Fractals are part of nature, they are a part of us. Undeniably, fractals also form part of different cultures, long before computer generated fractals were discovered – from the architecture of Indian temples that resemble fractal structure to indigenous African villages where fractals are embedded in their architecture, textiles, art and religion.
According to Ron Eglash, university professor and author of African Fractals: Modern Computing and Indigenous Design, this was not simply unconscious or intuitive. Africans linked these fractal designs to concepts such as recursion and scaling that exists in African indigenous knowledge system.
Aerial view of Ba-ila settlement in southern Zambia shows fractal pattern
