Copyright, Indigenous Knowledge And Africa’s University Libraries: The Case Of Uganda

Dick KawooyaSchool of Information Sciences

University of Tennesseedkawooya@utk.edu

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