Ethnophilosophy originated as a tool for colonial civilizing missions

Evidence

Tempels’s other aim is even more complicated than what I have just outlined. He states that his intention for writing the book was to enable those involved in the mission to civilize to be more successful. His audience would be missionaries and the colonial administrators. … Therefore, it became very important for the Muntu to be understood so that his ways could be known and relevant interventions could be made in the process of civilizing him. As to how Tempels had gone about coming to an understanding of the Muntu, he explicitly states that he had relied on a number of fields, such as psychology and anthropology. Relying on these specializations, he arrived his conception of Bantu philosophy. Methodologically, this approach was to give birth to ethnophilosophy as first identified by Kwame Nkrumah (1944) and popularized by Paulin Hountondji (2002). — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 430

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ethnophilosophy’s origin and genealogy (Nkrumah 1944, Hountondji 2002).
• XREF: Links to wider postcolonial critiques of Western knowledge-production about Africa. — connects to: Missionary universities funded by mining fortunes were tools of colonial civilising missions. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 135