Being-as-force means all entities can grow stronger or weaker, grounding Bantu moral life

Evidence

Tempels states, “Bantu speak, act, live as if, for them, beings were forces. Force is not for them an adventitious, accidental reality, force is even more than a necessary attribute of beings: Force is the nature of being, force is being, being is force” (Tempels, 1959, p. 51). He continues, “All force can be strengthened or enfeebled. That is to say, all being can become stronger or weaker” (Tempels, 1959, p. 55). It is this ontology that explains Bantu consciousness and action, which he finds in their social institutions and in the moral and religious lives of the people. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 526

Categorization

• DEFINE: The ‘being is force’ identity plus the strength/febleness dynamic is the load-bearing definition.