Our Heritage, Our Identity, Our Rights: Celebrating Intellectual Property on Heritage Day
Every year on 24 September South Africans gather to recognise and celebrate our cultural diversity, traditions, languages, beliefs, histories and identities that make our country unique. A country with 12 (twelve) official languages recognised by the South African Constitution since 2023 and with a multilingual population fluent in at least two.
Heritage Day originates from KwaZulu-Natal originally known as Shaka Day, in commemoration of King Shaka Zulu. It was later proposed as a National Public holiday to create a day where all South Africans could observe and celebrate their diverse cultural heritage.
How does Intellectual Property (IP) play a role?
Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind, including inventions, artistic works, designs, brands, literary works and other forms of creative expression. IP rights help creators and innovators protect their work and benefit from their creativity.
Heritage Day is about more than celebrating where we come from. It is also an opportunity to consider how we can protect, preserve and respect the cultural expressions and knowledge that have been passed down from one generation to the next. The celebration of South Africa’s heritage is more about creativity and knowledge from traditional artworks, clothing, beadwork, music, literature, photography, architecture, food, crafts and contemporary forms of cultural expression.
South African communities have vastly contributed to the wealth of Indigenous knowledge and traditional cultural expressions. Wherein the developed and preserved knowledge relating to food, medicine, crafts, storytelling and cultural practices over many generations is cultivated. Protecting cultural heritage involves recognising the rights and interests of communities and ensuring that traditional knowledge is used respectfully and appropriately.
Heritage is not something that belongs only in museums or history books but something we inherit from those who came before us. It continues to evolve through the work of today’s creators that includes musicians, artists, designers, filmmakers, authors, entrepreneurs and artisans that continue to draw inspiration from our diverse cultures and transform heritage into new creative works. For these creators, intellectual property protection is an important foundation for building sustainable creative businesses.
Respecting our cultures in the digital age
In the modern-day world of internet and social media it has become easier than ever to share South African culture with the world, through a photograph, song, artwork, traditional design or video. This can be challenging in that the works can easily be copied, altered, reposted or commercially used without the creator’s knowledge or permission. Cultural designs and traditional expressions can also be reproduced without meaningful engagement with the communities from which they originate.
In this Heritage Day, we can ask ourselves this question: How can we celebrate and share our heritage while ensuring that the people who create, preserve and carry our heritage are respected and recognised?
In an address marking Heritage Day in 1996, former President Nelson Mandela stated:
“When our first democratically-elected government decided to make Heritage Day one of our national days, we did so because we knew that our rich and varied cultural heritage has a profound power to help build our new nation.”
As we celebrate Heritage Day, we should celebrate not only the traditions of the past but also the people who continue to reinterpret and preserve them for future generations. From indigenous knowledge and traditional crafts to modern music, fashion, technology and art.
Protecting intellectual property is one part of a much bigger conversation.
Happy Heritage Day, South Africa!
Reference:
- Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, Chapter 1
- WIPO, “Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expressions” (2020), online (pdf): https://www.wipo.int/en/web/about-ip
- https://southafrica-info.com/arts-culture/the-languages-of-south-africa/
- https://sahistory.org.za/article/heritage-day-braai-day-or-shaka-day-whose-heritage-it-anyway
- https://sahistory.org.za/article/what-heritage
Author: Cindy Moshatane, Candidate Legal Practitioner
Approved: Charmaine Nyundu, IP Associate Attorney
