Guide to authors

Edited by Isaac N. Mazonde & Pradip Thomas
ISBN: 2-86978-194-6 (ISBN 13: 978-2-86978-194-8); 138 pages, January 2007

CODESRIA, University of Botswana and WACC

‘This tone-setting book takes the debate on African indigenous knowledge and intellectual property rights to new heights as it confronts this global system with the epiphany of its omissions, its alibis, its potentials and its pitfalls. In a century which has been called “a century of mind and of knowledge”, this group of African scholars come into their own, highlighting crucial issues ranging from competing philosophies of ownership and control, to parameters of knowledge and innovation in a world that is globalizing on profoundly eschewed terms. These issues reveal deep-seated struggles and signify a cry for justice and co-determination of new futures of a very different kind....’

Catherine Odora Hoppers, Visiting Professor, Stockholm University, author of Indigenous Knowledge and the Integration of Knowledge Systems.

This volume discusses a number of issues on the contested nature of intellectual property rights (IPR) and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) in the context of Southern Africa. The issues addressed include the protection of folklore, IKS in a digital era, the valuation and safeguard of heritage sites, the need for appropriate IKS legislation, community-based control of natural resources and the role played by traditional music in the maintenance of community. It is this extensive exploration of IKS from the vantage points of communication and culture, and explored in terms of policy, cultural survival, international as well as intra-national politics, economics, philosophy and ethics that makes this empirical grounded collection of papers unique, a distinctive contribution to the literature and ‘cause’ of IKS. The specific IKS-related issues raised and dealt with in this volume are generic in the sense that the very same issues are being contested in different parts of the world. In this respect, this book highlights the particular as a means of comprehending the universal.

 Editors

Isaac Mazonde is Associate Professor of Human Geography and Director of Research and Development in the University of Botswana, where he has worked since 1978 when he joined as a Staff Development Fellow in the former National Institute of Development Research and Documentation. His research interests include social organization for economic production, minority groups, technology transfer, food security, and research management.

Associate Professor Pradip Thomas is at the School of Journalism & Communication, University of Queensland, Australia. He has published widely on issues related to intellectual property and communication rights. His latest publications include the jointly edited volume (with Jan Servaes) Intellectual Property Rights and Communications in Asia: Conflicting Traditions (2006), Sage.

Contents

	Contributors	V
	Introduction Isaac N. Mazonde	1
1.	Contesting Space and Time: Intellectual Property Rights and the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Research - A Challenge Mogomme Alpheus Masoga	3
2.	Intellectual Property Challenges in Africa: Indigenous Knowledge Systems and the Fate of Connected Worlds Pradip Thomas and Francis B. Nyamnjoh	12
3.	Intellectual Property Law and the Protection of Indigenous Knowledge John Kiggundu	26
4.	Protecting Folklore Under Modern Intellectual Property Regimes: Limitations and Alternative Regimes for Protection Siamisang Morolong	48
5.	Copyright in the Digital Era and Some Implications for Indigenous Knowledge Kgomotso H. Moahi	66
6.	The Gods Are Resting There: Challenges to the Protection of Heritage Sites through Legislation and Local Knowledge Alinah K. Segobye	78
7.	Development of Indigenous Knowledge Systems Policy and Legislation in South Africa: Intellectual Property Implications for Knowledge Holders and Practitioners Mogege Mosimege	95
8.	Intellectual Property Rights and Natural Resources:  A Case Study of Harvesters of Medicinal Plants in the North-West Province, South Africa Otsile Ntsoane	104
9.	Protection and Promotion of Local Music: A Talent that Educates, Entertains and Binds Wapula Nelly Raditloaneng	115
	Index	123

 

ISBN: 2-86978-194-6 (ISBN 13: 978-2-86978-194-8); 138 pages, January 2007
Africa: 20.00 USD; CFA 10,000; Elsewhere: USD 29.95 / £16.95

---

For orders :    

Africa:  

Publications and Communication
CODESRIA
Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop x Canal IV
BP 3304
Dakar 18524 Senegal
Email: codesria@codesria.sn
Web: www.codesria.org 

Rest of the world:  

African Books Collective
PO Box 721
Oxford, OX1, 9EN, UK
Email: abc@africanbookscollective.com
Web: www.africanbookscollective.com