"My Brother's Accident Led Me to this Invention": Man Creates Hyper-Realistic Prosthesis for Nigerians
- Circumstances led a Nigerian man to invent a product that is giving confidence and hope to people
- For John Amanam, he had always loved arts, and venturing into prosthesis was primarily a service to humanity
- His determination and useful invention has led to several awards and has earned him recognition all over the world
Before his younger brother's accident in 2018, John Amanam had never thought about creating a black prosthesis.
Circumstances can be a fertile ground for invention and that was the case of Amanam, the CEO of Immortal Cosmetic Art, an indigenous company producing black skin hyper-realistic flesh covers.
Source: Original
In a conversation with Legit.ng, Amanam said:
"After my brother's accident which claimed some of his fingers, my family tried purchasing prosthesis from outside the continent at the time since prosthesis was mainly imported from outside the continent."
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Those that were imported were also in white-skinned flesh cover and there was no way it would fit a black man with dark skin.
In his words:
"This motivated me to go into research. After several failed attempts, because I had no coach or article to put me through, I finally had a breakthrough which led me to the limelight."
A graduate of the University of Uyo from the Department of Fine Art in 2014, Amanam grew up surrounded by his father's artworks.
He told Legit.ng:
"I grew up with the passion of making great art and had always assured my dad who also is an artist that I will break records someday. Actually, my parents didn't want me to study art but I insisted. After two years in the department of philosophy, I rewrote Jamb to study Fine and Industrial Art at UniUyo."
Black prosthesis breakthrough
Amanam's first successful attempt at creating a hyper-realistic flesh cover was in 2018. He revealed that the feeling was not entirely euphoric.
He said:
"My first successful prosthesis came with a mixed feeling of surprise, and excitement. I spent the night just admiring a thumb I had made. It was so real that some of my friends began to suspect I had gone into some form of ritual."
While Amanam believed that there is a constant demand for prostheses in Nigeria, he said it does not come without a few challenges. Industrializing the process and scaling up has been a tall order:
While speaking to Legit.ng, he said:
"Challenges are inevitable and constant. We want to be able to industrialize our process and scale up our production so as to reach out to other African countries who need our help as well."
There are several ways of improving the production of prostheses in Nigeria and John also shared his thoughts with Legit.ng. Building capacity is central to that, he summarized.
In his words:
"We want the government to invest in our company so we can train more people, create job opportunities and also equip our company with machines and facilities that would meet up with world standards."
Driven by service to humanity, Amanam's final words go to younger Nigeria who is just as thrilled to venture into the business of creating black prostheses.
He advised:
"Young people who want to venture into the design of flesh covers should know it isn't all about the money. It's a service to humanity. Young people in general should be innovative and inventive."
A determined physically challenged boy learns to walk with prosthetics
Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that a young boy's determination to walk against all odds has made him a viral sensation on TikTok.
The physically challenged boy was seen in a video posted on the platform by @klaytonnojoza.
The video showed that the boy had no legs. He was seen walking with prosthetic legs, and it appears he was still learning to be stable with them.
Source: Legit.ng
