Tempels argued Bantu culture merits philosophical recognition partly through resemblance to Christian Europe

Evidence

Tempels’s Bantu Philosophy provided a springboard for discussion of the evolvement of an African philosophy, arguing that the people of sub-Saharan Africa, derogatorily referred to as “Bantu”, have a distinguished philosophy with clearly defined underpinnings. In the book, Tempels attempted to elevate and reform the African mind from its “innocent state”, arguing that there are elements in Bantu culture that are similar to those of Christian Europe, which are clear signs that Africans also have a system of thought towards an African traditional religion. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 898

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

• DEFINE: Establishes the central premise of Tempels’s Bantu Philosophy that the whole book pushes back against: the comparative/assimilationist framing of African thought.

Related

• Tempels reserved systematic philosophical articulation for European intellectuals (similarity 0.92)
• Tempels claims Western philosophy is needed to articulate Bantu thought (similarity 0.91)
• Tempels’ Bantu Philosophy remains seminal to African philosophy despite its missionary origins (similarity 0.91)
• Tempels’s Bantu Philosophy aimed at more effective Christianization of the Bantu. (similarity 0.90)
• Tempels grounded philosophy in local orientations rather than Western universals (similarity 0.90)
• Tempels’ failure does not invalidate Bantu philosophy itself, which endures. (similarity 0.89)
• Tempels’s Bantu Philosophy challenged Western philosophy’s universal claims in 1946 (similarity 0.89)
• Generalising a single Bantu tradition into ‘African philosophy’ fails on linguistic and cultural grounds (similarity 0.89)
• Tempels’s Bantu Philosophy challenged colonial paternalism toward African intellectual capabilities. (similarity 0.89)
• Tempels addressed Bantu Philosophy to colonizers seeking to Christianize Africans (similarity 0.89)
• Tempels’s well-meaning text nonetheless failed to represent African interests (similarity 0.89)
• Tempels helped initiate the debate over whether African philosophy exists (similarity 0.89)
• Tempels systematized existing African thought using Western philosophical categories. (similarity 0.89)
• Tempels’s Bantu Philosophy enforced a philosophical segregation of African thought (similarity 0.89)
• Tempels’s question about African ontology counters Western denial of African philosophy (similarity 0.89)