Book Review Symposia

The new collection Visions of African Unity edited by Matteo Grilli and Frank Gerits is very welcome. Pan-Africanism and African unity are highly significant in the modern history of the continent, yet have too rarely received the sustained academic attention they deserve. The editors have done well to establish a diverse set of contributors from Africa, Europe and America, with specialisms in history, law, and international relations. The subject is a broad one, and the chapters reflect this. Many of them are highly engaging and informative and will be of value to scholars interested in the particular facets covered as well as in the broader subject

The edited volume Visions of African Unity. New Perspectives on the History of Pan-Africanism and African Unification Projects (palgrave macmillan, 2021) by Frank Gerits and Matteo Grilli (eds), is an ambitious and welcome publication on varying but complimentary aspects of Pan-Africanism in the 20th and 21st centuries. The book´s forte lies not only in its historical approach to the topic at hand but also in the bringing together of current research angles on matters of African unity, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), and the later African Union (AU). Also, the diverse set of contributing authors in terms of geography (Africa, Europe, USA), professional backgrounds, and gender makes this publication a welcome read.

The chapters present a broad lens for understanding how historical conditions have mediated and moderated the business of uniting the peoples of Africa. Issues such as ideological cleavages, trade union politics, interference of external actors in domestic politics, perceptions of civil society and cultural actors on African unification, and transnational institution building in post-colonial Africa are some of points analysed in this book.

This edited volume explores continental and international visions of African unity. Continental integration had many different iterations beyond the OAU and it is therefore approached by contributors not only as a political project, but also as an ideology, a cultural marker and a legal issue. This collection is also a discussion of the place of African unity within the international system, a topic that is underreached despite the archives revealing how officials in the Global North struggled to understand the pan-African and pan-Arab challenges to international relations.

One outstanding feature of this book is that it provides significant historical information on the operations of CMOs in the sample countries and discusses some important cases in CMO management even as it highlights the nexus between the operation of CMOs and the application of competition law to their regulations. The book is to be recommended to students and specialists in the field of law, especially IP and Competition law in Africa and the rest of the developing world. Dr. Oriakhogba in writing this book, has made a valuable contribution to the discourse in this area and laid the foundation for further study of it.

March 22, 2022

Introduction

From a Kenyan perspective, Oriakhogba’s book will undoubtedly serve as a reference point for scholars and practitioners in the copyright sector for years to come. The author offers a nuanced view of the recently published Collective Management Regulations which, if properly implemented, will shape future developments in the oversight and supervision of CMOs in Kenya.

Dr Desmond Oriakhogba’s work, Copyright Collective Management Organisations and Competition in Africa is poised to become a seminal reference work in the field of collective management, for a number of reasons: first, it is one of only a paucity of dedicated full texts on the subject of collective management in Africa; secondly, it is the first such text to explore in-depth the question of the application of competition law in the area of collective management – a subject-matter that has been fully explored in other mature jurisdictions such as the United States and the European Union, but hardly considered within the African context; thirdly, it explores the law and practices in three key jurisdictions in the South, the East and the West of Africa; and fourthly, it is an expertly written text and a veritable scholarly work, while simultaneously written in a flowing, easy-to-follow style making for a good long-weekend read.

Copyright, Collective Management Organisations and Competition in Africa is a book that delivers on its promise to rigorously analyse and distil useful models for regulating and operating collective management in Africa. It is one that will serve as a useful guide for scholars, practitioners and policy makers in Africa on the subject of collective management.

The collective management of copyright and related rights (collective management) is fast growing in Africa and continues to contribute to the growth of the copyright-based industry not just in the individual African countries, but also on a continental level. It contributes by facilitating access to copyright works for users, generating revenue for copyright owners, creating job opportunities and promoting creativity and social welfare, particularly for Africa’s youthful and vibrant creators. As such, collective management continue to remain a key component of the economic activities happening within the copyright-based industries in Africa.