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Copyright, Indigenous Knowledge And Africa’s University Libraries: The Case Of Uganda
Dick KawooyaSchool of Information Sciences
University of [email protected]
Supported by the Open Society Institute (OSI) with the Contribution of the International Policy Fellowships of
OSI – Budapest
Overview
Background/context
Legal protection of ITK – the problems
Digitization of ITK and libraries in Africa
Ugandan situation
Concluding remarks
Background/context
Concern:
disproportionate representation of African knowledge output, and
legal protection (or lack thereof) of indigenous and traditional knowledge (ITK) in digital environments
Background/context…
The Carnegie Reporter (2005) – some African scholars, scientists and researchers expressed skepticism towards digitalization of ‘unique African knowledge’ - misappropriation
Carnegie Reporter is a publication of the Carnegie Corporation of New York (http://www.carnegie.org/reporter/)
Background/context…
Africa net consumer and NOT producer of knowledge – Africans and non-Africans
Based on assertion that Africans are not innovative/creative
Assertion grounded in western conceptualization & construction of innovation & creativity (IPR outputs)
ITK unaccounted for/ ignored
Background/context…
ITK important & evidence of Africa’s creativity & innovation
UNESCO/WIPO initiatives on ITK (1970s) Model Provisions for National Laws on the Protection of
Expressions of Folklore against Illicit Exploitation and other Prejudicial Actions – 1982 (Sui Generis)
Convention on Cultural Diversity - clarified the place for cultural artifacts in the market place and roles of countries in controlling
Background/context… WIPO – Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and
Genetic resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC)
OAU (African Union)
The African Model Legislation For The Protection Of The Rights Of Local Communities, Farmers And Breeders, And For The Regulation Of Access To Biological Resources
Broader than copyright but aimed at aspects ITK
Recent review and survey of international ITK initiatives:- Armstrong, Chris and Ford, Heather (2005). The African Digital
Commons:A Participant’s Guide, 2005. Available from: http://www.commons-sense.org/papers/digitalcommonsguide_eng.pdf
Legal Protection of ITK: the problems
A: Legal system itself :-
Western legal constructs (authorship, originality, etc) & system - antithetical to African’s historically communal/sharing values
Unprecedented system that supplants local systems and values
Legal Protection…
B: ITK – definitional/conceptualization
Indigenous - Indigene means “someone or something that is native or originating from a given place” (Wikipedia 2006b).
Legal Protection…
Indigenous people are a group of people and/or descendants:
“who have a historical continuity or association with a given region, or parts of a region, and who formerly or currently inhabit the region:
before its subsequent colonization or annexation; or
alongside other cultural groups during the formation of a nation-state; or
Legal protection…
independently or largely isolated from the influence of the claimed governance by a nation-state,
and who further more
have maintained, at least in part, their distinct linguistic, cultural and social/organizational characteristics, and in so doing remain differentiated in some degree from the surroundings populations and dominant culture of the nation-state (Wikipedia 2006b, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_peoples).
Legal protection…
Traditional essentially means “to hand down” or “hand over”
Traditional knowledge (TK) - knowledge passed on from one generation to another (orally)
(Wikipedia 2006a: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tradition)
Legal Protection…
Contemporary African context- I/T not unambiguous:
Colonial legacy – arbitrary state boundaries divided ethnic groups (IPR jurisdictional/territorial - national)
Cultural nationalism – post-independence state (I/T resources National Heritage)
Inter-tribal/ethnic mix-up (urbanization, intermarriages, etc)
Legal protection…
Problems highlighted raise important questions (contemporary settings):-
Knowledge – Indigenous to who:
Tribal/ethnic group? Country/ State? Continent?
Protection from who -foreign/local misappropriation or both?
Legal protection… How inclusive-:
national heritage (national level)?
ITK (group level)?
African scholarship – directly/indirectly interfaces with ITK (ITK – conventional sense or scholarly article – based on ITK)
Dilemma – treatment of ‘pure’ ITK vs. scholarly work drawing from ITK resources?
Legal protection…
Scholars:-
‘outsiders’ to a culture - not members of a given ethnic group?
‘insiders’ as members of a jurisdiction claiming national heritage?
Insiders (members) extension of the communities? Claim individual ownership?
Digitization of ITK and Libraries in Africa
Staff at a Ugandan university:
“we cannot afford to digitize our theses and dissertations. What else shall we remain with? We have researchers [foreign] who come to consult archival materials at one of our branch library, if that material is converted to digital form and made available on the Internet what will motivate foreigners to come to our country?”
Digitization of ITK… Digitization – “conversion of non-digital
material to digital form” (Tsebe 2005, 2)
Involves:- Primary (raw) materials (ITK)
Secondary ITK resources outputs from scholarly endeavors (e.g. Theses & Dissertations)
Digitization initiatives –broadly defined (converted and born digital resources)
Digitization of ITK…
Tsebe 2005 - comprehensive account of digitization initiatives in African libraries
Digitization – viewed as important but very few comprehensive and systematic initiatives outside South Africa
Digitization – DATAD, AJOL
Ugandan Situation
Study (not scientific) - examine the disproportionate representation of African knowledge output due to inadequate protection of indigenous and traditional knowledge (ITK) in Africa’s scholarly and research environments
Uganda…
14 digital librarians (in charge of e-resources)
13 public/private inst.
Invited to provide information on digitization activities & policies (copyright/ICT)
6 responded – 4 noted total lack of digitization initiatives and/or policies
Uganda…
Two positive cases:-
Ongoing ITK digitization initiatives Institutional repositories – DSpace (library
project) /Greenstone platforms (outside the library);
Digitized and stored on CDs (collaboration with Research and Documentation Centre unit)
Initiatives at pilot levels (Tsebe 2005)
Uganda… Copyright policies?
No explicit institutional or library copyright policies (ITK digitization initiatives)
Institutional ICT policies – silent on copyright
Copyright Assumed (“we follow international copyright rules”), Simply not considered (priority) and an afterthought
(drafting policy after project takeoff)
Difficulty of securing materials from faculty in absence of terms (rights) – copyright inclusive
Concluding remarks
Pilot, learn and formulate policies or vice versa?
Ugandan situation not surprising – no law for protecting ITK (excluded from copyright law)
Sui Generis (proposed) - implementation uncertain
Where ITK (expressed as folklore) protected (e.g. Ghana, Malawi) – implementation problematic
Concluding remarks Copyright (legal protection) – not only
factor but increasingly an important element
ITK digitization - contributes to better representation of Africa’s knowledge output in the global knowledge flows
Recommendation – understand position of scholars/researchers on copyright (legal protection) & digitization of their work