A Nigeria student breaks record in Cambridge University (photo)

You may have heard or read the story of Precious Oyelade, born to Nigerian parents living in South London. Her academic research project, titled: “Changing Representations of Nigerian Identity: An Exploration Through Nollywood and Its Audience” won for the 21-year-old British-Nigerian, the best academic first degree project at Cambridge University, London.
But what you may not know is the detail of how that came to be. In a recent online chat with Education Review, Oyelade revealed how her academic research essay on popular Nollywood films like Osuofia In London and ISSAKABA (BAKASSI BOYS) helped her to win the coveted prize.
Having been to Nigeria only three times, most of the things that Oyelade, who was born and raised in London, know about the culture and tradition of her fatherland is derived from the stories that Nollywood films related in the movies she has come across.
“Osuofia in London is the film that helped me relate to other Diasporans,” she informed. “When I was growing up, Aristos and Issakaba impressed upon me. When I got to the university, I delved back into Nollywood and it was the twist at the end of a film called In The Cupboard that got me thinking about the way Nollywood has changed and the potential it had to go so much further.”
She nearly gave up the idea of doing a research on Nollywood films when she later found out that it would require more than 200 minutes of VHS to kick-start it. She needed further confirmation that this was the right topic to do a research on. That confirmation came in her second year, while she was studying The Frankfurt School and their critique of the culture industry in the United States, and how they regarded it as perpetuating capitalism and challenging no one.
“It got me thinking about the way in which the Nigerian film industry affected me as a Diasporan and wondered if the way I felt about Nollywood as a second-generation British-born Diasporan was echoed within my peers, the generation born of the economic migrants of the 90’s.”
Miss Oyelade, who later served as an intern at Actionable Knowledge Research Centre in Abuja in September 2014, knew she was taking a big risk by doing something so untraditional, by researching on a topic where relevant literature was not readily available or sufficient. But she confessed in the online interview with Education Review that she was egged on to ignore her doubts by a greater urge: her desire to propel a new and alternative narrative about the movie industry’s portrayal of Nigeria especially in the West and to establish a background for future academic forays in this area. Her words: “I wanted simply to write on my experiences as a member of the Diaspora, to contribute a narrative that is relative to many people I know but which was missing from the academia.”
At the end, assessment of her academic research by supervisors at various levels, shows she did more than impress the academia with it. She excelled and she says of the reactions that trailed her intellectual output in the academic research: “I have been bowled over by the reception here simply because it was never about the accolade; I was just completing my degree. I am hoping this knowledge that I’m espousing would prove beneficial to those producing Nollywood content in Nigeria and in the Diaspora because I am gaining more of an understanding of what they (Nigerians abroad) like to see which I believe to be important for the advancement and expansion of the industry as a whole. The celebration of the work has come from the fact that this is a narrative pertinent to a large group of people in the U.K but one that is yet to have been properly documented in academia.”
Miss Oyelade, whose father and mother hail from Oyo and Lagos states respectively, would later work closely with Mrs. Anna Bagnoli, her essay supervisor at Cambridge to surmount the challenges of finding background material for her essay. “We have a lot of freedom. So, I picked my topic and they had to find a supervisor and ensure that the department could find people adequately versed to assess it. So it was more about my supervisor helping me refine my topic and framing my research in a way the institution would be able to assess it.”
But literature on the subject matter was sparse and not easy to come by. Sourcing research materials was a challenge but she triumphed. “There was no one who was an expert in the field, so it was difficult to get direct help,” she confessed. “My supervisor and I had to make it up as we went along. Reliable literature on the subject was sparse and from the little available, I realized they didn’t look cursorily at the effects of Nollywood on the second generation Diaspora. Rather, most of them looked at the first generation that actually left Nigeria and not those of us who know Nigeria as a distant but familiar home. To surmount the challenge, I had to look around and see what had been done and find out what I could do about the history of Nollywood but I did primary research on the ground focus groups. I supplemented literature on Nollywood with literature on third and Diasporic cinema in Europe for other Diasporic groups such as Asian and Caribbean cinema and I simply looked at identity formation.”
The lady, who plans to return to Nigeria for a “longer stay”, has a mixed account to give of her impression of the Nigerian reality as compared to what Nollywood presents it as. “I think there are such range of films that did impress me and others which didn’t live up to the impressions. But at the end of the day, films are for entertainment purposes and will exaggerate and where necessary downplay particular aspects,” she lectures. For instance, she says, “never in a Nigerian film have I heard them speak of the traffic!” The other truth about the average Nigerian she was impressed by but not portrayed in Nollywood is their doggedness and sense of purposeful living. “The drive for success in whatever pursuit was evident in the people (Nigerians at home), yet there was a laid-back, easiness that I hadn’t really seen in the films before.”
She believes that Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Uzo Aduba, Chinwetel Ejiofor, Ashley Maduekwe, to name a few Nigerian-born actors who have cut their teeth in Hollywood can interact with the Nollywood industry players to make it better but the players here need to show more ambition. “I think the industry would benefit from interacting with these names but first the quality of equipment and scripts need to be improved which means raising budget. The defining feature of Nollywood is the low budgets but you can’t be asking OSCAR nominees to work for pittance (back home); their craft has to be recognized. But at the same time, there are plenty of actors with formidable talent right here in Nigeria, a lot of these actors abroad are free to choose in which of their homes (countries of origin) they cut their teeth. Nigeria has the talent, the only thing is that more time and money needs to be spent on editing and cinematography.”
With her academic essay she hopes to convince Nollywood content providers that “there are many things they could be considering which are not being considered, things that would allow Nollywood maintain its unique Nigerian comic character while staying relevant and competitive in international cinema without simply trying to emulate American culture.”
With a deep passion for Nollywood, Oyelade hopes to make her debut in the industry back home in the immediate future. “I would love to star in at least one Nollywood movie,” she said. “I tried acting on the ADC (Amateur Dramatic Club, England’s oldest university playhouse established in 1885) stage, where most of the British greats started and I did well. Ultimately, I would love to direct a Nigerian movie.