Background
Eboussi-Boulaga, Fabien was born on January 17, 1934 in Bafta, Mbam region, Cameroon.
Eboussi-Boulaga, Fabien was born on January 17, 1934 in Bafta, Mbam region, Cameroon.
Baccalaureate in Philosophy (1955). Entered the Society of Jesus in 1955 to study Philosophy and Theology. Ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood in 1967.
PhD at Lyon, France, 1968. Infla: Hegel.
Professor of Philosophy and Theology, Major Seminary St Francis, YaoundeMessa, 1968-1973. Visiting Lecturer for the Claus Committee, Universities of Holland. 1973-1974; Professor of Philosophy.
National University, Abidjan, Ivory Coast since 1975.
A critic of ethnophilosophy, Eboussi-Boulaga focusses on the shortcomings of Tempel’s method, which fails to ask how anthropology can be a source of, or a basis for philosophy. EboussiBoulaga elaborates an analysis of Tempel's work, focusing on the ambiguity of the ontological hypothesis which, he maintains, emphasizes the notion of life-force rather than that of being. This hypothesis, he thinks, ultimately reduces the Muntu to the primitiveness of an amoral and absolutely determining order of forces. Finally, Eboussi-Boulaga rethinks the sociohistorical African contexts in order to suggest ways of problematizing both African authenticities and the Christian conversion made possible by the colonial experience.