Huylebrouck Dirk's Page

The 22000 years-old Ishango rod is the oldest object in mathematics. During colonial times it was brought from Congo to Belgium, where it remained in a dusty drawer for about 50 years, since no one could believe Africans could have done mathematics – just as none could believe an African-American could be President of the USA.

In 2001 it was finally put in exposition in the Brussels’ museum for Natural Sciences. The story was not finished though, since the discoverer admitted he found another similar rod, on his death bed - why did he wait so long? Anyway, now there are 2 Ishango rods so that it cannot be a coincidence anymore: mathematics begun in Africa. In 2007, this fact was mentioned on the front page of the French newspaper “Le Monde”, though CNN and many other TV stations had already paid attention to it previously (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X0DSr7WAco).

Knowing “even” mathematics comes from Africa is a very strong message, as it shapes a different view about Africa and African-Americans, but too often solely associated with athletics, soccer, dance or rap music, in the best case, and more often with misery or riots. Mathematics is the basis of all sciences, and thus its study has a collateral advantage for the development of countries and individuals. This is why several friends propose to launch a copy of it into space, as to realize the metaphor from Stanley Kubrick in “2001 A Space Odyssey”, and have an object from Africa in space, symbolically. Any help is most welcome.