Bantu Ontology and the Ontological Turn – a discussion of the (non)-relation between anthropological theory and disciplinary philosophy

Bantu Ontology and the Ontological Turn – a discussion of the (non)-relation between anthropological theory and disciplinary philosophy.

In Bantu Philosophy, the 1945/6 book by Placide Tempels, culture and ontology were theoretically connected in the idea of ‘Bantu Ontology’. Tempels critiqued the focus of ethnology on description and its avoidance of a search for the deeper meaning and ontological impact of culturalized knowledge. Only around 2000 we see anthropologists center such a search, which became known as the ‘Ontological Turn’.

The ontological turn proposes that cultures’ claims to truth rest on their access to reality as it is. Remarkably their work is rarely discussed by disciplinary philosophers, even though it has serious consequences for philosophy if the anthropologists are right. More remarkable is the non-discussion among anthropologists and philosophers alike of Bantu Philosophy, which dealt with these consequences.

I will repair this by analyzing how Tempels connected culture and ontology (1) and by proposing an explanation of the absence of this connection from (most) disciplinary philosophy, retrieving arguments from the works of Valentin Mudimbe and Lewis Gordon (2). I will finally make a plea for a return to Bantu Philosophy as a way for disciplinary philosophy to repair its ominous omission (3).

About the speaker

Angela Roothaan is Associate Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She published on a wide range of subjects such as Philosophy of Nature, Spirit Ontologies, Value Ethics and (early) Modern Philosophy, before turning to African and Intercultural Philosophy. In 2019 she initiated the Dutch Research Network African Intercultural Philosophy and the Bantu Philosophy project, that functions as an international scholarly network for exchange of research findings and sources regarding the 1945/6 work Bantu Philosophy by Placide Tempels.

She is author of Indigenous, Modern and Postcolonial Relations to Nature. Negotiating the Environment (Routledge 2019) and Bantoe-filosofie, the 1946 Dutch original version of Bantu Philosophy (Noordboek 2023). She now works on an annotated critical edition of the same work for a global readership (in collaboration with Pius Mosima). She is also co-editor of Beauty in African Thought. Critical Perspectives on the Western Idea of Development, and Well-Being in African Philosophy. Insights for a Global Ethics of Development (both Rowman & Littlefield 2023).

The event is an online event.

Contact

Email: cgcp@soas.ac.uk