Southern African Ethnomathematics Study Group  (SAEmSG)

A workshop on "Exploring mathematical concepts in indigenous activities," organised by Queeneth Mkabela-Castiano, took place at the University of Zululand in Epamgeni (South Africa) on June 22-23, 2004. Queeneth Mkabela is the editor-in-chief of Indilinga, African Journal of Indigenous Knowledge Systems. The speakers at the workshop met in the evening of June 22 in Richard Bay and agreed with the proposal presented by Paulus Gerdes and decided to create the Southern African Ethnomathematics Study Group  (SAEmSG), affiliated to the International Study Group on Ethnomathematics (ISGEm).  As first tasks for SAEmSG were formulated:
… Establish links with somehow regional associations or regional branches of African or international organisations, so that at their conferences, seminar and sub-conferences on ethnomathematics may be held.  The following organisations were referred to: the Southern African Association for Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education (SAARMSTE), the Southern African Mathematical Sciences Association (SAMSA), African Mathematical Union (AMU) and the AMU Commission for the History of Mathematics in Africa (AMUCHMA), the Association for Mathematics Education in South Africa (AMESA), Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) programmes in the region, UNESCO-Harare, and ICME-SA.  
… Identify colleagues in the region who are interested in ethnomathematics and circulate the information. Abdulcarimo Ismael will co-ordinate the e-mail list.
… Organise a scheme for joint supervision of masters and doctoral theses in the field of ethnomathematics.
… Elaborate a regional research agenda in ethnomathematics.

The founding members of the SAEmSG are:

Angola: Manuel Domingos Cadete (mdocadete@hotmail.com, mdocadete@yahoo.com.br); Botswana: Obusitswe Pitso (pitsoo@mopipi.ub.bw); Mozambique: Paulus Gerdes (pgerdes@virconn.com), Abdulcarimo Ismael (abdulcarimoismael@hotmail.com), Marcos Cherinda (mcherinda@hotmail.com), José Castiano (j.castiano@tvcabo.co.mz), Daniel Soares; South Africa: Oupa Mashile (mashieo@unisa.ac.za), Mogege Mosimege (Mogege.Mosimege@dst.gov.za), Herbert Khuzwayo (hbkhuzw@pan.uzulu.ac.za), Queeneth Mkabela (nmkabela@pa.uzulu.ac.za); Zimbabwe: David Mtetwa (dmtetwa@education.uz.ac.zw, dmtetwa2002@yahoo.co.uk).