Multicultural math education does not imply an "add-on." Rather, it means a different way of involving students in mathematical activities and mathematical thinking.The reform movement in mathematics education is a reaction to the sad fact that much of the traditional mathematics curriculum had little relevance to the lives of students or to other aspects of school life. Mathematics was not connected to anything. Many students were unable to apply the math they learned in school to solve everyday problems.
Review by Paulus Gerdes in On mathematics in the history of sub-Saharan Africa states "In her classical study Africa Counts: Number and Pattern in African Culture ..., Claudia Zaslavsky presented an overview of the available literature on mathematics in the history of sub-Saharan Africa. She discussed written, spoken, and gesture counting, number symbolism, concepts of time, numbers and money, weights and measures, record-keeping (sticks and strings), mathematical games, magic squares, graphs, and geometric forms, while Donald Crowe contributed a chapter on geometric symmetries in African art." (http://math.truman.edu/~thammond/history/TimeReckoning.html)
This paper broadly surveys the recent research in sub-Saharan mathematics (and some related areas as well). Areas discussed include prehistoric mathematics (e.g., the Ishango and Border Cave bones), number systems and symbolism (including algorithms and education), games and puzzles (for example, a leopard-goat-cassava leaf river crossing problem and a "topological" puzzle), symmetry in African art, graphs or networks (e.g. Tschokwe sand drawings), architecture (one case involving magic squares; also a brief reference to fractals). Gerdes mentions string figures as a possibly productive future research area; he gives some starting points. He also discusses related areas, such as technology, and studies on language and mathematical concepts. A goal of the studies mentioned is apparently to better understand mathematics learning in Africa. Some studies focus on logic. Questions on interaction with ancient Egypt are still largely open. A better understanding of Islamic mathematics in sub-Saharan Africa is desirable as well. The author also touches on factors connected with the slave trade; e.g., the remarkable but not perhaps entirely atypical abilities of Thomas Fuller. Includes an extensive bibliography. (http://math.truman.edu/~thammond/history/MagicSquares.html)
This argument seeks to pull together the available evidence on one prominent class of board-games, mankala, highlighting its formal structure, imagery and history. It stresses mankala's close parallels with geomantic divination, which are treated in detail. It formulates (largely in dialogue with the great historian of games Murray) such theoretical and methodological considerations as an assessment of the scattered and heterogeneous evidence necessitate. In this connection I discuss board-games and divination as formal models, their relation to narrative literature, their temporal structure, symbolism and mathematics.