherlands
Embassy in Pretoria, has conceived this process for us.

We know that the Shuttleworth Foundation has distinguished itself as an
organisation that excels in supporting and facilitating innovation in
education.

The Royal Netherlands Embassy has contributed enormously this year to
supporting educators in the KwaZulu-Natal department of Education, especially
in rural areas.

We look forward to the outcome of the next few months of creative and
analytical endeavour with the 'Africa meets Africa' resource 'Making a Living
though the Mathematics of Zulu Design,' a resource that I believe is keenly
sought after already in our other provincial education departments, both in
rural schools and in our cities.

The 'Africa meets Africa' Project's approach is an inclusive one. It
envisages that the particular contribution of each of the indigenous language
groups celebrated in its series of resources will be used by educators
throughout our country, and no doubt in combination. We in KwaZulu-Natal are
very pleased at being the first province to be chosen to launch this journey of
exploration.

In closing, we should reflect perhaps for a moment on the very real
challenges faced by both our learners and our school leavers trying to make a
living for themselves as entrepreneurs. We all see almost daily the brilliant
colours and patterns generated by the sheer genius of innovation, when security
guards on their night shift started applying the grass weaving techniques with
electrical wire in the city. What a remarkable success story that has become. I
have just met the inventor and master of wire weaving, Elliot Mkhize, who
successfully supports his family on his weaving skills and is winning acclaim
for his excellent products in most galleries all over the country.

But let us spare a thought and look out to assist those who through social
pressures, struggle to achieve independence and finally make a living with the
skills we have taught them as educators. The 'Africa meets Africa' team has
told me of a young woman who, having been put through school on her mother's
earnings as a weaver, decided to qualify in the field of cultural tourism. She
registered and completed some training at the Durban Institute of Design and
Technology.

The 'Africa meets Africa' project was hoping to document her progress; here
surely was an interesting young entrepreneur who would bring together various
aspects of our economy, both formal and informal. After six months of studying
she returned to her rural home. Her mother was ill and needed care and she
herself was pregnant. By the age of 22 she had died of HIV and AIDS. A teacher
from her home commented: "Never underestimate the social pressures and
challenges our young people face."

This is surely a reality we as educators must take into account when we
strive for excellence in our schools. That learning must be a holistic process
that addresses the challenges faced by our learners. That the wisdom and
knowledge to be gained from our cultural heritage is there not only to be
revered as tradition, but to be applied in innovation and in solving the
problems that our current generation of graduates face.

With these words, I once again congratulate the 'Africa Meets Africa'
Project on its initiative in bringing us to this moment when this exciting
educator resource is being launched. I also invite our educators to enjoy and
to engage with the wealth of our cultural heritage here in KwaZulu-Natal, and
to innovate with new solutions to solve the problems our learners face, so that
life may continue and flourish with them.

(1) Helene Smuts of 'Africa meets Africa'
can give this to you before the speech if you like.
(2) Note: complex ubeschwana (back apron) will be
available to show to the audience
(3) Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of
Classical Civilization (Vintage Books, UK, 1987)

Issued by: Department of Education, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial
Government
24 October 2006
Source: KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education (http://www.kzneducation.gov.za)