By Alari Alare Kenneth

JOHANNESBURG--As South Africa continues to celebrate the launch of the Creative Commons South Africa (ccSA), other Africans must now be thinking about opening chapters in their respective countries.
This is because the continent enjoys an enormous wealth in creativity but much of it dies untapped and unseen because the local environment is not conducive to harnessing such innovative skills.
African countries may now decide to follow the same path as South Africa, which, after all, has a huge population and the largest economy on the continent. South Africans put their resources together and on Wednesday night officially launched a Creative Commons chapter, a development that could act as a showcase for the continent.
But there are diverging views over how other African nations should go about creating their local chapters.
One point of view says that it would be time consuming and expensive if each African country goes it alone to put up its own chapter.
“It should be done regionally, countries in various regions in the continent should come together and work regional Creative Commons plans since this will further unite citizens in these particular regions”, said Jonathan Ojara, an ICT consultant in Uganda.
In the view of Ojara, there should be regional chapters such as Creative Commons East Africa, Creative Commons Great Lakes Regions, Creative Commons West Africa and the like.
The East Africa chapter would comprise Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and in the spirit of the East African Community (EAC) Rwanda could be incorporated given that it has applied for membership of the Community.
The West Africa chapter would comprise countries like Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Sierra Leon just to name a few.
However, West Africa could conceivably be split into two, for instance it would be possible for the Anglophone and Francophone countries to run two different chapters.
“It will integrate these nations given that some of them have a lot to share in politics, culture and arts”, says Ojara.
The other view is that each country should go it alone, but with the help of South Africa.

“Every country needs to have its own chapter of (Creative) Commons with support from South Africa who leading the continent right at the moment in this matter”, says Sandra Aluoch who manages the ICT Knowledge department at African Virtual University (AVU) in Kenya.
Her view is an indication that there is a critical mass of people who believe that the concept of Creative Commons is alive, understood and applicable in the continent.
“It is a tool and a platform which local people can use to develop and share lots of skill”, says Ojara.
“The applications would be in areas such as education where a curriculum can be developed and shared by various authors and tutors respectively without any infringement on copyright”, says Aluoch.
So, what will Creative Commons do for Africa?
It will offer a set of Creative Commons licenses free of charge. These licenses will help people tell the world that their protected works are free for sharing but only on certain conditions.
For example, if you don't mind people copying and distributing your online photograph so long as they attribute the work to you, there is a licence that provides that specific type of protection.
If you are comfortable with anyone in the world copying your music, but you don't want them to profit from your work without seeking your permission, there are other cc licences that can accommodate your preferences.
However, a lot of work still needs to be done before we can realistically expect more Creative Commons chapters to be opened on the African continent. Part of the task involves sensitising the general population, as well as opinion makers about the benefits of cc.