Published: June 3, 2026
MONROVIA — A group of Liberian high school students traveled to Zimbabwe and came home with the top prize at one of Africa’s most competitive intellectual property showcases, defeating delegations from five countries with a courtroom drama that gave a stolen painting a human face.
Maretha International Preparatory High School won the fourth edition of the Regional Intellectual Property High School Club Competition, held May 29 in Harare under the joint auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization and the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization. The six competing nations were Liberia, The Gambia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia and Ghana.
Liberia’s entry, “The Brushstrokes of Justice,” tells the story of Musu, a talented but uninformed artist whose work is used without her permission, and Bendu, a creator who understands her rights and profits from them. The contrast drives home a pointed argument: that ignorance of intellectual property law is not a minor inconvenience but a direct path to exploitation and lost income. Zambia placed first runner-up and The Gambia second.
The country’s margin of victory was widened by student representative Lomenie Kollie, who outperformed all other delegations in the quizzing and role-play categories, which required students to answer practical IP questions and navigate real-world scenarios.
Liberia’s path to Harare ran through a national competition that Maretha International won to earn the right to represent the country regionally.
Todd Reves, director of the Building Respect for IP Division at WIPO, said the competition was designed to anchor a simple but consequential idea in the minds of young Africans: that creativity has value, that rights must be respected and that intellectual property becomes a development tool only when it is properly understood.
Bemanya Twebaze, director general of ARIPO, said the competition reflected the organization’s commitment to building a stronger culture of IP awareness among young people across member states, describing the standard of participation across all six countries as evidence of the continent’s creative and intellectual potential.
Garmai Koboi, director general of the Liberia Intellectual Property Office, called the victory a significant milestone in the government’s push to advance IP education in schools nationwide.
“Winning is validating, but the larger purpose is to ensure that every young artist, musician, writer, and innovator in Liberia knows their rights and has the tools to protect their work,” Koboi said. “Today, Harare has shown us what is possible when we invest in our young people.”
The Regional IP Club Competition is an ARIPO initiative implemented in collaboration with WIPO, with support from South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism through the WIPO Korea Funds-in-Trust.
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