How I began Prosthesis Business.

My name is John Amanam, also known as “Immortal”. I grew up in Calabar, but from Akwa Ibom State. I studied Fine and Industrial Arts in the University of Uyo, Nigeria, and have great passion for sculpture. Howbeit, by divine providence, I have found a niche of “Prosthesis” in art as a primary focus in recent time because of a major set back that would have destroyed my psyche and self-esteem.

LBC Crew: What is your motivation for Prosthesis: The Production of Human Parts artificially by way of art work?

Guest Artist: I have a very handsome younger brother who has lived with me. His association with me has always been such a warm and homely one. I love him passionately and desire success for him. At some point in life, he had a serious accident that took his some of his fingers. So this affected his emotion, and self esteem and by way of extension affected me as well. Being someone who is dear to me, I couldn’t stand the sight, let alone bear the fact that he could no longer come out in the public.

This led me to embark on series of personal research on providing alternative fingers that will cure this trauma for my younger brother. There was a time I had to borrow to support this pursuit. Good enough, this pursuit paid off as I was able to produce an alternative for him, which matches his complexion, and size of the rest of the fingers. So this brought great relief to me and cured the emotional trauma this accident had caused us.

This success made me saw business opportunities in this venture and how I can bring solutions to others within Nigeria and beyond who are suffering from the same fate. Most time, I visited the hospitals to test run some of my products, though had some challenge of acceptance and patronage locally. I remember one of the days, I was arrested by the police for being in possession of human parts. After a while, I was able to clear myself to be released.