How Seki dance has redefined performance rights of indigenous people (thecable.ng)
*S. Samiái Andrews
Abstract
The African indigenous creativity is being
digitally enabled for entrepreneurial capacity and for the Artificial Intelligence era.The global IP community for more than 30 years now
has been struggling with how to legally recognize culture, folklore,
traditional cultural expressions and traditional knowledge with an intellectual
property-like protection or some formal type of legal protection. However,
after the signing of the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performance (BTAP) in
2012 and its accession by majority of the WIPO Treaty nations-dance,
audiovisual actors, and other forms of transient creativity and creations have
been recognized as performance, that attracts IP protection. The protagonists
of these works are now regarded by law as performers, whose works now attract
IP protection. The performance of their works on audiovisual platforms and
spaces (a creation of the digital era) has also been recognized by the new
jurisprudence including that of Nigeria.
In my earlier published work on the thematic
perspectives in communal creativity theme in a publication of the World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization
(WTO), I began a conversation on how cultural works and heritages of the global
South (Nigeria) especially the Nollywood contents can maximize the potentials
of its unique cultural heritage and economically maximize its cultural creative
assets for upscale and monetized models. In this piece, I am continuing that conversation,
using Seki Dance, which has already adopted the audiovisual tool to maximize the deep cultural assets of the indigenous peoples of South-South
Nigeria, as a tool for enhancing tourism and also enabling national economic
policy of revenue diversification.
Introduction
Within the current trends among nation
States of the global South to diversify their national economic revenue
streams, for example the nations of the Gulf Cooperative council (GCC) of Saudi
Arabia, UAE, Qatar, the BRIC-Brazil, Russia, Russia, India, China and South
Africa- nation states from the extractive industrial economies to the
creative-innovative streams and tourism, this article examines and analysis how
Nigeria ought to empower its indigenous cultural creative industries. Africa is endowed with rich and
distinguished indigenous creative assets in the artistic, literary and
scientific fields. Most of these creative works and innovations are innate to African heritage. In Nigeria, most of the
indigenous creativity have been elevated to global and entrepreneurial rank
because of the aid of digital technology and the enablement of contemporary
digital era creative jurisprudence. This short piece will further examine how Seki dance, an indigenous traditional and
cultural creative works of the peoples of mostly the Okrika
and other ethnic nations of Ijaw of the Niger Delta Geo-political space
in present day Rivers State in Nigeria, reinforces the clarion call and
postulations among IP scholars and culture scholars that folklore, traditional
cultural expressions and traditional knowledge
of the global South deserve global legal recognition like other forms of intellectual property that originates from the global North.
Indigenous
Creativity of Traditional Societies
In a published work I authored recently, I analyzed
how the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performance (BTAP) has recognized partially the need to
recognize the creative rights of performers, including cinematic actors, theater artists, cultural dancers, and skit makers in the digital space or real
time physical stages. These groups of creatives are performers according to
current intellectual property jurisprudence.
A Seki dancer may be a performer, actor, and copyright author or
copyright owner based on current creative regimes. Just like any artistic
creation, ownership of the copyright in Seki dance performances and works is
regulated by copyright law.
In Nigeria, her law adequately has set out
who may be a copyright author and or owner of Seki dance creations. The moral
rights of Seki dance performers have also been recognized, although not
adequately as some of us IP scholars of the global South demand. These legal
rights are now legally tangible. Gladly, the BTAP has become part of the
creative laws of most countries of the global South including Nigeria. The
Beijing Treaty, including the Nigerian copyright law have defined and covered
performers (Seki dancers) on the
same legal pedestal as actors for the purposes of beneficial
economic and moral rights with a global scope.
Although IP scholars are still discussing
the path to consensus on accepting a
legal definition for traditional cultural expressions, Seki dance is a creative
performance of indigenous culture, folklore and heritage. Therefore, the
dancing and displaying of the Seki cultural attributes are the performing of
creative works. Seki dancers are performers, actors and artists under the
current Nigerian copyright law. Section 63 of the current Nigerian copyright
expressly itemizes the rights of a performer in economic, creative and social
context. Therefore, a Seki dancer has exclusive legal creative rights to
control acts that arise and in relation to her (his) work- performance.
Seki
Dance and Creative Performance Rights
Seki dance is a creative dance indigenous
to the people of the South-South region of Nigeria, particularly among the
peoples of mostly the Okrika nation extraction and other ethnic nations like
the Ijaw. Recently, Mr. Yibo Koko, a foremost Nigerian artist and
creative director, who is also the chief executive and Director General of the
Rivers State Tourism Development Agency (RSTDA) has organized this authentic
African creation into a formal entrepreneurial and creative cultural
asset mostly with the assistance and enablement of digital tools. In my
interactions with Mr. Koko he stated that “… Seki prides itself as a
celebration of the colors and clatter of the Niger Delta- this owes for most
part to how the various dances-Opu Iria, Kala Iria, Pioru, Bamba-Owu,
Ojongo-Owu, Ogwein, Owembe peoples of Niger Delta.” He further stated that his
objectives include the preservation of the rich culture of his people from
extinction and most particularly using the existing digital assets to achieve
those outcomes. The partnership of the public and private
sector in the indigenous cultural creative industry may be a welcome
development because of the potential trigger this could endear for investment
from other sectors of the global economy. It may also signify a sign of
confidence that the indigenous cultural industry is part of the formal economy.
How
Nigeria’s laws and policies is structured to enable Seki Dance and its likes
Seki Dance is a traditional
cultural expression (TCE), a form of contemporary genre of
intellectual property that has been handed down from generation to generation
but kept alive and virile through transformative creativity of people like Mr
Koko and his group of dancers. Intellectual property has a strong role in the monetization and sustainability of Seki dance and other forms of TCE. More
particularly, as a tourism magnet, this TCE could be complemented
by current IP regimes, like Trademark, copyright, Geographical indications,
traditional knowledge, trade secret and patent in protecting the creative,
innovative and entrepreneurial rights of the indigenous people from
misappropriation and add more value in the downstream tourism value chain.
The economic opportunities that tourism combined
with a properly organized indigenous cultural industry like the Seki Dance, is
exponential in the digital era audiovisual spaces. The power of the digital
ecosystem has the potential of globalizing a hitherto unknown creative work normally
seen in stationary locations. In 2016, a European Union report cited a study that forecasted that the
cultural and creative industries (CCI) in Africa will generate $4.2 billion and
create 547, 500 jobs. Although, the actual confirmation and realism of this
forecast is spotty, however, there has been major uptick economic upward-movements
in the CCI of Nigeria since 2016. Some creative contents in the audiovisual
platforms have contributed significantly into the Nigerian Gross Domestic
Product (GDP)
in recent times. With the visibility that digital distributive and
productive modes now affords Seki Dance, coupled with its
innate-ingenious richness, Seki Dance as a good geographical indications is a tourism gold
mine, national-brand, and a source product. The multiplier effects to the local
economy of Niger Delta, Nigeria and to the national economy is encouraging for
developmental growth of its people.
The
path to covering the creative field
With a rich and endowed ingenuous creative
depth uniquely connected to her, Nigeria and other traditional nations of the
global South should take the competitive and strategic product advantage of
their cultural assets to explore and monetize these creative works in an
upscale fashion. Through deliberate national policies and political will, the
traditional culture expressions, traditional knowledge and geographical
indications attached to the creativity and innovations of indigenous people
will change the economic fortunes of immediate host communities. After all Seki
Dance is going mainstream and upstream.
*Professor Samuel Samiái Andrews writes
from Al Yamamah University College of Law, Al Khobar in Saudi Arabia.