Placide Frans Tempels, OFM (18 February 1906 – 9 October 1977) was a Belgian

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

missionary in the Congo who became famous for his book ''

Bantu Philosophy ''Bantu Philosophy'' (''La philosophie bantoue'' in French) is a 1945 book written by Placide Tempels which argues that the Bantu peoples The Bantu peoples are an Indigenous peoples of Africa, indigenous ethnolinguistic grouping of approxima ...

''.

Life

Tempels was born in

Berlaar Berlaar () is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality located in the Belgium, Belgian province of Antwerp (province), Antwerp. The municipality comprises the towns of Berlaar proper and . In 2021, Berlaar had a total population of 11,710. The to ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. Born Frans Tempels, he took the name "Placide" on his entry into a

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...

in 1924. After his ordination to the priesthood in 1930 he taught for a short time in Belgium before being posted to the

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (, ; ) was a Belgian colonial empire, Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960 and became the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville). The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Repu ...

(now the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

) in 1933. He stayed there for twenty-nine years, broken by only two short stays back in Belgium. In April 1962 he returned to live in a Franciscan

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

in Hasselt, where he died in 1977.

''Bantu Philosophy''

Though neither

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

n nor a

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

, Tempels had a huge influence on

African philosophy African philosophy is the philosophical discourse produced using indigenous African thought systems. :African philosophers, African philosophers are found in the various academic fields of present philosophy, such as metaphysics, epistemology, E ...

through the publication in 1945 of his book ''La philosophie bantoue'', published in the

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

in 1959 as ''Bantu Philosophy''.

''Philosophie bantoue''

Also in 1945, the ''Philosophie bantoue'' was published by Father Placide Tempels and immediately triggered a voracious debate among African philosophers, including

Alexis Kagame Alexis Kagame (15 May 1912 – 2 December 1981) was a Rwandan philosopher, linguist, historian, poet and Catholic priest. His main contributions were in the fields of ethnohistory and "ethnophilosophy" (the study of indigenous philosophical sys ...

and Mubabinge Bilolo.

Paulin Hountondji Paulin Jidenu Hountondji (11 April 1942 – 2 February 2024) was a Beninese philosopher, politician and academic considered one of the most important figures in the history of African philosophy. From the 1970s onwards, he taught at the Univers ...

disdainfully called Tempels' ideas ''ethnophilosophies'' and as such nothing more than a classical ethnological study of Africa and its peoples.

References

1906 births 1977 deaths Belgian writers in French Belgian Roman Catholic missionaries Belgian Franciscans Roman Catholic missionaries in the Democratic Republic of the Congo People from Berlaar Philosophy writers African philosophy {{Belgium-writer-stub