Placide Tempels

Placide Frans Tempels (18 February 1906 – 9 October 1977) was a Belgian Franciscan missionary in the Congo who became famous for his book Bantu Philosophy.

Placide Tempels
Born
Frans Tempels

(1906-02-18)18 February 1906
Berlaar, Belgium
Died9 October 1977(1977-10-09) (aged 71)
Berlaar, Belgium
NationalityBelgian
Occupationmissionary, writer

Life

Tempels was born in Berlaar, Belgium. Born Frans Tempels, he took the name "Placide" on his entry into a Franciscan seminary 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 (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) 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 in Berlaar, where he died in 1977.

Bantu Philosophy
Main article: Bantu Philosophy

Though neither African nor a philosopher, Tempels had a huge influence on African philosophy through the publication in 1945 of his book La philosophie bantoue (published in English translation in 1959) as Bantu Philosophy).

  • Placide Tempels — Website in French (with option of English navigation); includes the full text of Bantu Philosophy, plus on-line critical readings


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