A REVIEW OF “LA PHILOSOPHIE BANTU RWANDAISE AE L’ ETRE†BY ALEXIS KAGAME
Abstract
Alexis Kagame, a Catholic priest, in his work La Philosophie Bantou-Rwandaise de L’Etre, shows that he was one among the African philosophers who tried to develop further Tempels philosophy of force. He worked among the people of Rwanda who were called Kinyarwanda and tried to develop their thought through a linguistic ethno-philosophy modeled on Aristotle’s doctrine of categories. His preoccupation was to show that Bantu metaphysical categories are based on grammatical categories of the Bantu language. According to Njoku (2010), he discovered that Ntuis the category of being or the generic meaning of something. This he classified into four:
Muntu (human beings): The human beings spoken of here are not just the living, but the living and the dead. It is a force endowed with intelligence and thus has other forces at his disposal. Â
Kintu (non-human beings/thing): These are forces that cannot act on their own but require the Muntu for command. These include plants, animals, tools etc. They have no will of their own.
Hantu (place and time): It is the force which localizes spatially and temporally every event and every motion. When something happens, it is asked where- this talks of space; or the question of when. Â
Kuntu (modality). This speaks of the way of being.
Muntu (human beings): The human beings spoken of here are not just the living, but the living and the dead. It is a force endowed with intelligence and thus has other forces at his disposal. Â
Kintu (non-human beings/thing): These are forces that cannot act on their own but require the Muntu for command. These include plants, animals, tools etc. They have no will of their own.
Hantu (place and time): It is the force which localizes spatially and temporally every event and every motion. When something happens, it is asked where- this talks of space; or the question of when. Â
Kuntu (modality). This speaks of the way of being.
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PDFReferences
Njoku, F. O. C. (2010). A Search for Unifying Concepts- Destiny and Change, Freedom and Determinism in African Philosophy. In Benjamin Ike Ekwelu (Ed.). Philosophical Reflections on African issues. Enugu: Delta. Kagame, A. (1951). La philoosophie Bantu Rwandaiseae l’ Etre. Bruxelles: La Divine Pastorale. Jahn, J. (1958). Muntu: An outline of the new African culture. New York: Grove Press.
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Asouzu, I. (2007). Ibuanyidanda: New complementary ontology. London: Transaction Publishers.
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