Placide Tempels


Placide Frans Tempels was a Belgian Franciscan missionary in the Congo who became famous for his book Bantu Philosophy.

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 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''

Tempels had an important influence on African philosophy through the publication in 1945 of his book La philosophie bantoue, published in English translation in 1959 as Bantu Philosophy.