Data sovereignty, IP rights at crossroads

AMANDA-ELLEN NICOLA JOJO

The boundary between the physical and virtual worlds is rapidly dissolving and nowhere is this more evident than in Africa, where a digitally literate, youthful population is powering an innovation boom.

From innovative digital tools and creative platforms, young Africans are deploying emerging technologies to solve real-world challenges.

Yet, as artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes development and unlocks creative potential, it is also outpacing the systems meant to protect it, leaving many African innovators globally celebrated but vulnerable at home.

AI drives innovation but also poses serious intellectual property risks. According to the European Innovation Council (2024), it can mimic copyrighted works, reverse-engineer patents, and generate counterfeits, challenges that many African IP systems are still unequipped to manage.

In Zimbabwe, where creative ambition often collides with tight budgets, AI is redefining what’s possible.

In February this year, music producer Tawanda ‘Jusa Dementor’ Sibotshiwe released a visually ambitious and viral music video for the song Fake Love, featuring one of Zimbabwe’s biggest artists, Winky D.

“We’ve always had big ideas but never the budgets to match, AI became a way to break through,” Sibotshiwe said.

One striking scene shows a thousand soldiers charging the camera, which traditionally would cost millions  of dollars for extras, props, and a full production crew.

AI lets African creators compete globally despite constraints, but vast creative possibilities come with equally large legal uncertainties.

“The technology is evolving so rapidly that most governments, including ours, have not yet developed frameworks to protect intellectual property in this area.”

Despite his role as a tester for Luma AI, Image Art, and Pika Labs AI, Sibotshiwe complements his insights with peer knowledge shared on LinkedIn rather than relying solely on formal institutions.

He also warned that AI’s training datasets are already biased.

The concern is not just about technology it is about ownership of stories, culture, and identity.

Copyright, a type of intellectual property, protects original creative works such as songs, scripts, paintings, and performances.

But in the age of AI, many African creators fear their content could be scraped, reused, or imitated without credit or compensation.

“African creatives and policymakers must join global conversations to ensure representation of our traditions, stories, and identity.

AI systems currently underrepresent us due to dominance of Hollywood content.

Better representation will help build IP systems that protect our culture, likeness, and stories,” he said.

In an in-depth interview with this publication, the African Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation Project (AfrIPI), which is co-funded and implemented by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), highlighted Africa’s challenges and opportunities in adapting IP systems to AI.

“Most African IP laws do not yet address AI-generated works, this raises questions about authorship, ownership and liability,” AfrIPI project team noted.

AfrIPI project team pointed out that many national IP offices lack the technical expertise to assess AI-related inventions or content and intellectual property texts are often drawn up for years, with revision cycles that lag behind technological change.

“AI can amplify African languages, art and heritage if trained on culturally relevant data. The African Union’s AI Strategy, along with ARIPO, OAPI and initiatives like AfrIPI, can harmonise legal frameworks and promote ethical AI use across the continent.”

Protecting data sovereignty is critical as such, governments must update IP laws to define AI-generated works and ownership whether developers, users, or data providers.

Where protections fall short, AfrIPI recommends creating tailored rights, legal safeguards especially for creative fields like music, art, and literature thus preventing unauthorised use of African creators’ work and indigenous knowledge in AI training.

“Public awareness campaigns and capacity building will also help creators understand their rights and responsibilities as well as inclusive policymaking involving indigenous communities, artists and technologists is vital to ensure AI and IP frameworks reflect African values and traditions.”

The organisation is engaged in comparative studies to help countries update their laws in line with global standards while ensuring they reflect African realities.

“We support African nations to align their copyright, patent and data protection frameworks with emerging AI challenges,” AfrIPI project team said, highlighting ongoing collaboration with ARIPO, OAPI and the African Union.

AfrIPI also plays an instrumental role in capacity building through specialised training for IP professionals, policymakers and enforcement agencies.

“We believe in building local expertise so countries can make informed decisions about AI-generated works.

“A key part of our work is helping African entrepreneurs and creators understand how AI affects copyright, trademarks and patents coupled with offering guidance on protecting AI-assisted creations and navigating IP tools.”

In addition, AfrIPI initiative advocates for stronger protection of indigenous knowledge systems and geographical indications to ensure AI-generated outputs respect Africa’s cultural identity.

“AI should amplify, not erase, African values and traditions.”

To broaden public awareness, AfrIPI produces newsletters, factsheets and resources on emerging IP issues, including ethical risks related to data exploitation and cultural appropriation by AI.

These themes were central to two high-level events it led: the OAPI regional conference on IP and AI (1 to 2 July 2025) and the AfrIPI Symposium on Copyright in the Digital Era (28 to 29 July 2025), both highlighting challenges posed by generative AI

As AI generates music, visual art and text at unprecedented scale, an essential question arises: whose values shape these algorithms and whose knowledge is excluded?

In Africa’s quest to embed its worldviews into the digital future, AfrIPI spotlighted the need to ground AI policy in African moral traditions such as ubuntu, communal responsibility and custodianship.

“You cannot detach lawmaking from the people it is meant to protect, without frameworks that reflect African values, AI risks repeating extractive patterns of the past.” AfrIPI stated.

These principles promote fairness, inclusivity and collective well-being, offering a counterweight to commercial-driven models.

AfrIPI calls for sui generis protections for traditional knowledge, including prior informed consent and benefit-sharing when Indigenous data or cultural expressions are used in AI.

“Ethical AI and values-driven digital governance in Africa must be participatory and rooted in lived realities,” AfrIPI said, urging involvement of traditional leaders and cultural custodians as co-authors of legislation

In a bid to incorporate continental coordination AfrIPI, together with ARIPO, OAPI and the African Union through platforms like AfCFTA, works to harmonise IP and AI laws, ensure consistency across borders and augment Africa’s voice in global AI governance forums

“We are not just asking how to protect African knowledge, we are asking how to ensure AI is accountable to it. This is not a sidebar to innovation. It is the future of innovation itself.”

At the heart of Africa’s knowledge systems lies language, a vital channel for culture, identity, and innovation that often goes unrecognised in the digital space.

Vambo AI, a multilingual generative AI company, is working to close this gap.

Chido Dzinotyiwei, CEO and Co-Founder, said most mainstream AI systems fail to support Africa’s 2,000+ languages, excluding millions from opportunities in education, governance, and commerce.

“To address this, we are building large language models for 44 African languages. This not only preserves linguistic heritage but also creates inclusive infrastructure for Africa’s participation in the global digital economy,” she said.

Vambo AI treats African linguistic data as intellectual property and cultural capital. It partners with linguists, communities, and institutions to co-create datasets that are consent-based, culturally grounded, and ethically sourced, ensuring language data is protected, not extracted.

“We document provenance, provide attribution and promote licensing frameworks to ensure ownership and benefits remain with communities and contributors,” Dzinotyiwei stated.

Vambo AI advocate for African data sovereignty and reposition developers as active intellectual property holders. It that ensures Africa’s linguistic heritage is preserved, creating a future where African knowledge systems are respected and and protected by treating language as cultural IP and traditional knowledge.

Africa’s future in AI depends on protecting its cultural roots while driving innovation that reflects its own values and voices.