Earlier this week, a forum on the collective management of copyright and related rights was launched at the cultural center in Yaoundé. It is ongoing up to today June 15, with stormy debates that participants describe as a “brawl” of some sort.  

Nevertheless, participants hope to find a solution to the copyright issue in Cameroon. “Everything will surely fall in place. Samuel Sangwa, the regional director for Africa of the International Confederation of Authors and Composers Societies (CISAC), who is moderating the debates, is used to such situations,” a participant said. 

The forum was initiated to end the never-ending copyright problems in Cameroon. For its organization, the executives of the women’s advocacy fair Salon de l’Escale Bantoo decided to merge it with the sixth edition of the yearly women’s advocacy fair, which is ongoing since May 13 in Yaoundé and Douala. The initiative was approved by the collective management organizations’ oversight body CCGOGC (Commission de contrôle et de gestion des organismes de gestion collective du Cameroun).  Notable participants at the forum include the CISAC and the SACEM (Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique), established in France in 1851. 

It takes place as successive group workshops and local stakeholders take part in these workshops whose end goal is to build a roadmap -to be submitted to the Cameroonian government- for a better structuration of copyright law. 

The roadmap will be built to end the copyrighting imbroglio in Cameroon. “For nearly 25 years now, the collective management of copyright and related rights have been a total mess in Central Africa, in general, and in Cameroon in particular. The 'wages' of the creators of intellectual works are jeopardized by clashes over the governance of collective management organizations or societies (OGC),”  Salon de l’Escale Bantoo indicates in a presentation file. 

Michel Ange Nga