Tempels deliberately framed Bantu thought for classification via Western categories

Evidence

Using the plural, he explicitly advises his colleagues to “trace out the elements of this thought, to classify them and systematize them according to the ordered systems and intellectual disciplines of the Western world.” The thought that is referred to here is the idea of Bantu “ontology”. It is that which Tempels’s readers are supposed to classify and systematize according to the European systems. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 111

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the methodological premise of Tempels’s ethnophilosophy: Western categories imposed on Bantu thought.