Going by the past and present, basically, in terms of people's careers and company's products, i think there has been a lot of success (perhaps not outstanding) in trying to imitate others, like the famous techno products and other chinese products (mostly tech and household/domestic ones) making waves in the targeted markets, although it is quite obvious that they imitated nokia and other giant firms/companies, but they have succeeded in not only having large market shares in under-developed countries but also developing countries.

Also, careerwise, some individuals are making it by imitation, while young and inexperienced guys look up to achieved guys, always wanting to be like them, we also have upcoming artists acting like and imitating established artists, and it is evident that there has always been an achievement of purpose.

But with all these, there has still been inferences made in Africa esp. in Nigeria that imitation is not good, this is evident in the attitude of people to products of it, especially when it is an indigene that is trying to come out with something tangible through imitation. Please why is it that some still regard imitation as something inappropriate and also since imitation has been part of labelled strategies to develop a nation technologically and in other aspects too, then why the discouragement?

Imitation is not bad. Having said that, imitation without jara is bad. Lets assume Nokia imitated Samsung without adding features to entice people, and Chinese phones also imitated Nokia without adding the "TV" to it. Then the imitation is futile. Infact nobody would buy both products (Nokia and Chinko).But imitation in a bid to improve on whats already done is always a welcome development.
Humanbeings particularly tend to imitate another person who is in tune with their likes, dreams and goals. Or people who have already "arrived". One key thing is to know thyself before you imitate somebody else because we are all unique. This is where mentorship comes in.
Anyways, imitation is very good if its bottomline is to achieve our goals without forgetting "our own make-up".
Frawzey.

ayox2003: Imitation is not bad. Having said that, imitation without jara is bad. Lets assume Nokia imitated Samsung without adding features to entice people, and Chinese phones also imitated Nokia without adding the "TV" to it. Then the imitation is futile. Infact nobody would buy both products (Nokia and Chinko).But imitation in a bid to improve on whats already done is always a welcome development.
Humanbeings particularly tend to imitate another person who is in tune with their likes, dreams and goals. Or people who have already "arrived". One key thing is to know thyself before you imitate somebody else because we are all unique. This is where mentorship comes in.
Anyways, imitation is very good if its bottomline is to achieve our goals without forgetting "our own make-up".
Frawzey.

Nice one bros, esp. the highlighted.

nitrogen:
Nice one bros, esp. the highlighted.

We have not been seeing you on the BOM thread lately, why?

^^^ bros, bom don zap me na. Last week bahd. So i decided to lay low and learn first before i resume back.

ayox2003: Imitation is not bad. Having said that, imitation without jara is bad. Lets assume Nokia imitated Samsung without adding features to entice people, and Chinese phones also imitated Nokia without adding the "TV" to it. Then the imitation is futile. Infact nobody would buy both products (Nokia and Chinko).But imitation in a bid to improve on whats already done is always a welcome development.
Humanbeings particularly tend to imitate another person who is in tune with their likes, dreams and goals. Or people who have already "arrived". One key thing is to know thyself before you imitate somebody else because we are all unique. This is where mentorship comes in.
Anyways, imitation is very good if its bottomline is to achieve our goals without forgetting "our own make-up".
Frawzey.

Nitrogen, good question.

Ayo, I agree with the highlighted. In fact, in research, that is exactly what we look out for in order to ascertain the originality of a researcher. You may not start something new, but please add jara (1) to any existing idea you are trying to modify. This is where many people and nations fall short.

T22

(1) ayox2003

@OP,

Nothing wrong with imitation. In fact, that is the irony we face as Africans. We have been brainwashed by Western propaganda.
An average educated African, most especially the Africans who live and work/study in the West, align themselves automatically to Western ideology,i.e. intellectual property, etc. Unfortunately, that has kept us all in perpetual servitude. Even when we do originate something, we run to Oyinbos to validate it. If they say it's not good enough, we kick it aside.

If Huawei didn't steal Cisco's source code, would that company be what it is today, employing hundreds of thousands of people all over the world? But of course, according to Western standards, that is theft of IP. In the 50s, 60s, and 70s, Japan tried to copy Western electronics products, and turned out pretty poor stuff. Today they're the world leaders in electronics innovation. Likewise India with software, and China with manufacturing.

Truth of the matter is, Africans have to steal or borrow ideas and concepts from other parts of the world to solve their problems. Cos nobody is gonna give us anything. Even when we pay for it, we never get the real thing.

AjanleKoko: @OP,

Nothing wrong with imitation. In fact, that is the irony we face as Africans. We have been brainwashed by Western propaganda.
An average educated African, most especially the Africans who live and work/study in the West, align themselves automatically to Western ideology,i.e. intellectual property, etc. Unfortunately, that has kept us all in perpetual servitude. Even when we do originate something, we run to Oyinbos to validate it. If they say it's not good enough, we kick it aside.

If Huawei didn't steal Cisco's source code, would that company be what it is today, employing hundreds of thousands of people all over the world? But of course, according to Western standards, that is theft of IP. In the 50s, 60s, and 70s, Japan tried to copy Western electronics products, and turned out pretty poor stuff. Today they're the world leaders in electronics innovation. Likewise India with software, and China with manufacturing.

Truth of the matter is, Africans have to steal or borrow ideas and concepts from other parts of the world to solve their problems. Cos nobody is gonna give us anything. Even when we pay for it, we never get the real thing.

First we have to find what makes us our ideas noble even if it is adding something to an already existing invention as well as understanding the importance of standards. If we don't do this, we will not earn the respect of the world. All the countries you named above have something they can call their own. You can imitate both in terms of the product and processes.

yemmy_ma:

First we have to find what makes us our ideas noble even if it is adding something to an already existing invention as well as understanding the importance of standards. If we don't do this, we will not earn the respect of the world. All the countries you named above have something they can call their own. You can imitate both in terms of the product and processes.

Bros,
I can't help but say, you proved me right. We have indeed been schooled in the Western ideologies.
Is it the respect of the world that's important at this point, or our own survival as Africans?
And the whole idea of 'nobility' is at best idealistic.

Africans have no need to 'invent' anything at this stage, or even compete in any 'global innovation competition'. We need to start from solving Africa's fundamental problems. Starting from food, shelter, clothing, till we move up the ladder, and arrive at self-actualization. I think I already stated this in another thread; I don't believe intellectual property is really relevant for Africa at this stage. If I introduce a concept into the market, the more people try to duplicate it, the better. Just look at packaged 'pure water'. Imagine if only one person in Nigeria had the rights to produce pure water. It would probably cost one hundred naira.

ayox2003: Imitation is not bad. Having said that, imitation without jara is bad. Lets assume Nokia imitated Samsung without adding features to entice people, and Chinese phones also imitated Nokia without adding the "TV" to it. Then the imitation is futile. Infact nobody would buy both products (Nokia and Chinko).But imitation in a bid to improve on whats already done is always a welcome development.
Humanbeings particularly tend to imitate another person who is in tune with their likes, dreams and goals. Or people who have already "arrived". One key thing is to know thyself before you imitate somebody else because we are all unique. This is where mentorship comes in.
Anyways, imitation is very good if its bottomline is to achieve our goals without forgetting "our own make-up".
Frawzey.

Woooord!!!

Intellectual property/brain child monopolises the market, and this is bad for the economy, but if it is annihilated, what then happens to innovation? Individuals wouldnt want to innovate any longer, they would prefer the imitation route which will also affect the economy.
It is necessary to consider that.

But since A.J has said we dont need innovations right now, that means we have to neglect the adverse effect (of not innovating) and go the imitation route.

nitrogen: Intellectual property/brain child monopolises the market, and this is bad for the economy, but if it is annihilated, what then happens to innovation? Individuals wouldnt want to innovate any longer, they would prefer the imitation route which will also affect the economy.
It is necessary to consider that.

But since A.J has said we dont need innovations right now, that means we have to neglect the adverse effect (of not innovating) and go the imitation route.

What, in your view, can be regarded as an 'innovation'?
iPod/iPhone? Or 'pure water'?
I'm sure I have asked this question on NL prior to now.

AjanleKoko:

What, in your view, can be regarded as an 'innovation'?
iPod/iPhone? Or 'pure water'?
I'm sure I have asked this question on NL prior to now.

Na And suppose dey there.

Phones and Palitos brought about Iphone/Ipod; Ice water(those 1 naira nylon) brought about pure water. No difference at all.

They upgraded both of them.


Frawzey.

AjanleKoko:

What, in your view, can be regarded as an 'innovation'?
iPod/iPhone? Or 'pure water'?
I'm sure I have asked this question on NL prior to now.

Both, cos they are advanced compared to their previous 'versions'.

AjanleKoko:

Bros,
I can't help but say, you proved me right. We have indeed been schooled in the Western ideologies.
Is it the respect of the world that's important at this point, or our own survival as Africans?
And the whole idea of 'nobility' is at best idealistic.

Africans have no need to 'invent' anything at this stage, or even compete in any 'global innovation competition'. We need to start from solving Africa's fundamental problems. Starting from food, shelter, clothing, till we move up the ladder, and arrive at self-actualization. I think I already stated this in another thread; I don't believe intellectual property is really relevant for Africa at this stage. If I introduce a concept into the market, the more people try to duplicate it, the better. Just look at packaged 'pure water'. Imagine if only one person in Nigeria had the rights to produce pure water. It would probably cost one hundred naira.

I proved you right not in terms of imitation in Nigeria but how we can be export relevant to the world. That was the basis of my first comment. If we start making things in Nigeria, who does not know we are just imitating what is already in existence. But sadly, we still won't get it right in a lot of ways talk about the packaging, function, standard and so on.

Let me use China for instance. The West will always see China as an imitation successful country. But the plain truth is that they can always hold their own when it comes to innovation. Take the high speed rail as a case. The evolution of rail (not even high speed) cannot be traced to China but in the world today China is the only country that has a train running 431km/h. That is what i meant earlier. This is also now a challenge to the West that they can think on their own.

yemmy_ma:

I proved you right not in terms of imitation in Nigeria but how we can be export relevant to the world. That was the basis of my first comment. If we start making things in Nigeria, who does not know we are just imitating what is already in existence. But sadly, we still won't get it right in a lot of ways talk about the packaging, function, standard and so on.

Let me use China for instance. The West will always see China as an imitation successful country. But the plain truth is that they can always hold their own when it comes to innovation. Take the high speed rail as a case. The evolution of rail (not even high speed) cannot be traced to China but in the world today China is the only country that has a train running 431km/h. That is what i meant earlier. This is also now a challenge to the West that they can think on their own.

I see your point. However, we need to conquer our market first, rather than what we have in the current paradigm.
Let's innovate for local growth first, and we can export our models to other African nations. Africa, and not the West, should be our focus.

You ever heard of Rocket Internet Gmbh? They have been successful by cloning existing business models. All we need to do at this time, in Nigeria, is clone. When we have successfully mastered cloning, we can then move to innovation.

AjanleKoko:

I see your point. However, we need to conquer our market first, rather than what we have in the current paradigm.
Let's innovate for local growth first, and we can export our models to other African nations. Africa, and not the West, should be our focus.

You ever heard of Rocket Internet Gmbh? They have been successful by cloning existing business models. All we need to do at this time, in Nigeria, is clone. When we have successfully mastered cloning, we can then move to innovation.

end of

that is the idea behind the nano - it caters directly to an indian issue