This volume discusses a number of issues on the contested nature of
intellectual property rights (IPR) and Indigenous Knowledge Systems
(IKS) in the context of Southern Africa. The issues addressed include
the protection of folklore, IKS in a digital era, the valuation and
safeguard of heritage sites, the need for appropriate IKS legislation,
community based control of natural resources and the role played by
traditional music in the maintenance of community. It is this extensive
exploration of IKS from the vantage points of communication and culture,
and explored in terms of policy, cultural survival, international as
well as intra-national politics, economics, philosophy and ethics that
makes this empirical grounded collection of papers unique, a distinctive
contribution to the literature and 'cause' of IKS. The specific
IKS-related issues raised and dealt with in this volume are generic in
the sense that the very same issues are being contested in different
parts of the world. In this respect, this book highlights the particular
as a means of comprehending the universal.