By Mwaba Phiri
I have to strongly differ with Dr Charles Ngoma’s assertion that imitation may be the shortest route to Zambia’s prosperity. To remarkably imitate an original requires a lot of work in itself, so there goes bust Dr Ngoma’s shortcut. The simple fact is that prosperity has to be toiled for. Half a century into independence, Africa has nothing to show for its imitations of the Western World nor of the Eastern world for that matter. We have been imitating our colonizers for hundreds of years and that has led us to where we are now; a begging under developed continent that always awaits hand-outs in the shape of famine relief, development aid, Structural adjustment programmes, professional expertise, etc. By now we should know that imitating a progressive person doesn’t make you progress.
Why it is impossible to progress via imitation is that by its nature imitation is superficial. You may pretend to be someone else but sooner or later your true self will want to come out and disturb the carbon copy. Thus we may pretend to be European by giving ourselves English names but that does not turn Michael Sata or Rupiah Banda into Winston Churchill. We may walk the dusty streets of Lusaka townships in Western styled suits but that doesn’t turn Kalingalinga into Windsor Castle. To be great we have to believe we are great the way we are and then improve upon that. As it is we want to be great the way the British are, the way the Americans are[pullquote].There is an overwhelming mindset that Western technology is difficult to grasp. This comes out of the inferiority complex handed down by colonialism that whites are superior. At the same time there is a belief that to be modern is to be Western; nothing else.( which belief is false). Therefore, those wanting to take a shortcut to being modern, look for simpler Western artefacts and mannerisms to imitate.[/pullquote]
What dictates progress is normally innovation. You can observe an act, scientific or social, and adapt it to suit your environment. Thus when the Japanese copied Western technology and subsequently bought the licences to now make cars like Toyota, they learnt the technology and with a few tweaks here and there they then made it their own. Japan had confronted modern Western technology in the early 1800s. Terrified by the war between China and Britain in the early 1830s the Japanese built western style guns to protect themselves. They did this without any help from foreigners. Once they had mastered how to build it the technology became theirs.
Once you possess this technology you will be able to repair it when it breaks down. If you are merely assembling Fiat cars in Livingstone you are unlikely to progress to thinking about how to avoid the snapping of the front wheel axle; a common fault among Zambian assembled Fiats. The point I am making here is that we never attempt to own the technology that we admire and import because we have an inferiority complex that we can never master it. Its not uncommon for African firms to ask for engineers from abroad when an imported machine breaks down.
Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, recites an instance when he went to a Kampala hospital and found hundreds of broken down trolleys in the backyard. Talking to staff he was told that the axes on the wheels were snapping and there was noone to repair these since they were made in England. The hospital administration was, in typical African style, now waiting for the government to order new trolleys from Europe. Museveni briefly scrutinised the broken down trolleys and realised that replacement wheels could easily be made in Kampala. He ordered that these trolleys be repaired locally and lo and behold! The hospital was again moving.
This shows the lack of innovation on the continent. When a Western made machine breaks down, Africans start waiting for another one to come from wherever they bought (begged for) the original. There is an overwhelming mindset that Western technology is difficult to grasp. This comes out of the inferiority complex handed down by colonialism that whites are superior. At the same time there is a belief that to be modern is to be Western; nothing else.( which belief is false). Therefore, those wanting to take a shortcut to being modern, look for simpler Western artefacts and mannerisms to imitate. Thus knowing just how difficult it is to emulate Rocket Science, we are very inclined to copying easy stuff such as Western behaviour, Western cosmetics, dress, names, accents, religion, bring it on; I mean everything Western by the truckload.
Humans by nature copy each other for progress’s sake but one should know what to copy and how to copy it. Humans need to copy what is progressive and leave out the inapposite and retrogressive elements. How do we do this? This is where political leadership steps in. It normally has the wherewithal to ideologically influence a whole nation, more so if it is a dictatorship as we had in the first 35 years of African independence. It is the political leadership that introduces education curricula to erase inferiority complexes and neo-colonial mindsets among its youth and general populace. This is quite difficult if the president is busy imitating American accents and fashions.
Dr Ngoma fails to inform his readership on the shortcomings of imitation. The simplistic manner in which he cites various historical imitations doesn’t help the Zambian, rather it runs the risk of reducing him to a proud follow fashion monkey. This perpetuates the inferiority complex because imitation has a side effect. It leaves upon the imitator an inferiority complex coming from the fact that he knows he is pretending to be of a perceived superior grouping. In other words imitation kills self-pride. People without self-pride will not progress. Just look at the great nations we have presently and tell me which one got where they are without self pride. The answer is none.
If Dr Ngoma describes imitation as an “insatiable appetite for the latest” we have a different argument there. The latest does not have to be what the colonial master produces. You can make your own latest. However when we have been brought up to think everything from the colonizer is what is modern (latest) and everything indigenous is archaic, it is difficult to carry our true selves into the modern world. With the kind of innovation (and self-pride) I have cited from the Japanese, we can go forward without degrading and losing ourselves.
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Good piece but Rupiah is not an English Name whilst Micheal is..but good and well thought out…infact am not sure why Ngoma thinks Western is best really, we have within us some good things we have never exploited such as discplining of children, which virtually doesnt exist in the West, respect for elders and the list is long…..
I disagree with this. China got to where it is in Technology by an efficient, well coordinated reverse engineering strategy. Now that it is at par with the West, it has entered the inovation stage. Zambia, Africa needs to learn how to, e.g. take apart a new mobile phone and have copies on mass production in six months. You cannot inovate from without.
GUN TECHNOLOGY WAS ALSO IMITATED BY WESTERNERS FROM CHINA WHO HAD INVENTED GUNPOWDER. WESTERNERS. THERE’S NO NEED TO RE-INVENT THE WHEEL.
There is about a Russian plane that crushed landed on chinese soil and was stripped of all its engineering parts well before the emergency services arrived. Few years later, so the story goes, China announced production of a similar design plane! As far catching up quickly on technology, no strategy can surpass Reverse Engineering. One of first steps: more emphasis on math and science in schools. Another, find a way of bringing the manufacturing here. Challenge: how to develop skilled but cheap labour?
I did not read Ngoma`s article —–
It is insane for one to suggest that imitation can lead to prosperity. There are only three factors that drive meaningful development– Innovation!Innovation! Innovation. No country has ever achieved meaningful development without innovation. And that is why innovation is preamble in the American constitution. And Africa will continue to lag behind becoz of lack of emphasis on innovation in workplaces, schools, colleges and universities. Look at how Zambia is struggling to fix simple challenges like gabbage collection, rampant road traffic accidents, economic diversification— the reason is ; innovation capability is very weak in most institutions and sectors. Every year African countries are rated poor , poorin the Global Competitive Ratings.
Good piece. We have the brains and yet do not want to use them. Oh Africa we cannot even make our own guns which we mercilessly use to kill ourselves. Its ideas that create the world we live in but alas Africas are too busy trying to be West instead sitting down to engage in constructive thinking that can enable us become innovate. Good article.
chaps dont dream see what the western take from africa annd then turn what is taken from here into new technology.
The problem with you, Mwaba Phiri, is that, like a lot of Zambians you don’t bother trying to understand what is being written about. Did you pass “Comprehension” in your English Language classes at school?? You are “imitating” how to read. Just read again Ngoma’s article and you may note in his last paragraph how how he states that innovation mutates from imitation. Learn to comprehend before dashing for the Comment button. Ngoma’s article is about copying good behaviour for starters; it is not about how to develop a country or even prosper. Rather it is about how to create a self-respecting, self-aware society that can just about begin to match other successful societies.
if China did it, why cant Zambia also did it?
Can the writer of this article tell me what is wrong with imitating the Westerners on time-keeping?
This Mwaba guy should write his own article besides trying to tear down the brilliant article written by Ngoma. As someone has pointed out, he most probably did not read the article at all, but went straight for the jugular. Children learn by imitating adults and soon afterwards they innovate. This is well known already except to of course people like Mwaba. We once had good education in Zambia but it is clear now that people can not even understand a newspaper article.
in my view the Dr didnt elaborate more on his immitation idea. im a strong believer in innovation. if we can copy and be innovative then it will be a plus. with the number of TV and Radio stations we have, we must educate the masses through these mediums. we must produce documentaries to educate our people. only a handful of us read these blogs online. Radio and tv have mass following. we can be innovate if we use these resources to educate and inform and even market ideas the Dr and Mwaba Phiri have put across.
on the gabbage issue, tell me a person in zambia who does not know about recycling. entreprenuers can be innovative by finding ways to collect, recycle and make a profit, unless we are waiting for Gov funding which will not come anytime soon. the problem is we are not innovative enough hence we cant copy well.
Suggestion, sanitize your thinking by dropping “imitation” (dull, boring, slavish copying,etc) and adopt “Reverse Engineering” (quick, intelligent avoidance of reinventing the proverbial wheel).
The first time I commented I had not read Mwaba’s article. After reading it, I find his arguments shallow, sorry but it falls short of Dr Ngoma’s reasoning. I totally agree with @Maria’s comments. You know what, we spend half our time trying to tear down other people’s ideas in Zambia. I have found this with our musicians. One composes an original song, then one comes with a funny so-called reply. What for if one my ask? Mwaba should have built on Dr. Ngoma’s thought process instead of arguing with him. I found Dr. Ngoma’s thinking quite original and needing encouragement and not tearing down. I still repeat my question, is there anything wrong with imitating the Westerners on time-keeping or is late-coming part of our ‘innovating’? Cont’d
some commentators on Dr. Ngoma’s article suggested benchmarking. Great! That is the way to go as long as a people we go forward. It is still a way of imitating and then innovating. Cheers all.
Both Dr. Ngoma and the author of this article are correct except that the perspective Mwaba has chosen to mislead himself in some instances. What Dr. Ngoma was merely trying to say was that we can imitate but whatever we imitate sah to be perfected and should be for the good of society. In other words, we should not just imitate a concept but even its eventual artifact for the good of society. E.g. havent we imitated road construction yet we end up with poor quality? In Dr. Ngoma’s assertion it has to be a good raod not the one made with hoes.
chizuungu!!!!!!! English!!!! sebaana wikute. please #9 why cant Zambia aslo did it
Dr Ngoma’s article was spot one! I can’t add or subtract anything, but this one is a misplaced imitation. I used to know Dr Ngoma from way back……..a very brilliant fellow.
Like Bill Clinton said”, science should be the base of national development. Factories will be able to employ all including idolised lawyers and economists- the economic base for this country, maybe because they are in the fore front when companies are liquidated.
Someone educate me on this one. Why is it that since independence, Zambia has had alot of varsity graduates in many fields and yet we are still backwards. Where are the innovations? Where is creativity? Do we still have that mind that once one graduates from a higher school of learning, automatically one goes for job hunting?
@ Zosa The environment in Zed has not been conducive for many potentially innovative young minds to flourish. Lack of support, jealousy and other spanners have made it difficult for this to happen. If you look at the history of technology, this is not unique to Zambia alone. Many builders of technical systems have had to find opportunity in other lands and have received recognition and respect elsewhere. The environment in Zed respects thugs that steal from others. Putting innovators aside, take the teaching profession for instance, a teacher can not support herself/himself on the salary alone and has to do other things. Would you expect excellency from this professional. I think not. Same applies to other professions like doctors and other users of technology.
@ Judas; what do you think should be done to motivate our qualified personnel in Zambia? You talk about a conducive enviroment, how can we make it conducive or do you mean all these years haven’t given us enough lessons or we are simply dull or ba mselera ukwakaba looking for greener pastures and developing other countries instead of our mother Zambia? (sorry for my bemba I don’t eat monkey meat)
@ Zosa You do not seem to understand what I was suggesting. The problem has nothing to do with these professionals. If a doctor has to see his patients dying because there are no antibiotics and other easily procured materials, do you think anything can be done to motivate him? Why should you say he has failed when he goes to work in Cape Town, where the environment is conducive for practicing his profession and not facilitating death? Please do not blame the many well qualified Zambians and vote wisely in the next electrons. Good luck
Is the author suggesting a re-enactment of an industrial revolution in Zambia akin to Europe’s 19th century industrial revolution? How absurd! The industrial revolution only took place in Europe and yet there is no single nation on earth that has not shared a bite of that simply by copying. By its nature, innovation is slow. It took thousands of years for Europe to get to the industrial revolution. Zambia doesn’t need to go back to the stone age or Ingombe Ilede’s iron age in order to innovate. We can copy what has already been done by someone else and move on from there. Everybody does that. You don’t have to re-invent your version of Microsoft Windows in order to make a computer! Look at what is happening with Apple right now! Mwaba Phiri your thinking is archaic!
Contrary to the author’s view, countries that immitate prosper. Kenya and Ethiopia are prospering in the aviation industry. Nigeria and South Africa are prospering in the entertainment industry. Korea and Japan are prospering in the automobile industry and China and India are prospering in almost everything else, all because they are able to immitate and copy. A child learns to walk by immitation and so can we.
Mwaba. We have to accept that English is part of Zambia. Whether you like it or not, English is one of the reasons Zambians are united. So to say that having an English name amounts to “pretending to be European” is an insult to me and many other Zambians. English is as much a Zambian language as Tonga or Bemba. Your great great great grandfather came from a Luba Lunda tribe, your ancestors were not Bemba. These native Zambian languages that we speak today were not around just 200 years ago. Read Zambian history.
On the edge of a £1 GBP coin are engraved the words ‘Standing on the shoulders of giants.’ This is a quotation of one famous Royal mint employee Sir Isaac Newton. To imitate is to stand on the shoulders of others, while to innovate is to bring something new (ex nihilo). Only God innovates, everyone imitates and those who imitate well modify to make better. Hitler’s Germany could not have been defeated hadn’t the allies examined the aircraft, tanks and weaponry and imitated with modifications or built defenses against them after checking out weaknesses. I agree with Dr Ngoma, there is nothing new under the sun. We have to copy and adjust.
Saint ask yourself why have you seen this kind of inspiring inscrIption only on the British coin? Cannt Africans insppire you? it is because the British want to exalt their own! You will probably not see it on an African coin or literature because you have been conditioned not to see anything progressive iin African heritage or culture Mwaba Phiri is talking about the future being in finding solutions in Africa not in Europe
27.1, you have totally by-passed the point that Saint was trying to highlight. You’re another one that failed comprehension at school. Attitudes like yours are destructive and ultimately futile. Western attitudes are already heavily ingrained in us. We have take what we have and grow from there. 27.1, you come across as a blind follower.
If people can`t see anything wrong in immitations, it only shows how much work Zambia has—- to change the mindset of people. I guess it should be a basic and simple thing for one to understand that every genuine product on the market is patented. And when you immitate a patented product, you are actually commiting a crime— that can send you to prison. Ikandulwa Makandauko #25– you have got your facts wrong!!! If you check the Global Competitive Ratings Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia like other African are rated poorly becoz of weak innovation capability. The problem is that many Africans suffer from inferiority complex and think that only Westerners can innovate. Look at our universities in Zambia — we have people with many degrees in engineering but with no single patent.
Only Chongololos can attack Mwaba Phiri because he has hit them right in their coconut hearts. I think everyone criticising Mwaba Phiri has not comprehended this article. His main argument is that imitation is not a shortcut. It will take us just as long to imitate properly unless we want to imitate the surface. Mr Ikandulwa there is nothing about industrial revolution here. Its simply that To be modern is not to be Western. We need this kind of thinking in our colleges and Universities because there are millions of things stil to be inventde on earth
#27 Yambezhi actually you’re the one who is wrong.Patents have expiration dates to allow profit from inventions & recouping their investments.After that anybody is free in order to provide competition and break monopolistic exploitation of consumers.Any new advancement you make in that product you can patent-which also expires.You also confuse imitation & innovation.All cars,planes & TV’s are imitations of the original innovations with some patented improvements otherwise they would not be made everywhere.Thus kenyans,Nigerians & Ethiopians are good imitators but poor innovators.Innovation & imitation are two different things and all those new industrial powers started with imitations before moving on to innovations in parts of old products.
Im for innovation!
The author doesn’t seem to understand the definition of innovation is in the first in the first place. Museveni refurbishing rusty old trolleys is not innovation but probably just initiative…if some Uganda looked at that problem and came up with a whole different design that didn’t snap especially adapted for our hospitals then patented that design and mass produced the trolleys for export then we are talking.
Silicon Valley is a typical innovation environment which includes supportive government regulations for new firm formation, leading research universities that interact with industry, an exceptionally talented and highly mobile work force, and experienced support services in such areas as finance, law, accounting, headhunting, and marketing>>
Please excuse the typos…LT why does your website self load its really annoying!!!
CONT’D marketing, all specializing in helping new companies form and grow. Not least is a spirit of adventure and a willingness to take risks.
A child learns how to walk by imitation? No! she walks by natural instinct. She is not doing something new by walking. Innovation is doing something diferently or more easily
If i can sèe something positive in mwaba and ngoma’ s debate it is the counter offer of solutions. Despite some attempts by # 8 and 11 we dont see character assassinations in the argument but progressive propositions. Can lusaka times start exclusive intelectual debates like this where you censor out insults, character asassinations,
Enka Rasha, so you would rather wait for 20 years expiration of a patent so you can imitate– instead of innovating— wow! what sort of a company would that be? About cars — every car has its own innovative features and brand– thats what people go for. A BMW is not the same as a Honda Civic. In a modern and civilized world, you can only be called smart if you are innovative.
The smartest way to move forward is to imitate and improve on what you have imitated. The Americans did this after the second world war. The rocket science that landed them on the moon, the high tech planes including stealth bombers and cruise missiles they have developed were all copied from the Germans and then improved upon. These were not original ideas of the Americans. We all know what America is today. No single nation on earth can defeat it. I therefore agree with Dr Ngoma that first we have to imitate, because it will save us alot of time and energy. Having aquired the knowledge, expertise and confidence through imitation, we can then proceed to inovation.
I encourage blogers including Mwaba to read about the History of Hyundai on wikipedia.
I think that this article was not productive. Its main aim was to dilute the brilliant article written by Ngoma. But since Ngoma had done his homework, this attempt was futile. In future please do some research before writing your material. Perhaps now, you are waiting for another article by another author, so that you can piss on it! Find material of your own. Innovate, do not imitate!
Really r u serious or. Is this tongue in cheek? Don’t Imitate! That’s what Mwaba is saying
Dada. I totally agree with you. Even in the simplest set up as a home, smart people learn from other peoples Good and bad ideas then improve on that. Imagine if you were to go thru all the mistakes to learn and brain storm all the time of ideas from the scratch. The key thing tho is to be able to separate good and bad ideas and more importantly to trust in what ever you want to do and STOP THINKING THAT WHAT EVER THE SO CALLED WESTERN WORLD DO IS THE RIGHT THING.
NAMES IS ONE PART THAT IMITATION IS A NO NO. it is so sad that even today we can not give our kids native names. Am even more saddened when I see well educated people name their kids with the most western names ever. Macmillan Banda, etc. have you ever come a across a ‘white’ person with an african name even if they lived in africa for so many years. They can not because that is not who they are.You will never find a ‘purely western white’ mwamba mulenga. If you are reading this I beg you give your kids names as a Zambian.
Phiri Mwaba’s thinking is brilliant for Africans to go forward. If Dr Ngoma relies on imitation we will end up like we did in the 70s with people with AMBI on their faces wanting to imitate bazungu. How can I imitate a man who is skiing in Norway when I have no snow? How can I imitate a man cooking on a stove when ihave to fetch firewood first. Innovation and initiative is what I need
No need to re-invent the wheel! Copy, modify & re-export! Viola!!! Each and every successful nation has done just that!
@42 You have also failed to give yourself a Zambian name on this blog! Ding-dong!
@41 You have also failed to give yourself a Zambian name on this blog! Ding-dong! (sorry @42!)
I must say Mwaba Phiri would make a good motivational speaker for the downtrodden african youth’s mind. Africa needs this kind of thinking for progressive advances. As for the guys who feels insulted for being told he has an inferiority complex by adopting European names, you have just expressed what happened to our ancestors when they were forced/enticed/pressured to adopt these names. The Europeans insulted us Africans by giving us those names disregarding our own names in the name of civilisation. You can say English is part of our culture. That doesnt mean English culture is part of us. That is wanting to flee your real identity for a civilised one as our ancestors were led to believe. Let us unbrainwash ourselves
I really wish some of you Zambians would live in the US and try and see the people you are trying to imitate. Come live next to a KKK and tell me what humanity you will imitate there. The more we imitate the more we become puppets. People need to be proud of themselves. You dont clean garbage from your home because you want to imitate a white man. No! you clean it because you want to be healthy, period. What kind of thinking is this? Ati kupusa!
Joy #26- which Zambian history are u referring to? Only the Ngoni who did not come directly from the Luba-lunda kingdom are 200 years old in Zambia. the bemba have been in Zambia since the 15th century.
Before i comment,is Mwaba a lady or guy? U no bemba are upside down when it comes to names. Some bloggewrs are saying, its a he while others are writing she. Mwaba , WHAT ARE YOU?