Senegal: Problems With Piracy

Counterfeiting and piracy is a major problem on a world-wide scale. It involves the unauthorized replication and sale of brand name products and generally impacts countries across the board. It can be detrimental to societies by devaluing otherwise authentic products, decreasing consumer’s trust and creating health risks to name a few. Generally, counterfeiting and piracy tends to arise under certain societal factors that are conducive to such crimes. These factors include but are not limited to: poverty, lack of regulation, corruption, cultural values and lack of access to certain resources. Although Senegal is fairly well-off, compared to some other African countries, it does show traces of each of these factors in its society.

As with any cases of counterfeiting and piracy, we must first ask; why is this happening? As previously mentioned, there are many things that can create an atmosphere that is conducive to such crimes, which can make them difficult to detect, but Senegal shows signs that are quite apparent, although difficult to rectify. The first factor that is evident is Senegal’s high cost of living, coupled with a low salary scale, nation-wide. This dangerous combination puts an economic and social stress on citizens, often driving them to conduct in activities they normally wouldn’t. This isn’t to say that due to its tight economic situation, the people of Senegal all resort to counterfeiting and piracy but, perhaps they do reconsider buying the less expensive fake over the real deal. In many cases, this alone would be enough to encourage ‘black markets’, but the same pressures that apply to the masses also apply to the country’s officials. They too have an extremely high standard of living, especially being in the public eye and they do whatever it takes to ensure their keep their lifestyles … even tap into public funds to finance their own personal activities.

This then leads to the next major factor in Senegal’s counterfeiting and piracy problem; corruption. As you can imagine, there is not much money going around as it is, so when officials irresponsibly use that money to their benefit, it definitely impacts the economy. Furthermore, there are cases of Senegalese officials taking bribes and conducting in illegal activities themselves. One popular trend, that directly impacts the counterfeiting and piracy problem, is the redistribution of already seized goods. In other words, certain corrupt officials are taking inventory from a police seizure of counterfeit products and are selling them to vendors to redistribute back into the society. This is one factor that should be relatively easy to control, as it is occurring where the problem should be enforced. Obviously, this does not help Senegal’s problem whatsoever. In fact, it merely sets a poor example and sends the message that it is OK to conduct in the sale or purchase of counterfeit goods. There aren’t even enough resources to properly enforce the trafficking that is already occurring among civilians, let along officials. To make matters worse, on top of having limited resources, Senegal also has a limited regulatory system. As it is still a developing country, Senegal hasn’t yet refined its intellectual property laws, and copyright or trademark infringement isn’t seen as a punishable crime. Such cases very rarely make it to court, and when they do, the judiciary system delivers inconsistent and non-transparent decisions. At the heart of these issues; Senegal simply doesn’t have the budget to pursuit such crimes, and so they are not dealt with. If the money was more readily available, this would be the obvious place to start, as no progress can be made to thwart counterfeiting and piracy without regulatory provisions.

Although political and economic factors are generally seen as the most evident contributors to counterfeiting and piracy problems, in Senegal, the general consumer opinion is also largely to blame. This doesn’t mean that the consumers; themselves are to blame, but rather the standards of purchasing within the Senegalese society is. First, it is important to realize that in Senegal, image and status are everything. My Senegalese contact, Janet Cole confirmed that she and everyone she knows spend a significant amount of time and money on her image. In fact, she was shocked at how unorthodox our credit system was, stating, “You spend what you have! At most women will put a down payment on clothing, so that they can wear it and work to pay it off.” Even the fact that people will put a down payment on clothing to merely wear them without owning them says a lot about the desperation to achieve the desired image, despite economic hardship. In many cases, such people do resort to purchasing ‘knock-off’ goods, whether imitations made with fake materials, or previously confiscated redistributed goods. In addition, the major religion of Senegal plays a role too. As a predominantly Muslim society, to improve one’s image, for men this means marrying many women. While having a lot of wives conveys a certain desirable social status, it also means there are many more expenses associated. For women, this means marrying an established Muslim man to provide for her. Otherwise, the social security only provides a mere $5 per quarter (or three months), which is near impossible to live off of, especially if you want to have an education.

Education is valued extremely heavily in Senegal, and in fact, they have some exceptional private schools, if you can afford them. For those who are less fortunate, which includes most of the people, they are lucky to even attend a public school, which are usually hurt by political corruption. Janet also had some incite to this as well, saying, “if a family wants their children to be educated, in many cases, they send the children to urban areas and say, ‘don’t come back until you have $5.’” That is the extent of desperation when it comes to money and education. It also contributes to the counterfeiting and piracy numbers, as those children will pursuit any means necessary to make that $5, otherwise they aren’t going home. So, as a quick, easy alternative to arduous labor, they will often conduct in some aspect of a counterfeiting, piracy or trafficking operation. This not only directly impacts the economic numbers, but also demonstrates to the youth that such illegal activities can have a high reward, compared to a low risk.

It is this balance of high reward and low risk that regulates such a strong system of counterfeiting and piracy. Products that enter Senegal from China, Nigeria, Dubai and other major trade affiliates are not screened adequately enough, and many unauthorized goods slip through. Although, on a positive note, the Senegalese Customs Office is aware of such weaknesses, and has begun participating in training sessions to help them spot counterfeit and pirated goods. Even president Abdoulaye Wade acknowledges the problem, and has intentions to establish a National Assembly to specialize in handing piracy throughout the country. Senegal has also joined an organization called; African Organization of Intellectual Property, or OAPI, which is a collection of other African countries that works to implement a universal system for securing property rights. Strides such as this is exactly what Senegal needs to crack-down on its counterfeiting and piracy problems.

Considering the fact that Senegal is still a developing country, it is to be expected that there is a certain degree of counterfeiting, piracy and trafficking that occurs. With that being said, it certainly doesn’t help that corruption and lacking regulations exist to the extent that they do. This, coupled with the previously examined social and economic factors fuel a fire that is difficult to put out. However; overall, Senegal’s recent progress with regard to improving regulations, training customs inspectors and joining collective efforts demonstrates hope for future reform and containment.