Many scholars across the disciplines in the humanities have overwhelmingly accepted Placide Tempels’ theory of force as an authentic expression of African cosmology and cosmogony. On the other hand, the theory of force has been critiqued by other African scholars because it failed to recognise the primacy that is given to life as engendered in traditional African cosmological and cosmogonic theories. While Tempels’ theory of force remains attractive as an authentic articulation of the traditional African cosmological and cosmogonic existential outlook, the argument that has been proffered by African scholars is that Tempels’ concept of force should be replaced with the concept of life. In this article, I agree with critics of Tempels by arguing that life remains an all-encompassing element in the traditional African worldview and that life supervenes on the general African conceptualisation of para-existential experiences. In this regard, the phenomenon of African para-existential experiences serves as the cement that binds both the realms of the material and the spiritual. The dignity of the person is thus premised on the idea of the spiritual essence of the human soul which is ultimately enabled by the continuity of life after death.

中文翻译：

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对生命和价值的永恒性的非洲中心概念化：对南部非洲超自然现象和人类尊严的批判性调查

人文学科的许多学者已经绝大多数接受了普拉德德·坦佩尔斯的力量理论，将其作为非洲宇宙论和宇宙论的真实表达。另一方面，其他非洲学者也对力量理论提出了批评，因为它没有认识到传统非洲宇宙论和宇宙论所赋予生命的首要性。虽然坦佩尔的力量理论作为对非洲传统宇宙学和世界主义存在主义观点的真实表达仍然具有吸引力，但非洲学者提出的论点是坦佩尔的力量概念应由生活概念代替。在本文中，我同意坦佩尔的批评，认为生命仍然是传统非洲世界观中不可或缺的要素，而生命取代了非洲对准存在经验的一般概念。在这方面，非洲超生存经验现象是束缚物质和精神领域的水泥。因此，人的尊严建立在人类灵魂的精神实质的观念上，而这种观念最终是由死后生命的连续性实现的。