SouthViews No. 310, 30 June 2026
Decolonising Intellectual Property Law: An Afrocentric Approach
A book review
By Nkem Itanyi
This paper examines Decolonising Intellectual Property Law: An Afrocentric Approach as a transformative intervention in global intellectual property (IP) discussions. Drawing on the book’s central claim that contemporary IP frameworks were designed for Western priorities and subsequently imposed on Africa through colonial legal transplantation, the paper evaluates how Eurocentric assumptions about creativity, ownership, and individual authorship have displaced African systems of communal knowledge governance.