Tempels reserved systematic philosophical formulation for Europeans only

Evidence

We do not claim, of course, that the Bantu are capable of formulating a philosophical treatise, complete with an adequate vocabulary. It is our job to proceed to such systematic development. It is we who will be able to tell them, in precise terms, what their inmost concept of being is. They will recognize themselves in our words and will acquiesce, saying, “You understand us: you now know us completely: you ‘know’ in the way we ‘know’”. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 727

Categorization

• XREF: Directly undercuts the ‘Bantu have a genuine philosophy’ claim and foreshadows later African critiques (Eboussi Boulaga, Hountondji).
• DEEPTHINKING: The arrogation of intellectual labor to the colonizer while granting the colonized only recognition-of-themselves-in-our-words is a dense, disturbing core of colonial epistemology worth sitting with.