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Perhaps a first step "attitude change" toward correcting the tendency of Black youth to avoid math might come from them understanding that their Black African ancestors completely invented and perfected math to a most complex degree; that their ancestors' brilliant thinking pattern seeds have been passed down and await flowering in their minds; and that African "mathematics" originally meant "an eagerness to learn" the ways of abstractly manipulating numbers and symbols so as to order and structure the cosmos, themselves, and how to live. When this was borrowed out of Africa, it became "mathematics" in Greece (and directed toward "learning" the inner world as a vehicle for the expression of her impulses) and "discipline" in Rome (directed toward "learning" externally to deal with the practical). Being "disposed to learning" implies "something peculiarly pleasurable" for the human mind. Such occurs when superstar athletes pursue hard mental and physical preparation and when intellectual world leaders accept the challenge to do the hardest mental work for profit and for fun (e.g. mental judo in Wit's one-upmanship). At every step, mental and physical successes require math and an awake, alert, and eager mind engaged in powerful step-by-step thinking. For your satisfaction and fulfillment in surviving and thriving in life, math based powerful thinking is essential. It figures out ways to offensively and defensively maneuver for proper effectiveness and efficiency in the "elbowing" of your way into a deserved position. Then, you can enjoy acquiring what is fair and what is rightfully yours.
At Morehouse College (Atlanta), "Pop" Dansby-- by illustrating what happens in Games of Chance (i.e. the math theory of Probability)--stimulated us students to want to learn more about math. Originated by Ancient African diviners, this is about calculating the chances of anything happening by the number of possibilities present. For example, in the toss of a coin the chance of its being heads or tails on any toss is 50-50. The reason is that in the long run, with many tosses, that is how one should guess on the next toss. Many African males play similar games based on the outcomes when chips, nuts, or cowrie shells are tossed (see Zaslavsky, Africa Counts, p113 for elaboration).
"Brain Games" can be created as, for example, with One, Zero, and Fractions. Ancient Africans considered the number One to be a sacred symbol of God since it is an undivided unity. Because odd numbers are masculine and even numbers are feminine, One is without gender--neither even nor odd. Although Zero could not be considered something, it was used by the Ishango of Zaire 23,000 years ago as a space on bones for recording numbers (the origin of the Abacus game). "Spaces" later showed up in Ancient Egyptian math.
Since "Zero" is still not understood, "Brain Games" can be devised around it. Spiritually, suppose everything comes from Zero and One. If God as One is love, then all real creatures and creations spring out of One. But the opposite of love is the absence of loveâ€"i.e. Zero. To step away from love leads deeper into Zero's ignorance and evil. On a material world basis, Fractions are located between one and zero. For Ancient Egyptians, fractions had a religious origin from the myth of Horus and Seth. Seth tore out one of Horus' falcon eyes and cut it into piecesâ€"pieces which thereafter symbolized certain fractions. Africans went on to develop a complex method of factorization. To show how conflict has occurred by mixing the spiritual with the worldly, European Renaissance scientist, along with their followers of Set (Satan), destroyed the sacred science by introducing the Evil Number, Zero, in arithmetic to take the first place of Number One. References: Diop, Civilization p276; Seleem, Egyptian Book of Life p12.
Joseph A. Bailey, II, M.D.
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