Tanzanian artists urged to register with copyright bodies

The call was made by the country's Minister for Information, Sports, Culture and Artists, Harrison Mwakyembe, who was speaking at a meeting with the Tanzania Federation of Crafts and Arts (TAFCA) and various other stakeholders at the National Museum in Dar es Salaam on Friday.

He said artists should seek to protect their work and that he was pleased they had requested a platform to address the challenges they were facing the industry.

At the meeting, the Tanzania Federation of Crafts & Arts (TAFCA) in association with DataVision, a private ICT consultancy firm, presented a report that mentioned the challenges and the way forward for the Tanzania Arts and Craft Identification Project (TACIP).

According to a local online publication, some of the challenges were the exploitation of artists by middlemen, a lack of an intellectual property body and difficulty in accessing capital loans.

DataVision's associate consultant for information and communication technology, Shabani Kiwanga, said that some of the challenges could be solved through the establishment of a database network system of artists and their works, which would ensure global recognition.

"The network will assist artists to be recognised on an e-commerce system to access unlimited markets in the cyber world," he said. "Artists will exhibit their products online and sell online to customers from every corner of the world while eliminating the middlemen."

Mwakyembe issued a directive to TAFCA and the National Arts Council to arrange a meeting in the first week of December where an assessment of the discussed issues would be addressed.

Two months ago, the minister met with musicians at an open forum organised by Tanzania’s musicians association, Baraza la Sanaa la Taifa (BASATA), where he promised to form a special committee to address the challenges facing musicians.

“We need to move to the next step but first we need to form a special committee of seven members involving four artists. The committee will come up with solutions which will improve policies dealing with issues relating to arts and artists,” Mwakyembe said.