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13 November 2019 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa | Photo Sonia Small
Graduations
The UFS will honour all graduates during the upcoming graduation ceremonies to be held in the Callie Human Centre on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus from 9 to 11 December 2019.


During the upcoming graduation ceremonies, the University of the Free State (UFS) will confer a number of qualifications on the Bloemfontein Campus on 9, 10 and 11 December 2019 in the Faculties of Education; the Humanities; Law; Theology and Religion; Economic and Management Sciences; Natural and Agricultural Sciences; and Health Sciences. 517 National Professional Diplomas and Advanced Certificates will be awarded to students graduating from the UFS South Campus University Access Programme.

An additional 147 master’s and doctoral degrees will be conferred in the Faculties of Education, Economic and Management Sciences, Health Sciences, the Humanities, Law, and Theology and Religion.

For more information about the upcoming graduation ceremonies and events, visit the UFS graduation ceremonies page.

Graduates can read through the Bloemfontein Graduations: Preparing for Graduations - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), which contain the necessary information for graduates to note during the graduation processions.
 
Graduation ceremonies for the different faculties will take place on the following dates:

9 Dec 2019
14:30: South Campus: Open Distance Learning 
Certificates and diplomas

10 Dec 2019
09:00: Faculties of Education, the Humanities, Law, and Theology and Religion 
All certificates, diplomas, bachelor’s degrees, and honours degrees

14:30: Faculties of Economic and Management Sciences and Natural and Agricultural Sciences 
All certificates, diplomas, bachelor’s degrees, and honours degrees

11 Dec 2019
09:00: Faculty of Health Sciences
All certificates, diplomas, bachelor’s degrees, and honours degrees

14:30: All Faculties 
Master's and doctoral qualifications

News Archive

Africa the birthplace of mathematics, says Prof Atangana
2017-11-17


 Description: Prof Abdon Atangana, African Award of Applied Mathematics  Tags: Prof Abdon Atangana, African Award of Applied Mathematics

Prof Abdon Atangana from the UFS Institute for Groundwater Studies.
Photo: Supplied

 

Prof Abdon Atangana from the Institute for Groundwater Studies at the University of the Free State recently received the African Award of Applied Mathematics during the International conference "African’s Days of Applied Mathematics" that was held in Errachidia, Morocco. Prof Atangana delivered the opening speech with the title "Africa was a temple of knowledge before: What happened?” The focus of the conference was to offer a forum for the promotion of mathematics and its applications in African countries.

When Europeans first came to Africa, they considered the architecture to be disorganised and thus primitive. It never occurred to them that Africans might have been using a form of mathematics that they hadn’t even discovered yet.

Africa is home to the world’s earliest known use of measuring and calculation. Thousands of years ago Africans were using numerals, algebra and geometry in daily life. “Our continent is the birthplace of both basic and advanced mathematics,” said Prof Atangana. 

Africa attracted a series of immigrants who spread knowledge from this continent to the rest of the world.

Measuring and counting
In one of his examples of African mathematics knowledge Prof Atangana referred to the oldest mathematical instrument as the Lebombo bone, a baboon fibula used as a measuring instrument, which was named after the Lebombo Mountains of Swaziland. The world’s oldest evidence of advanced mathematics was also a baboon fibula that was discovered in present-day Democratic Republic of Congo.

Another example he used is the manuscripts in the libraries of the Sankoré University, one of the world’s oldest tertiary institutions. This university in Timbuktu, Mali, is full of manuscripts mainly written in Ajami in the 1200s AD. “When Europeans and Western Asians began visiting and colonising Mali between the 1300s and 1800s, Malians hid the manuscripts in basements, attics and underground, fearing destruction or theft by foreigners. This was certainly a good idea, given the Europeans' history of destroying texts in Kemet and other areas of the continent. Many of the scripts were mathematical and astronomical in nature. In recent years, as many as 700 000 scripts have been rediscovered and attest to the continuous knowledge of advanced mathematics and science in Africa well before European colonisation. 

Fractal geometry

“One of Africa’s major achievements was the advanced knowledge of fractal geometry. This knowledge is found in a wide aspect of Africa life: from art, social design structures, architecture, to games, trade and divination systems. 

“The binary numeral system was also widely known through Africa before it was known throughout much of the world. There is a theory that it could have influenced Western geometry, which led to the development of digital computers,” he said. 

“Can Africa rise again?” Prof Atangana believes it can.

He concluded with a plea to fellow African researchers to do research that will build towards a new Africa.

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