Keeping herself updated with the ‘outdated’

Culture officer takes on anthropologyAs a sociocultural anthropologist, Aina Paulina Muulila holistically studies people’s ways of life with deliberate focus to understand their cultures. Ester Kamati“Anthropologists are concerned with the social and cultural life of contemporary and historically recent human societies and try to understand how people are similar or differ in terms of the cultural practices,” said Muulila, who uses the ethnography research approach, which requires her as the researcher to interact with participants within her research project in their natural setting.“I never knew that I would become an anthropologist,” she said. After completing grade 12, she enrolled at the University of Namibia (Unam) for a bachelor’s degree in adult education and community development. “Even when I was at Unam, I never heard of the word anthropology or anthropologist,” she said, although she has always had an interest in community development. After successfully completing the programme, Muulila gained employment at the Directorate of National Heritage and Culture Programmes, which was at the time under the youth, national services, sport and culture ministry. She served as a culture officer, which is how she was started discovering the concept of anthropology. “I became immersed in culture and wanted to explore it further. By searching on the field of studies that majored in culture is how I came across anthropology.” During this search, Muulila became aware that there was no institution in Namibia that offered culture-related courses such as anthropology or cultural heritage studies. She did more research and in 2013, she was accepted at the University of Madras in India and enrolled for a master degree in anthropology, which she completed in two years through a scholarship awarded by the Indian government under the African scholarship scheme of the Indian Council for Culture Relations (ICCR). During her studies, she had to do a lot of field work and thus has been in the working field of anthropology for four years. “What I like about my job is that you learn a new thing about culture every day. Conducting anthropological work is an everyday adventure. It includes exploring other cultures as well as discovering your own and understanding it better. Culture is broad and comprises of many elements that need to be explored.” She is currently a culture officer, which allows her to put her anthropological knowledge into practice daily. On a typical day, Muulila is submerged in researching and the documentation of cultural heritage’s tangible and intangible elements. She investigates elements such as traditional medicine, traditional ceremonies and their associated rituals, cultural festivals and events, cultural and historical places, culture materials, indigenous knowledge systems and community livelihood. In addition, she spends some of her time advocating and informing the youth and community members on the importance of culture and culture preservation. She also coordinates the organisation of regional cultural events as well as plans and undertakes cultural exchange visits.As a woman who treasures critical thinking and her ability to be patient as well as flexible, these are characteristics that help her excel at her work, on top of being observant. “Importantly, valuing and being sensitive to other people’s culture, non-ethnocentric, cultural relativism and acceptance of diversity is a must to all anthropologists,” said the avid reader who likes to keep herself informed.“Anthropology helps me to grow as a person as it teaches me to appreciate humanity,” she said. Muulila added that in her line of work, she often makes new friends from different communities and diverse cultures, which she then learns more about. Due to her anthropological background and knowledge of culture, Muulila was recently appointed as an alternative member of the National Heritage Council of Namibia, the administrative body responsible for the protection and preservation of Namibia’s cultural and natural heritage. Currently a PhD student at Unam undertaking a study on the role of cultural heritage towards socio-economic development in Namibia, Muulila believes that “cultural heritage is the legacy that gives us identity and unites people from diverse cultural backgrounds” and should thus be preserved. She further believes that cultural heritage can boost the country’s economy through investment in cultural tourism and creative industries.According to her, the youth can play a role in culture preservation through arts and crafts and additionally through promoting it using social media. “Namibia has numerous of cultural heritage resources such as heritage sites, museums, culture villages, crafts shops, eateries, curio shops, community-based conservancies and many more that need to be promoted and marketed nationally and internationally,” she said, which she added can best be done through the usage of information and communication technology. Apart from using technology in the sensitisation of the public on the importance of preserving culture and heritage, and in educating and the publication of cultural heritage books, reports and articles, it can also be used to “modernise some of our cultural heritage resources such as traditional games, for example. We have Owela (Uuholo), which is now modernised to digital.”

Keeping herself updated with the ‘outdated’

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-09

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Keeping herself updated with the ‘outdated’

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-09

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