Boatema Boateng
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816670024
- eISBN:
- 9781452946863
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816670024.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Intellectual Property, IT, and Media Law
In Ghana, adinkra and kente textiles derive their significance from their association with both Asante and Ghanaian cultural nationalism. Adinkra, made by stenciling patterns with black dye, and ...
More
In Ghana, adinkra and kente textiles derive their significance from their association with both Asante and Ghanaian cultural nationalism. Adinkra, made by stenciling patterns with black dye, and kente, a type of strip weaving, each convey, through color, style, and adornment, the bearer’s identity, social status, and even emotional state. Yet both textiles have been widely mass-produced outside Ghana, particularly in East Asia, without any compensation to the originators of the designs. This book focuses on the appropriation and protection of adinkra and kente cloth in order to examine the broader implications of the use of intellectual property law to preserve folklore and other traditional forms of knowledge. The book investigates the compatibility of indigenous practices of authorship and ownership with those established under intellectual property law, considering the ways in which both are responses to the changing social and historical conditions of decolonization and globalization. Comparing textiles to the more secure copyright protection that Ghanaian musicians enjoy under Ghanaian copyright law, it demonstrates that different forms of social, cultural, and legal capital are treated differently under intellectual property law. The book then moves beyond Africa, expanding the author’s analysis to the influence of cultural nationalism among the diaspora, particularly in the United States, on the appropriation of Ghanaian and other African cultures for global markets.Less
In Ghana, adinkra and kente textiles derive their significance from their association with both Asante and Ghanaian cultural nationalism. Adinkra, made by stenciling patterns with black dye, and kente, a type of strip weaving, each convey, through color, style, and adornment, the bearer’s identity, social status, and even emotional state. Yet both textiles have been widely mass-produced outside Ghana, particularly in East Asia, without any compensation to the originators of the designs. This book focuses on the appropriation and protection of adinkra and kente cloth in order to examine the broader implications of the use of intellectual property law to preserve folklore and other traditional forms of knowledge. The book investigates the compatibility of indigenous practices of authorship and ownership with those established under intellectual property law, considering the ways in which both are responses to the changing social and historical conditions of decolonization and globalization. Comparing textiles to the more secure copyright protection that Ghanaian musicians enjoy under Ghanaian copyright law, it demonstrates that different forms of social, cultural, and legal capital are treated differently under intellectual property law. The book then moves beyond Africa, expanding the author’s analysis to the influence of cultural nationalism among the diaspora, particularly in the United States, on the appropriation of Ghanaian and other African cultures for global markets.
Boatema Boateng
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816670024
- eISBN:
- 9781452946863
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816670024.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Intellectual Property, IT, and Media Law
This introductory chapter addresses the ownership and intellectual property protection of adinkra and kente fabrics. It asks: what are the opposing principles of authorship and alienability in the ...
More
This introductory chapter addresses the ownership and intellectual property protection of adinkra and kente fabrics. It asks: what are the opposing principles of authorship and alienability in the production of these fabrics? What are the legal implications when these conflicting principles meet? What appropriation practices are found around adinkra and kente, and what are their implications in Ghana’s copyright protections of folklore? Adinkra and kente are among arts that became an important part of Asante culture from the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries, specifically for the social and economic significance of cloth in Ghana.Less
This introductory chapter addresses the ownership and intellectual property protection of adinkra and kente fabrics. It asks: what are the opposing principles of authorship and alienability in the production of these fabrics? What are the legal implications when these conflicting principles meet? What appropriation practices are found around adinkra and kente, and what are their implications in Ghana’s copyright protections of folklore? Adinkra and kente are among arts that became an important part of Asante culture from the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries, specifically for the social and economic significance of cloth in Ghana.
Boatema Boateng
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816670024
- eISBN:
- 9781452946863
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816670024.003.0002
- Subject:
- Law, Intellectual Property, IT, and Media Law
This chapter discusses the authorship and ownership practices of Asante cloth makers that the intellectual property law opposed. Asante’s design of adinkra and kente became their ownership claims. ...
More
This chapter discusses the authorship and ownership practices of Asante cloth makers that the intellectual property law opposed. Asante’s design of adinkra and kente became their ownership claims. These claims encompass cloth production as a whole; therefore, distinguishing it from claims over individual designs, which is an intellectual property right. The chapter also explains the generational teaching of producing these fabrics. Those with strongest access in learning to produce these fabrics are cloth makers’ immediate family members who are familiar with the cloth production process.Less
This chapter discusses the authorship and ownership practices of Asante cloth makers that the intellectual property law opposed. Asante’s design of adinkra and kente became their ownership claims. These claims encompass cloth production as a whole; therefore, distinguishing it from claims over individual designs, which is an intellectual property right. The chapter also explains the generational teaching of producing these fabrics. Those with strongest access in learning to produce these fabrics are cloth makers’ immediate family members who are familiar with the cloth production process.
Boatema Boateng
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816670024
- eISBN:
- 9781452946863
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816670024.003.0003
- Subject:
- Law, Intellectual Property, IT, and Media Law
This chapter discusses the gender discrimination in the production of adinkra and kente. Males are privileged in the cloth-producing communities since the women’s cloth designs and production are not ...
More
This chapter discusses the gender discrimination in the production of adinkra and kente. Males are privileged in the cloth-producing communities since the women’s cloth designs and production are not patronized in local communities. This gendering of indigenous and local cultural production and design became more debatable because of the intellectual property law. Gendering around cloth production occurs not only according to the identity of those who produce it but also according to the sphere in which cloth production occurs.Less
This chapter discusses the gender discrimination in the production of adinkra and kente. Males are privileged in the cloth-producing communities since the women’s cloth designs and production are not patronized in local communities. This gendering of indigenous and local cultural production and design became more debatable because of the intellectual property law. Gendering around cloth production occurs not only according to the identity of those who produce it but also according to the sphere in which cloth production occurs.
Boatema Boateng
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816670024
- eISBN:
- 9781452946863
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816670024.003.0004
- Subject:
- Law, Intellectual Property, IT, and Media Law
This chapter discusses how both adinkra and kente makers and musicians fight for the copyright protection of their products. Ghanaian recording artists and producers began to press for more effective ...
More
This chapter discusses how both adinkra and kente makers and musicians fight for the copyright protection of their products. Ghanaian recording artists and producers began to press for more effective copyright protection of their work in the late 1970s after cassette recording technology became widely available in Ghana. Ghanaian cloth producers, however, did not ask the government for the protection of their product. A lobbying group of musicians were instrumental in shaping various aspects of the country’s intellectual property law since Ghana’s independence in 1957. They demonstrate that the ownership claims around different kinds of cultural production are dependent on the capacity to relate to the state as a citizen and legal subject.Less
This chapter discusses how both adinkra and kente makers and musicians fight for the copyright protection of their products. Ghanaian recording artists and producers began to press for more effective copyright protection of their work in the late 1970s after cassette recording technology became widely available in Ghana. Ghanaian cloth producers, however, did not ask the government for the protection of their product. A lobbying group of musicians were instrumental in shaping various aspects of the country’s intellectual property law since Ghana’s independence in 1957. They demonstrate that the ownership claims around different kinds of cultural production are dependent on the capacity to relate to the state as a citizen and legal subject.
Boatema Boateng
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816670024
- eISBN:
- 9781452946863
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816670024.003.0005
- Subject:
- Law, Intellectual Property, IT, and Media Law
This chapter examines ethnic, diasporic, and national identities as the basis for ownership claims of adinkra and kente. Adinkra and kente producers consider their communities, ethnic group, or the ...
More
This chapter examines ethnic, diasporic, and national identities as the basis for ownership claims of adinkra and kente. Adinkra and kente producers consider their communities, ethnic group, or the Asantehene, as the owners of these fabrics. Ethnic ownership claims become citizen ownership claims when these fabric producers offer their cloth design to Ghanaian artists. The design, however, does not become an endorsement of state ownership. Cloth-producing communities often challenge the ownership of state for their design. As citizens claim these designs as Ghanaian rather than ethnic, they confirm the legitimacy and success of the state’s ongoing project of cultural nationalism.Less
This chapter examines ethnic, diasporic, and national identities as the basis for ownership claims of adinkra and kente. Adinkra and kente producers consider their communities, ethnic group, or the Asantehene, as the owners of these fabrics. Ethnic ownership claims become citizen ownership claims when these fabric producers offer their cloth design to Ghanaian artists. The design, however, does not become an endorsement of state ownership. Cloth-producing communities often challenge the ownership of state for their design. As citizens claim these designs as Ghanaian rather than ethnic, they confirm the legitimacy and success of the state’s ongoing project of cultural nationalism.
Boatema Boateng
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816670024
- eISBN:
- 9781452946863
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816670024.003.0006
- Subject:
- Law, Intellectual Property, IT, and Media Law
This chapter addresses the circulation of adinkra and kente in global markets. Asante cloth producers are part of the global economy since the tourism industry markets these fabrics to foreigners. ...
More
This chapter addresses the circulation of adinkra and kente in global markets. Asante cloth producers are part of the global economy since the tourism industry markets these fabrics to foreigners. This circulation is considered as cultural flow that brings different parts of the world into closer contact with each other. However, the global cultural flows of their products are uneven. Asians rather than Africans became the most effective producers of “African” cloth for global markets. Ghana should restore the link between Ghanaian production sources and global markets or intervene in those markets in ways that reduce some of the losses caused by consumption practices that undermine the importance of adinkra and kente producers.Less
This chapter addresses the circulation of adinkra and kente in global markets. Asante cloth producers are part of the global economy since the tourism industry markets these fabrics to foreigners. This circulation is considered as cultural flow that brings different parts of the world into closer contact with each other. However, the global cultural flows of their products are uneven. Asians rather than Africans became the most effective producers of “African” cloth for global markets. Ghana should restore the link between Ghanaian production sources and global markets or intervene in those markets in ways that reduce some of the losses caused by consumption practices that undermine the importance of adinkra and kente producers.