118 african appropriations
a flood of Titanic-related merchandise, from the usual “making-of ” books
and soundtrack cds to T-shirts, posters, stickers, coffee mugs, exhibitions,
and even theme parks (Studlar and Sandler 1999). A ll of these operate on
the logic of “copy and contact,” where the copy is meant to draw on the
power of the original. The four African copies, products of cottage culture
industries, operate on the same logic. A major difference, however, is that
they do so without compensating Twentieth Century Fox, the company
that owns the copyright. Needless to say, this strategy is not always suc-
cessful. If the product is far below local quality standards, as was the case
figure 3.7
Text message from Tanzania: “May this ship carry you safely to the year 2008,
may God bless you!” Courtesy of Claudia Böhme. Message would have origi-
nally been displayed on a 2.8-by-2.3-centimeter cell-phone screen.