This post may be late in
reaching its readership (apologies offered), but hopefully, it should still be able to raise a few
new ideas to the readership in the area of protecting Folklore. South Africa
continues to grapple over which Bill on Folklore will reach the finishing line
first, while Kenya is also sharpening its intellectual minds in addressing the
same subject through a proposed Bill on the protection of Traditional Knowledge
and Cultural Expressions. Uganda, meanwhile, is slowly beginning to lift its
head out of the sand.
On June 28th 2013,
at the Africana Hotel in Kampala, various stakeholders with an interest in the development
of Intellectual Property law in Uganda, particularly with a focus on the
relationship with Traditional Cultural Expressions, got together to debate on a
range of issues on the subject of Folklore. The theme of the Conference was “Our Culture, Our Future: Perspectives on
Economic Development through Uganda’s Traditional Cultural Expressions”. The
Conference, which was hosted by the Faculty of Law, Uganda Christian
University, was funded by the Intellectual Property and Technology Law program
at the University of Illinois (at Urbana-Champaign) College of Law, U.S.A.
The opening remarks came from Professor
Agasha Mugasha, the Chairman of the Uganda Law Reform Commission. He highlighted
the absence of regulation in Uganda to help define the respective interests of
all players involved in the use of Folklore and how this has paved way for a
social imbalance, with copyright holders gaining an unfair advantage over
ethnic communities from whom they generate ideas for the looming entertainment
business in the country’s movie and music sectors.
Professor Jay Kesan, the
Director of the Intellectual Property and Technology Law Program at the
University of Illinois, then followed up with a spirited presentation on “Some Fundamentals and Global Perspectives on
Traditional Knowledge and Folklore”. He pointed out the need to appreciate
the old vis-à-vis new thinking in which there is an economic development agenda
that is “indigenous, supportive of native creations and innovations, and which
embraces I.P”. His conclusive remarks offered guidance on encouraging
indigenous innovation; creative content; embracing existing I.P regimes and
creating new I.P regimes – where appropriate; as well as publicizing
innovations and creative content.
Other interesting
presentations came from Professor Mwambusya Ndebesa, a History Professor from
Makerere University, who is famous for having challenged President Museveni’s
right to copyright protection over an adaptation of an Ankole folklore before
the Copyright registrar (I posted a blog on this previously ). Professor Ndebesa’s
presentation was on “An Analysis of the
challenges in the protection of our Folklore in contemporary Uganda.’ This
was followed shortly by a presentation from Ms. Mercy Kyomugasho Kainobwisho,
the Director of the Intellectual Property Department at the Uganda Registration
Services Bureau. Her paper was titled “Administration
of Folklore in Uganda: Reality of fiction? - A Registrar’s perspective.” She
acknowledged the difficulty in administering Folklore due to the absence of a
clear system and highlighted the benefits that would accrue from a well-organized
and regulated system.
Another presentation that
spurred debate came from Mr. Charles Batambuze, the Executive Secretary of the
National Book Trust of Uganda. His presentation titled “Open licensing as an avenue in the use of Ugandan Folklore: Analyzing
the pros and cons”, raised interesting ideas on how the right to
attribution under Traditional Cultural Expressions can be handled in an I.P
biased regime. This was followed up by Ms. Georgina Mugerwa from the Ministry
of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives. Her paper, titled “Exploitation of the Music Industry in Uganda: Economic and Fiscal
Considerations”, amongst other points, highlighted the fact that the value
of Uganda’s exportation of cultural goods over the past five years, has been in
the range of $20m (Ug. Shs 50bn). She further pointed out that sadly, the music
sector, which is affiliated to the cultural sector, still remains
under-researched with insufficient data on its economic performance. Her paper
also addressed the challenges hindering effective economic monitoring and gave recommendations
on the way forward.
Ms. Jeroline Akubu, a
Principal Legal Officer at the Uganda Law Reform Commission, then gave a
presentation on the “Enforcement of
Folklore in Uganda: Addressing the legal challenges”. She addressed the hustle
at various national levels between the use of existing intellectual property
laws and the use of sui generis systems as well as the attempts to address
protection challenges locally in Uganda. Her conclusive assessment was on the
need for a sui generis legislation.
Three stakeholders
representing the consumer base, marketing agents and Collective Management Organizations
respectively, constituted the panelists that steered the debates over the
presentations. Mr. Steven Rwangyezi, the founder and Managing Director of
Uganda’s famous Ndere Troupe – one of the leading Cultural entertainers in the Country, wrapped up the
discussions of the day with his insights on the topic “Waking the sleeping giant: An analysis of the economic potential in
Uganda’s traditional music”. His general contention was that creativity and
cultural growth should not be stifled down by regulation. Nonetheless,
regulation is necessary to a certain level so as to create an orderly system.
On the whole, the conference
successfully highlighted the participants’ consensus on regulating Traditional
Cultural Expressions with a view of tapping into and fostering economic
development of the Country without necessarily destroying the natural evolution
of Culture itself.
