Protection of Indigenous Cultural Expressions in Nigeria

Abstract

Culture is the basis of all civilization; and indigenous cultural
expressions (ICEs) form the essential elements of the physical
and intellectual human existence. This paper seeks to assess
the efficacy of the Nigerian Copyright Act in protecting the
communal interests and rights in ICEs. The paper also aims to
examine the requirements for copyright protection such as
authorship, ownership, fixation, terms of protection which
point to the individualistic nature of copyright. In this article,
we found that the present legal framework as it relates to ICEs
cannot sufficiently protect these communal interests in these
expressions resulting in a conflict between the communal
rights of the indigenous peoples and individual interests as
emphasized by the Act. The paper therefore suggests an
indigenous suigeneris governance framework for the protection
of ICEs that would recognize the legal and cultural climes of
Nigeria.