Cambridge Graduate Earns First Class With A Dissertation On Nollywood Films

21 year old Precious Oyelade’s dissertation, "Changing representations of Nigerian identity: An exploration through Nollywood and its audience" - scored so highly, it will be published and contribute to discussions around black identity in Britain. She defied the statistics to graduate with a degree in politics, psychology and sociology from Cambridge.


The South Londoner, Oyelade, whose parents hail from Nigeria, was inspired by her heritage to explore a new narrative in her 10,000-word paper that later determined her grades.

“For me it was the issue of identity. I really wanted to look at how Nollywood impacts those who have grown up in the diaspora, who identify as Nigerian but still see themselves also as British and what distance exists between us and those in Nigeria in relation to film,” 

“In my study, I found that we at diaspora have the choice and an ability to decide which part of our identity we want to focus on.” The decision to write the most significant project of her academic career on Nollywood was a risk she admitted she nearly didn’t take.

People were advising me to do something that is popular within academic culture so that I could get the best supervision from someone who’s a specialist. It was a big leap of faith especially in a traditionally academic institution like Cambridge,”  - She explained. 

After receiving her result, she said she was shocked beyond words...

“Once you get past a 75 [mark] the work is regarded as publishable. I scored a 78 so my supervisor has been pushing me to get it published because it’s opening a wider narrative about the Black British experience and the fact that we’re not a homogenous group.”