Sipatsi: Basketry and Geometry in the Tonga Culture of Inhambane (Mozambique, Africa)

Gitonga speaking basket weavers, mostly women, from Inhambane in the Southeast of Mozambique make colourful 'sipatsi' purses, and handbags. They are very creative in inventing new decorative designs and patterns. This book, resulting from thirty years of enquiring, collecting and observing, is unique. It presents a series of 'snapshots', which collectively constitute a short film that records an unfolding exploration of personal and collective memory, of symmetry, of combinations of colour and pattern, and of variations of order and logic to create new designs. The book includes a catalogue of over 700 different decorative patterns. In several chapters, activities and problems for exploration in mathematics (teacher) education have been presented, underscoring the scientific and educational wealth of the 'sipatsi' as a mathematical construct. (422 pp.)