The concept of progress in different cultures - culture and progress in Namibia: Contradiction or concurrence?

Abstract

The main title beckons a number of questions, for instance: What is “progress”? What is culture? And eventually, How does culture relate to “progress”? The terms “progress” and “cultures” denote abstract notions – if not concepts – and require a measure of interpretation with respect to each culture’s context and progress. The theme links to such a large number of conceptual challenges, like history, anthropology, linguistics, philosophy, economics, and many more, that it is difficult to limit the scope of discussion. There are thousands of cultures and sub-cultures, and progress means many things to many people and at different times. What is progress in one culture may be perceived as totally irrelevant or taboo in others. What is considered as great progress at one time in history may be perceived or ridiculed as insignificant in another timeframe. It is arguable that Namibian cultures are well studied, documented and understood, for much of a Namibian culture is vested in oral history. For the purpose of this paper, I confine my contribution to the challenges and progress of cultural development in Namibia. This is, however, not a discussion of Namibia cultures in isolation and a global contextualization is considered.