Tempels’s chief critics were Europeans, not Africans
Evidence
We should bear in mind while reading Bantu Philosophy that the detractors of the work are not Africans but, rather, Europeans who, according to Tempels, assumed they knew everything but did not, in fact, know the Africans yet. At the time, the categories of philosophical subjects were those of Aristotle. In front of the Africans, the missionary (in the person of Tempels) felt oppressed, much like Africans felt oppressed in front of the Europeans. Tempels desired to free himself from colonial rule just as the men of “Negritude” would later do with their slogan of “return to the black origins”. Being free, Tempels would also be able to liberate the souls to whom he preached the Gospel of freedom originating from Jesus Christ of Nazareth. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 209
Categorization
- XREF: The inversion — European critics of a work defending African thought — parallels typical reception dynamics in colonial intellectual history. — connects to: Tempels’s equality claims cost him his Congo mission post and drew dual criticism
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 209