By Kitts D. Mabonga
Uganda
The Government has affirmed its dedication to ensuring that the highly-anticipated Copyright Bill is promptly passed into law following discussions in the cabinet, and is currently being drafted at the cabinet secretariat.
This development arises as numerous members of the arts and music sector express concerns about the lack of earnings from their creative works due to the absence of protective legislation against piracy.
The remarks were made recently by the State Minister for Youth and Children Affairs at the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development, Balaam Barugahara, while addressing attendees at the national celebrations commemorating the international culture day at the national theatre in Kampala.
The theme of the day was “Digital transformation of the culture and creative industry, addressing art and culture as a national public good”.
The minister assured the attendees that every effort is being made to guarantee that those in the art and creative industry sector reap the rewards of their hard work.
“It annoys to see artists earning zero shillings yet they inject a lot of resources in the production of their work but all this should be blamed on the lack of an enabling legal environment. We are coming up very strongly to ensure that very soon the law is put in place to protect the interests of this very important sector,” he noted.
The State Minister for Culture, Peace Mutuuzo also noted that the government is committed to reconstructing the national theatre facility to provide additional space for the growing number of art and creative industry professionals, in order to accommodate the increasing demand for performances.
“We appeal to the artists to support the government by composing and airing out messages which are positively productive such as mobilizing the population to participate in the economic development agenda of their country as opposed to singing songs which drum up negative messages that can lead to violence,” she noted.
She cautioned that the artists must positively accept to digitize their works or less they risk being swallowed by the modern technological advancement which is sweeping across the globe at a lightning speed.
“We are insisting that the cultural and creative industry must digitize their works by writing it, such that visitors both to Uganda and online can easily find them and internalize their content at a cost,” she added.
Prof. Wasswa Balunywa from MUBS made a keynote presentation about how the culture and creative industry has evolved and advised the sector players to ensure that African cultures and creative industry is heavily protected digitally or risk losing out to other modern powerful forces that are increasingly dominating and influencing the way Africans should behave and socialize among other disciplines with some being counterproductive.
Phina Mugerwa, the deputy board chairperson of Uganda National Cultural Centre (UNCC), emphasized the importance of embracing digitization as a value addition system for the end tail products of sector players in order to bolster the government’s efforts in cultivating a robust and dynamic artist industry.
She expressed gratitude to the government for its ongoing support to the centre, and the arts and creative industry as a whole, particularly in terms of enacting laws that promote the positive growth and development of this crucial sector.
She highlighted the intention of the new board to develop strategies for enhancing the professionalism of the art and creative industry.
Mugerwa said this will enable its members to profit from their hard work, rather than receiving minimal compensation due to the absence of a legal framework that could empower them to elevate the art and creative tourism sector.
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