Nollywood Film Industry and the African Diaspora in the UK

Welcome to the Nollywood Film Industry and the African Diaspora in the UK website

This website forms part of a year long pilot project (2006-7) designed to explore the growing international marketing and reception of the Nigerian video/VCD film industry, with particular attention to its consumption in the UK. This phenomenon is contextualised in terms of the manner in which the Nollywood industry has capitalised on alternative paths of global cultural circulation, and in terms of its place in the Nigerian socio-cultural context.

The project is coordinated by Françoise Parent-Ugochukwu (OU FELS/Ferguson Centre), Duro Oni (University of Lagos), Suman Gupta (English Department), Tope Omoniyi (Roehampton University).

One of the aims of the project is to create a multimedia archive. This will document

1. A representative selection of Nigerian videos produced so far, in English, Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa.
2. Fact sheets offering a summary of each film, with the date of production, producer and principal actors
3. Major books and articles published in various languages on the subject.

The website features various events (seminars, workshops, conferences) and links to similar events in the UK and abroad.

It will also feature a discussion forum and a number of essays and reviews by academics in charge of the project that will introduce readers to the Nigerian film industry, guide users through the conceptual framework of the project, survey the UK reception of the Nigerian video films and offer updates on publications on the subject.

Users of the website will be able to make the essays come alive by using the hyperlinks that will guide them from the essays to artefacts in the archives that will illuminate the texts in more immediate and meaningful ways. Users can also navigate the site separately by using the buttons leading to archived texts, images and sounds.

The DVD cover "Chicken Madness" is used with the gracious permission of Mr. Amazyo Uzo Philips.