Name: The fractals at the heart of African designs
Uploaded: 2007-11-29T05:00:00Z
Duration: 16 min 37 s
Description: 'I am a mathematician, and I would like to stand on your roof.' That is how Ron Eglash greeted many African families he met while researching the fractal patterns he'd noticed in villages across the continent.

Ron Eglash: The fractals at the heart of African designs

The fractals at the heart of African designs

'I am a mathematician, and I would like to stand on your roof.' That is how Ron Eglash greeted many African families he met while researching the fractal patterns he'd noticed in villages across the continent.

African architecture and art have long employed complex fractal patterns, consciously integrating self-similar geometry at every scale from villages to objects. Aerial photos show entire communities laid out as fractals, where even family enclosures echo the whole. These intricate designs are not merely aesthetic; they involve sophisticated algorithms and practical knowledge, like wind-resistant fences or recursive symbolism in divination. The discovery reframes African design as a source of deep mathematical innovation, predating much of what is credited in Western science.