MPA · Monetising performance culture in French North and West Africa (MPA)

Monetising performance culture in French North and West Africa (MPA) investigates how the implementation of authors’ rights systems affected the production of African performance culture in the period from 1850 to 1960. MPA bridges the field of French colonial history and intellectual property history by analysing the establishment of performing rights societiey offices in North and West Africa and the consequences that these had for local artists and creative production. The goal of the research is dual: first, I aim to develop a historical theory of the legal acknowledgement and monetisation of music, drama, and other performance practises in North and West Africa. Secondly, I aim to provide an account of historical alternatives to the organisation of creativity that did not fit into the rights-oriented performance culture that developed in Europe. MPA is a historical analysis of archival sources that will be collected and cross-referenced from a number of institutions in France, Senegal, and Benin. One major outcome will be an open digital map outlining when and where performance rights society offices opened and closed in the region between 1850 and 1960. This will be done in collaboration with supervisor and host, Ashleigh Harris, who is the PI for the African Literary Metadata (ALMEDA) project at Uppsala University. Other outcomes will be the publication of two peer-reviewed articles, one on local resistance to authors' rights systems, the other on IP-literacy among African artists. To be able to undertake the archival analysis and to expand the research into African cultural history, the outgoing phase will be carried out at the Université d’Abomey-Calavi in Benin where Didier Houénoudé will supervise and host me. In addition, I plan a three-month secondment at the Institute des mondes africains (IMAF) in Paris, under the supervision of Mbodj-Pouye Aïssatou. Here, I will collect archival material and participate on IMAF seminars.