EbonyLife TV – Africa’s first global black entertainment and lifestyle network – had
its official southern African launch on 6 November 2014, at the Sandton Convention
Centre in Johannesburg.
Offering over 1 000 hours of original African programming across a variety of
genres, EbonyLife TV has grown to become a prominent platform for premium
entertainment with Afro-centric perspectives.
The makings
Attending the southern African launch was CEO and founder of the network, Mo
Abudu. A true powerhouse, Abudu grew up in England, in a small town called
Tunbridge Wells in Kent. “I dealt with many challenges growing up as a black
female in the UK. There were literally just a handful of black people in the town that
I lived in.’
When Abudu was 16-years-old, a new television series – Fame – grabbed her
attention, not only for its strong narrative, but because it had numerous African-
American performers in it. “I remember it giving me such a sense of confidence to
see something on TV that had a number of black characters that were not being
stereotyped as criminals or prostitutes.’
“I think since then, it has been buried in my subconscious that it is important to
make content that speaks to me and to people like me,’ Abudu explains.
After having an extremely successful career as head of human resources for a large
oil company, starting and running her own recruitment consultancy firm (which still
runs today) and dabbling in the hotel business, in 2006 Abudu decided it was time to
get acquainted with the media business. “I’d done all these amazing things and then
I decided I want to do a talk show called Moments with Mo,’ she comments.
“People were baffled as to where this was coming from but it was about building a
platform, and using that platform to tell African stories.’
Three rejected pilots later, M-Net agreed to license the talk show but could not
commission it, leaving Abudu to source funding on her own. Steadfast in her belief
that “quality African homegrown programming’ needed a platform, Abudu secured
advertisers and sponsors and turned Moments with Mo into a success.
A few years after the talk show gathered some momentum, she returned to DStv
with the idea for a channel. In 2012, four years after first approaching the pay-tv
operator, a channel agreement for EbonyLife TV was signed with MultiChoice Africa.
“We had nothing, we had nothing but ideas,’ Abudu comments, “it’s been a journey
and a half, but look what we have accomplished.’
EbonyLife TV is now home to 100 percent African content, 80 to 90 percent of which
is made by the network and the rest is licensed content. “We are broadcasting in all
of sub-Saharan Africa, in just a year and a half,’ Abudu beams.
An African first
In a first for the African continent, Disney and EbonyLife TV have partnered to make
Desperate Housewives Africa, taking this all-American story and localising it. Airing
in February 2015, the series has an authentic African cast. “Everything that
happened in the original series will still happen but it’s how it happens that
changes,’ Abudu explains. “We have our own traditions, our own cultures, our own
values. It’s important to tell these stories, the world needs to realise that there are
African stories that need to be told.’
With plans to expand into the Caribbean, Canada and Australia in the near future,
EbonyLife TV is taking Africa’s story to the world. “Even if it’s one man in those
communities, he must have something that is of reference to him, that is the goal,’
Abudu concludes.
