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World Service,29 Sep 2017,53 mins

Can You Trademark Culture?

ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Africa Debate

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September's Africa Debate comes from Cape Town, a hub of design and fashion, where we focus on the appropriation of national or traditional designs, crafts and symbols by mostly western high-end brands and artists. We discuss when and how cultural borrowing turns into cultural appropriation. Accusations of appropriation range from the Damian Hurst sculptures at the Venice Biennale - which he says are stylistically similar to celebrated works from Nigeria's Kingdom of Ife but critics say are carbon copies. To Lesotho blanket makers whose designs now adorn a very expensive Louis Vuitton shirt. Is it wrong? Isn't art and design all about drawing inspiration from other cultures? Or should certain African cultural symbols and products be off-limits to non-Africans - given the history of cultural looting by outsiders that has deprived African communities from controlling and benefiting from their own cultural heritage? The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s Mayeni Jones and Pooneh Ghoddoosi discuss these questions with an audience of artists and designers. Photo: THABO MAKHETHA (TMCOLLECTIVE)

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