Bantu philosophy of vital force
Explanation
The Bantu philosophy of vital force was initially formulated by the Belgian Franciscan missionary Placide Tempels in his book Bantu Philosophy (1945, written during his work among the Baluba of Congo). Tempels argued, against the colonial prejudice that considered Africans pre-logical or pre-philosophical (Lévy-Bruhl, etc.), that Bantu peoples had a coherent and profound philosophy, articulated around the central concept of vital force (in Kiluba: bumi, in other Bantu languages: ntu, ŋgomo, etc.).
For this Bantu philosophy according to Tempels (and developed subsequently by African philosophers), being is force, and everything that exists is understood as a specific manifestation of vital force. There is an ontological hierarchy: supreme God (Modifier and ultimate source of all force), ancestors (spirits of forebears, especially the founders of lineages), living humans (with hierarchy according to age, wisdom, position), animals and plants, minerals. Each category has its own vital force, in specific quantities and qualities.
Relations between beings are understood as flows of vital force: inheritance transmits force from ancestor to descendant; motherhood-fatherhood transmits force to the child; rituals accumulate or modify force; magic and witchcraft are manipulations of force (which is why they are feared); illnesses are diminution or disorder of force; death is not disappearance but transformation of individual force into ancestral force.
This conception has ethical implications: the good is what increases vital force; evil what diminishes or disorders it. That is why the veneration of ancestors, offerings, rites of passage, attention to social ethics, are central: all modulate the circulation of vital force in the group. Harmony between living and ancestors is essential for collective well-being.
Tempels's work triggered an intense debate. On one hand, it was criticised by Paulin Hountondji, Marcien Towa and other contemporary African philosophers as an example of ethnophilosophy: a collective construction attributed to an entire people, which reduces African philosophy to a single immutable system, instead of recognising the individual contributions of specific African thinkers. On the other hand, it has been continued and refined by Alexis Kagame (The Bantu-Rwandese Philosophy of Being, 1956), Mulago, Vincent Mulago, John Mbiti.
For the theory of consciousness, the Bantu philosophy of vital force proposes a vitalist ontology in which consciousness (understood as an intense manifestation of vital force) is not separated from the rest of being but is a specific modulation of a vitality that runs through the whole cosmos. There are affinities with Western vitalist traditions (Bergson, Driesch), with panpsychism, with similar concepts in other cultures (Chinese qi, Hindu prana, Japanese ki, Polynesian mana). Contemporary scholars such as Kwame Gyekye, Innocent Asouzu (with his complementary philosophy), Leonhard Praeg have developed African philosophy in dialogue with global currents. As a proposal about consciousness as the modulation of a cosmic vital force that is relational, hierarchical, dynamic and ethically charged, the Bantu tradition is one of the great African contributions to universal philosophical thought.
Strengths
- Philosophical articulation of African vitalist ontologies.
- Convergence with process philosophy and panpsychism.
- Dialogue with biosemiotics and enactivism.
- Foundation of contemporary African philosophy.
Main critiques
- Tempels's initial reading carries missionary biases.
- Generalisation across diverse Bantu cultures.
- Difficult scientific operationalisation of 'vital force'.