Patrick Mathangani
Francis Mungai Wainaina has a way with numbers. And for him, mathematics is an art and a way of life.
To him, mathematics is not just about boring, mechanical interactions with numbers. Instead, numbers are what make the world tick, he says, revealing a firm belief that the universe is mysteriously held together by a natural arrangement of numbers that work in perfect harmony.
"For instance, it is not an accident that humans have 10 fingers," says Wainaina, 63, at his home in Muhohoyo village, Makuyu Division, Murang’a South District.
And to prove this, Wainaina raises his fingers and demonstrates how they can be used to solve multiplication problems.
His logical explanations for numeric solutions at one’s fingertips make even those poor at mathematics sit up and pay attention.
However, it is his invention of an African abacus that has seen even university dons impressed by his research.
Wainaina points to a write up about his achievements in a magazine. |
In Kenya, some types of imported abaci are in use and parents pay up to Sh4,000 an hour to have their children taught arithmetic.
The modern calculator is modelled on the way an abacus works.
Wainaina says when he discovered the shortcomings, he set out to improve the abacus.
"With an arrangement of beads, I used traditional wisdom to improve the abacus. I spent many days and sleepless nights on the project," he told the Sunday Magazine.
The result was his new abacus that has wowed professors and university students who have attended his demonstrations and lectures.
New, strange education
"I believe that African peoples had great knowledge of mathematics, which was not developed when a new and strange education system was introduced," Wainaina says, showing off his abacus made of brightly coloured beads.
Starting from scratch, he arranged bottle tops, swapping them around to make calculations until he got what he was looking for.
His research, he says, is based on African traditional knowledge in mathematics that has been ignored.
"I discovered that Africans could solve complex mathematical problems even before schools were introduced. Even children played singing games that had mathematical relevance," he explains.
He says he was mystified that such songs showed advanced knowledge of mathematics, which led him to realise that Africans had their own form of abacus and thus a form of ‘ethno-mathematics’.
His research, therefore, builds on this traditional knowledge.
"After more than 20 years of research in mathematics, and particularly calculus (differential and integral), I have come up with an abacus invention that is more efficient than the suanpan of the Chinese," says Wainaina.
His efforts, he adds, also led him to develop some mathematical formulae. These, he claims were presented to a professor at the University of Nairobi, "who marvelled at my mathematical genius", in 1991.
Big accomplishment
In 2004, when he made a presentation to students at Kenyatta University’s School of Pure and Applied Sciences, the department’s chairman, Dr Gachangi Njenga said Wainaina’s work was a big accomplishment.
Wainaina’s abacus. [Photos: courtesy] |
"The abacus actually works on simple mathematical principles. Wainaina says he made the discovery without reference to any development in the same line and for this he deserves commendation," Dr Njenga wrote in a recommendation letter dated September 14, 2004.
Njenga recommended that Wainaina could be a useful member of the Primary Mathematics Advisory Association.
"I found him to be full of energy and anxious to stimulate interest in mathematics particularly the arithmetic operations based on his abacus," Njenga added.
He has now made five different types of abaci, each an improvement over the previous one.
Through his research, Wainaina has also prepared logarithm tables that work differently from those commonly used.
"The tables are all on a single sheet of paper, making them easier to use."
He has taught trainee teachers using his abacus at Murang’a Teachers’ College. Sometimes parents hire him to teach their children for Sh3,000 per hour.
The researcher has also presented his abacus to the University of Nairobi, where he said some lecturers there could not solve mathematical problems that he easily did with the abacas.
Wainaina taught in several primary schools before retiring from Thaara Primary School. But he did not discard his beloved mathematics books, instead settling down to research during his newfound free time.
Wainaina believes an abacus is superior to a calculator because it gives the user a real, physical encounter with the all-important base 10 in mathematics.
"This is due to its use of groupings of 10 when calculating, represented physically in an abacus by lines in which the beads are placed," Wainaina explains.
He is satisfied with what he has learnt, but disappointed the Government and other institutions seem disinterested in his work.
Local research bodies have shunned him, and he fears his knowledge will go to waste.
"I am an old man now. Although it is exciting to do all these things, I will eventually have to quit because even my eyesight is failing."
Few willing to listen
He has visited many public institutions, including the Kenya Institute of Education and the National Museum’s ethnography department but few people are willing to listen to him.
He regrets that there appears to be no system of nurturing creative minds in Kenya, which means a lot of research is going down the drain.
"In other countries, governments give grants for research, or absorb talented people into relevant institutions but this has never happened to me."
Wainaina has, however, not given up.
"My knowledge and inventions could be used for centuries in mathematics. If any education institution or government department wants to benefit from my knowledge, I am willing to share it," he says.
"I don’t want to leave this world without sharing that knowledge. I want it to be inherited by other people."
He appeals particularly to Dr Sally Kosgey, the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, to help unlock his trove of knowledge.
Wainaina believes that people ought to find their own solutions, rather than depending on research by others.
"We must not rely too much on finished products like calculators."
He recommends that abaci be introduced in primary schools to teach mathematics.
A deeply religious man, Wainaina says he draws his inspiration from the Bible, which he reads often.
"There are no wise men to advise me, so I read the Bible for inspiration," he says.
