I raised the matter of reparations at the recent Botswana Musicians Union workshop held at the Gaborone International Conference Centre.
My call for reparations towards the musicians whose work has been exploited for 40 years - and more - of Botswana's independence is based on the moral obligation of the government to interest itself in the well being of its citizens, in particular, the artists.
That is the capitalist ethic to which the government of Botswana has acceded during 40 years of independence.
The notion of copyright is not predicated upon the assumption that artists are God's most favoured people. It is based on the assumption that creativity must be encouraged in society in order to enhance the innovative capacity of society in the process of development which is also in agreement with Vision 2016.
Government officers who sit in ventilated government offices creating musicians' societies that already existed might better have spent their time persuading Radio Botswana and Botswana Television to pay for use of the artists' creations.
If the government officers spent more time using the resources of government for proper pay for use of art works, and appropriate government recognition of the social, political and economic rights of the artists, there would be no need for them to be preoccupied with the manufacturing of trade unions.
The holding of 'copyright workshops' - I have attended at least 20 related to journalism and music in the last five years - is a direct result of the plundering of the artefacts of the artists not just by the petty thieves that pirate music at the Gaborone Railway Station, but by the very state media itself.
So, perhaps the officials at the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs, also responsible for 'culture' have misdirected their efforts towards creating pet trade unions to fight the very scourge that they themselves have implanted and nurtured in the entertainment industry of Botswana.
As BOMU was preparing of the most recent of the copyright workshops last Sunday, the executive was agitated by the bullying attitude of the BTV who insisted that they would broadcast the music awards ceremony without allowing the owners of the project - BOMU - to see the programme beforehand as agreed.
My information is that, in fact, Btv bullied GBC out of the right to film the event and broadcast even though BOMU had allowed them to film outside the GICC hall.
It still baffles me why BOMU allowed Btv to film without a proper contract determining its rights over the product, and the rights of the artists who performed at the awards ceremony.
Were the artists paid properly for forfeiting their economic and moral rights over their work at the awards ceremony? Did BOMU compensate the artists for forfeiting the copyright entitlements?
Or were these benefits transferred to the private company, which was awarded the tender to do the awards?
Of course this private company was in it for a profit and should have been asked to pay for exploitation of the awards event for commercial gain. So, what really happened?
News RSS