Césaire saw Tempels’s Bantu Philosophy as safeguarding colonial exploitation

Evidence

During the colonial period, there were some Africans, such as Aimé Césaire (1913–2008), Sheikh Anta Diop (1923–1986) and Frantz Fanon (1925–1961), who did not quite agree with Tempels’s project to restore the “man” in Africans. For example, Aimé Césaire, quoted by Chachage (1994, p.53), says that “the reconstruction of Bantu Philosophy was nothing more than an attempt to create a deception among Africans given the political problems in the colonies. Tempels was simply safeguarding the colonial order and exploitation”. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 114

Categorization

• XREF: Césaire’s critique parallels classic decolonial rejections of well-meaning colonial projects.