Get a decolonised GPS

As a retired maths adviser I was appalled by Teboho Pitso’s article (“Afrocentric science can be liberatory”, November 25). It is a verbose, repetitious bundle of tautologies. It is the antithesis of his stated aim, “the defeat of ignorance, dogmatism and bigotry”.

To put things in perspective instead of a politically charged character assassination, I fail to see any examples he raises from south of the equator. His decolonisation appears to be quite nebulous. Also, he should know there were no countries with borders on most continents until relatively recently. So, his harping on about Egypt is a little simplistic.

Regarding Newton, he did not name them “Newton’s Laws”. That was done later. He never claimed them as his and it is quite feasible someone else came to the same conclusions. It is not an excuse for chastisement. Peer review is quite a new concept that developed with better communication in Europe and the West.

Take Mr Pythagoras. Pitso roundly belittles his “theorem” because he did not give recognition to anyone else. A knowledgeable person would have recognised that there was a Pythagorean school of mathematics from which the proof emanated. (Mathematics leaned heavily on logical geometrical proofs.) But I have seen the same proof from Chinese mathematicians dating well before the Rhynd Papyrus. So much for Pitso’s knowledge of origin.

Every knowledgeable person knows the scientific and mathematical contribution from Arab writings. We use Arabic numbers. The camel trains travelled by night so they used the planets and stars to navigate — GPS was not even a concept. Similarly, anyone who has done one science degree, let alone two or more, would know the origin of “algebra”. These are the first words of the most famous Arab text that started “In this book”. Hence Algebra.

One can knock out old chestnuts all day with little contribution to Pitso’s desire for “exploring new possibilities”. It is not the learning that makes the contribution; it is what individuals do with their newly acquired means to expand the experience of life.

Pitso has not given one definite example of what “Afrocentric science” means. Similarly, he has given no absolute examples of how science can be decolonised. It could be seen as a call, in a failing society or state, that can unite the undergraduate population into throwing away their future.

Good luck with burning up South African universities. Pitso will be out of a job and it will not further the country’s development. Nice try, but no cigar. — Tom Morgan

■ Pitso infers that more history of science would help decolonise science at South Africa’s universities by instilling an emancipatory understanding of the subject.

I suggest a more mundane answer: teach less.

My point? Academics overteach. Emancipation depends on the time and process involved in finding information, be it by trawling the internet or browsing books and journals, coupled with guidance from lecturers — not on more, deconstructed, 45-minute lectures and handouts.

Backtracking from dead-ends detours into interesting if not directly relevant information, and hearing (for example on YouTube) different explanations of topics, spark ideas and learning.

An idealistic answer perhaps, given that academics are compelled to do so much lecturing because of the appalling primary and secondary education of many undergraduates and the huge numbers of students in courses.

For the transformation agenda, however, it has the virtue of being neither Afrocentric nor Eurocentric. — Tim Quinlan, University of KwaZulu-Natal

■ Thank you for Pitso’s fascinating article explaining a great deal that I, as an arts honours graduate, had never conceptualised from the vague recollections of isolated facts learnt in school ancient history many moons ago. It certainly helps me to understand the demand for transformation in curricula allied to the #FeesMustFall protests.

However, that understanding in no way helps me to understand or accept the manner in which destruction, on a grand scale, was rained down on so many educational institutions. — Rosemary Sundgren, Somerset West