USK Journal of Education
type: channel
description: Présentation de la revue (Description courte) Le USK Journal of Education est une revue scientifique à comité de lecture publiée par USK University Press (Kinshasa). Elle explore les approches décoloniales, symboliques et cognitives de l’éducation africaine, en mettant un accent particulier sur l’écriture Mandombe, la pédagogie cognitive, la reconstruction épistémologique et les innovations éducatives basées sur les valeurs africaines. La revue publie des articles empiriques, théoriques et appliqués dans les domaines de la psychopédagogie, de la neuroéducation, de la formation des enseignants, de la didactique des sciences, et de la recherche curriculaire décoloniale.
publisher: USK - University Press
language: sw
publication name: USK Journal of Education
issn: 3107-2941
items: Neurocognitive Effects of Mandombe Writing Practice: A Cross-Sectional Study
items: Developing African Curriculum through Symbolic Literacy: The Mandombe Case
items: Teachers as Catalysts: Professional Development for Mandombe Educators
items: Early Childhood Math Learning Through Mandombe – A New Paradigm
items: Symbolic Cognition and the Geometry of Knowledge: Foundations of Mandombe Logic
items: The Cognitive Impact of Learning Mandombe in Adolescence: A Longitudinal Study
items: Ethical Dimensions of Symbolic Cognition: A Study on Responsibility and Collective Knowledge
items: Cognitive Healing Through Symbolic Education: A Therapeutic Framework Based on Mandombe
items: Mandombe-Based Artificial Intelligence: Toward a Symbolic-Geometric Model of Computation
items: Cognitive Resonance Between Mandombe Geometry and Human Neural Networks
items: Logical Foundations of the Mandombe System: Toward an African Axiomatic Framework
items: La cognition Mandombe dans les apprentissages préscolaires congolais : étude pilote

Neurocognitive Effects of Mandombe Writing Practice: A Cross-Sectional Study
type: item
description: Title From Grades to Phases: Learning Trajectories in Pilot Mandombe Nsandas of Kinshasa (2019–2023) Ntima et al. --- Abstract This study examines how a pilot implementation of the new official Mandombe pedagogy alters the way learning trajectories should be described and assessed in Congolese primary schooling. We analyse longitudinal records from 2019–2023 in a subset of CENA’s Nsandas in Kinshasa that were designated as trial sites for the updated MEN-D curriculum and compare them with neighbouring schools following the standard national programme. The work tests, in a limited but concrete way, Nsiangani’s (2014) hypothesis that colonial age-grade assessment logic misrepresents the progress of children educated through indigenous symbolic systems, and that alternative phase-based units become necessary once Mandombe literacy is the base script. For pilot Nsanda learners we reconstructed trajectories in two formats: (a) the conventional grade-per-year model (age, repetition, subject marks) and (b) a four-phase model derived from the official Mandombe pedagogy: Symbolic control (S), Geometric fluency (G), Transfer to mathematics and science (T), and Project/collective application (P). Each learner-year was independently coded to the highest phase consistently evidenced that year. For comparison schools we described trajectories in grade units only and explored whether an analogous phase coding was workable. Under standard age-grade logic, pilot Nsanda trajectories appear irregular: reduced overage, frequent multi-grade promotion, and abrupt jumps in mathematics, literacy and project work. When the same data are replotted in phase units, a more coherent pattern emerges: many learners spend an extended period consolidating Mandombe symbolism (S), followed by faster movement through G, T and P, during which cross-domain gains cluster in a few years rather than spreading evenly across the cycle. Comparison schools show slower, more linear grade progression, higher over…
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: neuroeducation
  topic: keywords
subject: brain plasticity
  topic: keywords
subject: writing systems
  topic: keywords
creator: N Ntima
rights: ##submission.copyrightStatement##
date: 2025-10-28
publication date: 2025-10-28

Developing African Curriculum through Symbolic Literacy: The Mandombe Case
type: item
description: Title From Grades to Phases: Learning Trajectories in Pilot Mandombe Nsandas of Kinshasa (2019–2023) Nzaza et al. --- Abstract This study examines how a pilot implementation of the new official Mandombe pedagogy alters the way learning trajectories should be described and assessed in Congolese primary schooling. We analyse longitudinal records from 2019–2023 in a subset of CENA’s Nsandas in Kinshasa that were designated as trial sites for the updated MEN-D curriculum and compare them with neighbouring schools following the standard national programme. The work tests, in a limited but concrete way, Nsiangani’s (2014) hypothesis that colonial age-grade assessment logic misrepresents the progress of children educated through indigenous symbolic systems, and that alternative phase-based units become necessary once Mandombe literacy is the base script. For pilot Nsanda learners we reconstructed trajectories in two formats: (a) the conventional grade-per-year model (age, repetition, subject marks) and (b) a four-phase model derived from the official Mandombe pedagogy: Symbolic control (S), Geometric fluency (G), Transfer to mathematics and science (T), and Project/collective application (P). Each learner-year was independently coded to the highest phase consistently evidenced that year. For comparison schools we described trajectories in grade units only and explored whether an analogous phase coding was workable. Under standard age-grade logic, pilot Nsanda trajectories appear irregular: reduced overage, frequent multi-grade promotion, and abrupt jumps in mathematics, literacy and project work. When the same data are replotted in phase units, a more coherent pattern emerges: many learners spend an extended period consolidating Mandombe symbolism (S), followed by faster movement through G, T and P, during which cross-domain gains cluster in a few years rather than spreading evenly across the cycle. Comparison schools show slower, more linear grade progression, higher over…
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: literacy
  topic: keywords
subject: african pedagogy
  topic: keywords
subject: teaching in Mandombe
  topic: keywords
creator: T Nzanza
rights: ##submission.copyrightStatement##
date: 2025-10-28
publication date: 2025-10-28

Teachers as Catalysts: Professional Development for Mandombe Educators
type: item
description: This paper proposes competency-based models for training teachers in symbolic cognition. Derived from Kinshasa pilot programs and the Ma-Ma-Kia-Wa-Nga pedagogical framework.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: teachers training
  topic: keywords
subject: pedagogy
  topic: keywords
subject: Mandombe
  topic: keywords
creator: G Nsiangani
rights: ##submission.copyrightStatement##
date: 2024-10-31
publication date: 2024-10-31

Early Childhood Math Learning Through Mandombe – A New Paradigm
type: item
description: Title Early Childhood Math Learning Through Mandombe: A Branch-Based Model for Part–Whole and Repeated-Group Relationships --- Abstract We start from a simple hypothesis: because Mandombe letters are built from shapes with fixed branches, they offer young children a concrete visual model for part–whole, “missing part” and repeated-group relationships that standard dots and digits do not. Previous observational work in Mandombe-based programmes has reported unusually rapid mathematical progress in some cohorts, but it has been unclear whether this is due to pedagogy, language, or the script’s geometry. Here we focus on mechanisms. In a small, controlled module with 6–7-year-olds in Kinshasa (N ≈ 60), we held content, time and teaching scripts constant and varied only the symbolic scaffold. Children were randomly assigned to a Mandombe-branches condition, where basic arithmetic was taught with mvuala shapes and their branches, or to a standard condition using dots/blocks and Arabic digits. Across two to three short sessions, both groups practised “how many in total,” “how many are missing to make it complete” and “two groups of three”–type situations. At the end, children solved picture-based tasks and, when possible, explained their answers. Explanations were coded as counting-only or structural (referring to shapes and branches per shape). In this exploratory sample, children in the Mandombe-branches group were at least as accurate as controls, and a clear majority produced structural explanations such as “two mvuala with three branches each make six” or “one branch is missing to complete the mvuala.” In the standard group, comparable explanations appeared only in a small minority, with most children relying on recounting dots. We interpret this as preliminary evidence that Mandombe’s branch-based geometry provides a reusable mental model for early arithmetic that is not reducible to pedagogy alone. We outline how this low-cost, transparent protocol can be replicate…
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: early education
  topic: keywords
subject: Mandombe
  topic: keywords
subject: symbolic cognition
  topic: keywords
creator: G Ntuala
rights: ##submission.copyrightStatement##
date: 2024-10-31
publication date: 2024-10-31
doi: 10.5281/zenodo.17495981

Symbolic Cognition and the Geometry of Knowledge: Foundations of Mandombe Logic
type: item
description: Title From Singini to Cognitive Grammar: Formalising Mandombe as a Geometric Logic of Reasoning Keywords Mandombe, cognition, epistemology, symbolic logic, African mathematics --- Abstract This article formalises the internal geometry of Mandombe as a cognitive grammar of reasoning rather than as a simple writing system. Building on From Singini to Spacetime (2014) and the Corpus Fondateur du Département Mandombe (2021), I show that the script’s primitives and transformations form a finite, well behaved algebra whose symmetry and recursion can support African models of knowledge, causality and complementarity. I define four core primitives – singini (origin point), mvuala (base cell), kisimba (branch) and yikamu (volumetric unit) – and a small set of operations: rotation, reflection, branching, concatenation and recursion. I demonstrate how this grammar generates families of forms that can encode phonology, prosody and morphology for Bantu languages, and at the same time express basic logical relations such as identity, opposition, inclusion and implication. Short constructions illustrate how mvuala–kisimba configurations can model syllables, number systems, causal chains and moral evaluations within a single geometric vocabulary. The claims are deliberately precise. This is a structural and conceptual paper. It does not present new behavioural data and cannot by itself prove cognitive or clinical effects. Its contribution is to specify a formal grammar that is finite, inspectable and testable. On that basis I derive concrete predictions for cognitive science and neuroscience, including expected differences in orientation sensitivity, mental rotation, continuous stroke planning and shape–emotion mapping in children educated through Mandombe. I also outline how this grammar underpins higher level frameworks such as Mandombe Geometric Algebra (MGA), Rotational Symmetry Epistemology (RSE), Epistemic Symbolic Networks (ESN) and diagnostic projects like the DSM-H and the…
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Mandombe
  topic: keywords
subject: cognition
  topic: keywords
subject: epistemology
  topic: keywords
subject: symbolic logic
  topic: keywords
creator: Kibavuidi Nsiangani
rights: ##submission.copyrightStatement##
date: 2024-10-31
publication date: 2024-10-31

The Cognitive Impact of Learning Mandombe in Adolescence: A Longitudinal Study
type: item
description: Title Neurocognitive Evolution in Adolescents Following 18 Months of Mandombe Instruction: A Controlled Cohort Study --- Abstract This study examines whether 18 months of systematic Mandombe instruction is associated with specific neurocognitive changes in adolescents beyond those expected from age and standard schooling alone. Rather than importing foreign test batteries, we first derived visuospatial and moral tasks from existing MEN-D classroom activities, piloted them locally, and then constructed formally equivalent neutral versions for non-Mandombe peers. Both cohorts therefore worked with tasks that were structurally comparable in difficulty and format, but culturally intelligible. Two matched groups of 12–16-year-olds in Kinshasa were followed over an 18-month interval. The Mandombe group (MG) received regular Mandombe instruction (≥3 hours/week) in addition to standard schooling. The control group (CG) followed standard programmes without exposure to Mandombe. At baseline (T0) and after 18 months (T1), we assessed mental rotation, visuospatial and verbal working memory, non-verbal reasoning, and moral reasoning on Congolese school- and neighbourhood-based vignettes. Explanations on the moral tasks were coded as self-interest/punishment-focused, rule-based, or relational/restorative. The two groups were comparable at T0. Over 18 months, both improved on all measures, but gains differed by domain. MG showed larger improvements in mental rotation and visuospatial span, while gains in verbal span and general non-verbal reasoning were similar across groups. On moral dilemmas, MG adolescents increasingly framed responses in relational and restorative terms (“repairing what is broken”, “restoring balance between us”), whereas CG responses remained more strongly anchored in rules or fear of punishment. We do not claim global superiority or “better brains,” and we cannot exclude all alternative explanations. However, simple accounts in terms of extra schooling or ge…
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: adolescent cognition
  topic: keywords
subject: education
  topic: keywords
subject: decolonization
  topic: keywords
subject: neurodevelopment
  topic: keywords
creator: O Mafuta
rights: ##submission.copyrightStatement##
date: 2025-10-28
publication date: 2025-10-28

Ethical Dimensions of Symbolic Cognition: A Study on Responsibility and Collective Knowledge
type: item
description: Ethical Dimensions of Symbolic Cognition: Mandombe as a Relational Geometric Backbone for Teaching Responsibility --- Abstract We start from the hypothesis that Mandombe offers a relational geometric backbone which, when taught together with its traditional philosophy of interdependence, supports an ethical learning environment that a Latin-based script struggles to reproduce. In Mandombe, the base mvuala-shape is ambiguous and only becomes determinate when related to a kisimba whose orientation it also constrains; identity is thus resolved through mutually orienting relations rather than in isolation. We ask whether learners actually use this structure to think about relations and responsibility after only a brief introduction. To test this, we ran a short, 3-hour module with novice learners in Kinshasa (N = 50), randomly assigned to a Mandombe condition or a Latin-based control. Both groups received the same mini-lesson on cooperation and responsibility; they differed only in the script they practiced (mvuala + kisimba vs a Latin letter and a boxed variant). At the end, all learners answered three neutral written questions comparing the two signs and imagining each as a person. Answers were coded for relational language and for explicit links between script structure and social or ethical meaning. Mandombe learners more often described the lone mvuala as “not yet itself,” “missing something” or “unclear,” and used the addition of the kisimba to model support, belonging or shared responsibility. Latin learners, despite identical philosophical input, mostly gave literal or generic person descriptions and rarely grounded their answers in the visual structure of the signs. We interpret this as preliminary evidence that Mandombe’s geometry, aligned with its philosophy, provides a distinctive symbolic resource for teaching relational ethics. We also note an intriguing but unplanned contrast in how ambiguity and labelling were discussed, which we explicitly reserve for a…
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: ethics
  topic: keywords
subject: responsibility
  topic: keywords
subject: Mandombe
  topic: keywords
subject: Epistemology
  topic: keywords
creator: M Ngalula
creator: L Nsiala
rights: ##submission.copyrightStatement##
date: 2025-10-28
publication date: 2025-10-28

Cognitive Healing Through Symbolic Education: A Therapeutic Framework Based on Mandombe
type: item
description: Title Continuous Geometric Training Through Mandombe: Portable EEG Evidence From a Mixed Literacy Cohort in Kinshasa Ntima et al. --- Abstract Most cognitive neuroscience studies of literacy are built on children who learn a single dominant script. In Kinshasa, many adolescents now follow a mixed literacy pathway: Latin script for the national curriculum, plus three hours per week of Mandombe, an indigenous geometric script whose pedagogy systematically trains rotation, symmetry, branching and part–whole completeness. This portable EEG pilot examines whether such sustained but part-time Mandombe exposure is associated with specific changes in visuospatial processing. We recorded EEG in Nsanda learning centres that piloted the new official Mandombe curriculum and in neighbouring schools that used only Latin script. Adolescents aged 12 to 16 in the Mandombe group (MG) attended regular Latin classes and at least 18 months of weekly Mandombe instruction, while control group (CG) peers followed the same Latin curriculum without Mandombe. Random assignment was not possible, so Nsandas were chosen for feasibility of monitoring and fidelity to the new curriculum. Participants completed three short tasks aligned with Mandombe geometry: rapid discrimination of pseudo-symbols, mental rotation of abstract shapes and completeness judgements for figures that were either finished or missing a branch. Across tasks, MG showed higher accuracy and shorter reaction times than CG, with the largest differences when stimuli closely resembled Mandombe geometry and medium differences even for non-Mandombe shapes that preserved symmetry, rotation and branch-like structure. EEG data revealed sharper occipito-temporal responses to Mandombe-like patterns in MG, as well as faster and more efficient parietal and frontal dynamics during difficult rotations and completeness judgements. Two CG adolescents with intensive videogame or artistic practice showed partially similar profiles, but did not fu…
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: education
  topic: keywords
subject: Mandombe
  topic: keywords
subject: Colonial trauma in education
  topic: keywords
creator: E Nsimba
creator: M Kasongo
rights: ##submission.copyrightStatement##
date: 2025-10-28
publication date: 2025-10-28

Mandombe-Based Artificial Intelligence: Toward a Symbolic-Geometric Model of Computation
type: item
description: This paper focuses on adapting Mandombe’s recursive symmetry to artificial intelligence design. It proposes a symbolic-geometric learning algorithm that uses inversion and rotation logic instead of linear weighting. Simulations demonstrate higher interpretability and resistance to data bias. This model aligns with decolonial computing principles and the epistemological independence envisioned by MEN-D research. References: Nsiangani K.M. (2016) From Mvemba Nzinga to Modern Puppets; Nsiangani K. (2021) MEN-D Cryptography Symbolique.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: artificial intelligence
  topic: keywords
subject: symbolic geometry
  topic: keywords
subject: interpretability
  topic: keywords
subject: decolonial computing
  topic: keywords
creator: T Mbayo
creator: S Kalombo
rights: ##submission.copyrightStatement##
date: 2025-10-28
publication date: 2025-10-28

Cognitive Resonance Between Mandombe Geometry and Human Neural Networks
type: item
description: This research focuses on testing the hypothesis that the symmetrical geometry of Mandombe resonates with the structure of human neural pathways involved in pattern recognition. Using EEG signal mapping and geometric pattern stimulation, the study observes specific coherence peaks in the alpha–beta range. Results suggest that symbolic exposure to Mandombe enhances visual-spatial integration, reinforcing the neuro-epistemic claims made in The Colonized Mind (2025). References: Nsiangani K.M. (2025) The Colonized Mind; Wabeladio P. (1984) Méthodologie de l’enseignement du Mandombe.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: cognitive neuroscience
  topic: keywords
subject: geometry
  topic: keywords
subject: symbolic cognition
  topic: keywords
subject: Mandombe
  topic: keywords
creator: M Kayembe
creator: P Dondo
rights: ##submission.copyrightStatement##
date: 2025-10-28
publication date: 2025-10-28

Logical Foundations of the Mandombe System: Toward an African Axiomatic Framework
type: item
description: Keywords Mandombe, logic, axiomatic systems, African philosophy, epistemology This article defines a formal logic whose syntax and semantics are grounded in the internal geometry of the Mandombe writing system. Building on previous work that presents Mandombe as a cognitive grammar of reasoning, I introduce M-Logic₀, a propositional calculus whose connectives and inference rules are constrained by mvuala–kisimba configurations and their allowed rotations, reflections and concatenations. I give a sequent formulation of M-Logic₀ with a distinguished inconsistency constant ⊥ᴹ and a restricted explosion rule that reflects the way forbidden geometric moves are treated in actual Nsanda teaching. On the semantic side I define mvuala-models: diagrammatic valuation frames in which formulas are interpreted as regions and paths in oriented Mandombe cells. Truth, incompatibility and implication are read from geometric relations such as inclusion, mirror opposition and forced path extension. I prove soundness of M-Logic₀ with respect to mvuala-models and outline a completeness result for its positive implicational fragment. I then sketch a cyclic extension, M-Logic₁, that internalises temporal and cosmological rotation and connects the logical operators to the rotational-square equivalence (RSE) machinery developed in Mazayi Mandombe. The article ends by positioning this logical layer relative to higher structures such as Mandombe Geometric Algebra and its applications in reservoir computing and materials science, where the same generators are already used as operators on high-dimensional state spaces. The goal is not to imitate existing Western logics but to articulate a coherent, testable African axiomatic framework that can serve as a native base for formal reasoning, computation and epistemology. 1.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: logic
  topic: keywords
subject: epistemology
  topic: keywords
subject: mandombe
  topic: keywords
subject: african philosophy
  topic: keywords
creator: Kibavuidi Nsiangani
rights: ##submission.copyrightStatement##
date: 2025-10-28
publication date: 2025-10-28

La cognition Mandombe dans les apprentissages préscolaires congolais : étude pilote
type: item
description: This study explores whether early exposure to Mandombe, taught alongside the national Latin based curriculum, is associated with small but coherent differences in attention, visuospatial working memory and shape based emotional coding in Congolese children aged 5 to 7 years. Mandombe is a geometric script in which young learners must rotate and project units in imagined three dimensional space, map orientation to sound and tone, plan continuous stroke paths from the singini starting point to the end of each zita and vary line qualities such as length, curvature and angle to convey emotion, speed and melodic contour. Longitudinal cohorts described by Nsiangani showed that older children educated through Mandombe often combined rapid progress in mathematics and symbolic reasoning with heightened sensitivity to small visual and emotional cues. He suggested that the emotional and prosodic coding built into the script might contribute to this profile but left that part of the hypothesis largely unexplored. Here we work with younger children in a natural setting. We compare 5–7 year olds from CENA Nsanda centres in Kinshasa and Kongo Central, where Mandombe is integrated into preschool and first grade as a regular activity, with age matched peers from nearby Latin only schools. All children completed a short tablet based battery that included an age adapted continuous performance task, a mvuala style visuospatial span, a verbal span, a 2D to 3D “tower view” task, an orientation to sound mapping game, a continuous stroke path task from a singini point, an emotion shape learning game, an emotion tagged recognition task and a simple shape prosody matching task. Children with at least one year of regular Mandombe activities showed modest advantages on sustained attention in shape based blocks, visuospatial span, 2D to 3D mapping, orientation sound mapping and continuous stroke control, as well as faster learning and better transfer of emotion shape rules and a stronger memory…
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: cognition
  topic: keywords
subject: pré-scolaire
  topic: keywords
subject: Mandombe
  topic: keywords
subject: Apprentissage
  topic: keywords
creator: L Mvumbi
rights: ##submission.copyrightStatement##
date: 2025-10-28
publication date: 2025-10-28