Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Traditional Musician-Centered Perspectives On Ownership Of Creative Expressions, Dick Kawooya

Doctoral Dissertations

Historically, traditional music in Africa was attributed to the collective society and not to individual musicians. Given the changing socioeconomic, cultural and political environments prevalent in most African societies, collective ethos are increasingly problematic to the very survival of expressive cultures like music. Individual musicians cannot effectively live off the traditional music they make without offending their traditional societies. Without meaningful incomes from traditional music, musicians cannot contribute to traditional music because it is difficult in a collectivist environment to exploit the opportunities of the global intellectual property regimes. This situation is likely to undermine the future of traditional expressive …