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

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

in the Congo who became famous for his book '' Bantu Philosophy''.

Life

Tempels was born in

Berlaar Berlaar () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the towns of Berlaar proper and . In 2021, Berlaar had a total population of 11,710. The total area is 24.57 km². History The current munic ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

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

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

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 (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964. Colo ...

(now the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

) 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 monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whi ...

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 in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n nor a philosopher, Tempels had a huge influence on African philosophy through the publication in 1945 of his book ''La philosophie bantoue'', published in the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

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 Hountondji (born 11 April 1942 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire) is a Beninese French philosopher, politician and academic considered one of the most important figures in the history of African philosophy. Since the 1970s he has taught at the Un ...

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 Christian missionaries in the Democratic Republic of the Congo People from Berlaar Philosophy writers {{Belgium-writer-stub