The call to decolonise higher education : copyright law through an African lens

Abstract

This dissertation reflects critically on the calls for the decolonisation of South Africa’s higher education sector by studying the historical development of legal pedagogy in South African law faculties. It focuses in particular on the intellectual property law curriculum broadly, and more specifically on the copyright law module. Africa’s colonisation by Western powers ravaged it in various ways. This is starkly illustrated in the areas of knowledge production and research. Against this background the dissertation teases out the prevailing extent, depth, and reach of colonialism in the copyright law curriculum with the aim of identifying possible ways to give practical effect to the calls for the curriculum to be decolonised. To achieve this, the dissertation examines leading South African intellectual property law textbooks through an African lens in an express attempt to assert the pluriversal, epistemicological traditions of the global South. In each chapter and with each theme the dissertation proposes how an envisaged decolonised copyright curriculum could look. The dissertation grapples with the various theories underpinning the decolonial discourse, laying groundwork for an academically sound basis on which to decolonise the copyright law curriculum. It provides an African critique of the Eurocentric intellectual property law ‘justifications debate’ and posits communal modes of property ownership in Africa to counter Western individualistic notions of property ownership which lend credence to the current justification debate. The dissertation analyses the nature of copyright in a work using the philosophy of Ubuntu as an alternative in teaching this theme within the curriculum. A decolonial analysis of the requirements for copyright is offered, and it is argued that the current sta-ndards and threshold used for the subsistence of copyright is colonial and furthers the onslaught on the Black Body, both in its practical application and in how it is taught. The dissertation concludes by studying copyright exceptions, critically urging the academy to apply a differentiated model of exceptions to different jurisdictions in light of their colonial history (and present).

Lomtlolo utjheja ihlangothi lokufuna bona kutjhugululwe iimfundo zemkhakheni wezefundo ephakamileko yangeSewula Afrika ngokufunda ngetuthuko yokufunda kanye nokufundisa ngemNyangweni wabajameli. Utjheja khulu umthetho wepahla wezefundo khudlwana kanye nomthetho welungelo lokukhuphela. Ukuthunjwa kweAfrika ngabamhlophe kone ngeendlela ezinengi. Lokhu kutjengiswa kumbi mikhakha ekhiqiza ilwazi kanye nerhubhululako. Ngalesi isendlalelo lomtlolo utjheja ngokudephileko ukobana ukuthunjwa kweAfrika ngabamhlophe kulethe muphi umuthelela ngehlangothini lomthetho welungelo lokukhuphela lezefundo ngomqopho wokufumana iindlela nofana iinzathu zokobana kutjhugululwe ifundo yangeemfundweni eziphakamileko. Ukuphumelelisa lokhu, lomtlolo uhlahluba iincwadi zobuhlakaniphi bomthetho wepahla ngokutjheja indlela yokwenza izinto ngeSewula. Isahluko esinye nesinye kanye nommongo omunye nomunye utjheja bona ifundo etjhugululweko ingaba njani. Lomtlolo utjheja amathiyori atlolweko kanye nekukhulunywa ngawo lawo akhe umkhanyo wokutjhugulula zefundo. Utjheja isiphoqo seAfrika ngobuhlakaniphi babamhlophe ngomthetho wepahla ‘ikulumopikiswano yesizathu sokwenza okuthileko’ begodu ibeka ngaphambili indlela yokwabelana ipahlo eAfrika ukulwisana nendlela yabamhlophe yokungabelani ipahlo ekubange ikulumopikiswano yesizathu sokwenza okuthileko. Lomtlolo uhlaziya isisusa sokukhuphela ngokutjheja ikolelo yegama elithi ‘Ubuntu’ njengegama elisetjenziswa lokha nakufundiswa lommongo eemfundweni. Indlela etjhugululweko yokuhlaziya iimfuneko sokukhuphela yindlela yabamhlophe begodu igandelela indlu enzima, ngendlela yokwenza kanye nangendlela efundiswa ngayo. Lomtlolo uphetha ngokufunda isiphambuki sokukhuphela, ngokubawa isikolo ukobana sisebenzise indlela ehlukileko kunaleyo ebegade isetjenziswa ngabamhlophe ekadeni kanye nesikhathini sanje.