Tempels equated African Vital Force with Western philosophical Being

Evidence

Tempels believes that an ontology based on a “Vital Force” is the very soul of the Baluba culture and of African people. He identified this “Vital Force” with the “Being” of Western philosophy. He affirmed that, without this “Force”, “Being” cannot be conceived, and he further concluded that among the Bantu there is no other idea of “Being” separated from “Vital Force”: We from the Western society can conceive the transcendental notion of “being” by separating it from its attribute, “Force”, but the Bantu cannot. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 199