Heritage without borders: The challenges of Kente fabric protection as a traditional cultural expression in a multi‐ethnic Africa

Abstract Focusing on Ghana's Kente textile, this paper examines the urgent need to protect Traditional Cultural Expressions in developing countries. It demonstrates how the global intellectual property system, shaped by Anglo‐American and European legal traditions, fails to safeguard most African creative heritage. Using Kente as a case study, the paper analyses the challenges of extending protection beyond Ghana's borders amid ethnic fragmentation and colonial‐era boundaries. It argues that national protection frameworks, including Ghana's 2025 geographical indication registration of Kente, are structurally inadequate because they privilege territorial states over the transboundary communities like the Asante and Ewe that are the textile's authentic custodians. The paper assesses regional mechanisms, including ARIPO's Swakopmund Protocol, OAPI's Bangui Agreement, and the AfCFTA Protocol on Intellectual Property Rights and its 2026 Annex on Traditional Knowledge, Traditional Cultural Expressions (TCEs) and Genetic Resources, as complementary layers of a single governance problem. Drawing comparative lessons from the Maasai Intellectual Property Institute's management of a structurally similar Kenya‐Tanzania divide, the paper proposes a sequenced, multi‐layered approach rooted in community‐centred custodianship rather than exclusive state control. It concludes that sustainable protection requires moving beyond nation‐centred frameworks toward cooperative, community‐rooted mechanisms capable of accommodating Africa's complex historical and cultural landscapes.