Authentic Creativity: how Two Segments of Nigeria’s Cultural and Creative Economy are Promoting and Redefining Nigeria

Abstract

A central theme of the cultural and creative industries (CCI) discourse is the exploitation of intellectual capital for economic benefits by CCI workers. Also, the CCI are seen as vehicles of cultural expression and should contribute significantly to employment generation. But beyond cultural expression and employment creation, the CCI can be a veritable pathway to the globalisation of local cultures. This paper reviews two segments of CCI in Nigeria to assess how the concept has fared, especially, with difficulties associated with registration and enforcement of IPRs in these two key segments. The paper explores a brief history and reviews activities in these two selected segments in terms of employment creation, economic value added and overall impact they are having on Nigeria’s culture and political economy. It concludes that authentic cultural creativity can indeed globalize aspects of a country’s culture and reposition its image in subtle but effective ways.