Reforming Copyright Law for a Developing Africa

Abstract

This article explores the intersectionality between enhanced national copyright laws and economic growth of African creative industries. Recently, African creative industries, which include films, fashion, traditional cultural expressions, music, and literary arts, re-surged into various national economic productive spaces. This article critically examines and analyzes the connecting thread between African creativity and economic growth. I use Nigeria as a case study to critically analyze how a strong national copyright regime may impel an indigenous creative industry, for example, “Afrollywood.” Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry is the third largest globally in terms of production index. Hollywood is the leading film industry while Bollywood and Nollywood occupy the second and third position respectively. Most developing economies in Africa, including Nigeria suffer from legal lag in their intellectual property (IP) right regimes. The consequences of playing “catch-up” in IP policies and rights enforcement stalls the developing of robust regional and international trade systems and creative industrial bases. Therefore, Africa interacts in a monetized creative field that is uneven. This article concludes that a starting approach to spur the African creative industrial economic engine and artistic forces is reforming and enhancing its copyright laws to recognize digital era productive realities.

Keywords: Intellectual property law, digital copyright, international trade policy, Nollywood, Afrollywood, African Creative Industries