CNN contacts Oprah on behalf of Mo Abudu after daily fax messages for the past eight years have been ignored.

How 'Africa's Oprah' conquered a continent….
(CNN) – Oprah, if you're reading this, for goodness
sake return this woman's calls. Ask your
assistants if there's a box of yellowing fax
messages lying around somewhere in Harpo
Studios — she sent you one daily for a while.
Track down the ton of letters asking — pleading —
for your help starting a Winfrey-style talk show in
Africa. Because this isn't just another eager fan.
Her name is Mosunmola Abudu, and in the last
eight years she's done it — and then some.
With no TV experience whatsoever, Abudu has
become the "Oprah of Africa" — it's impossible not
to read an interview with the glamorous 49-year-
old without the moniker cropping up. And with good
reason.
Breezing into CNN's London studios, electric blue
dress clinging to her slim figure, glossy pink eye
shadow and lipstick to match, Abudu is in her
element, the sound bites coming thick and fast.
And why wouldn't the mother-of-two be
comfortable in front of the camera? This is the face
of "Moments with Mo," the hugely successful talk
show Abudu founded in 2006, attracting such high
profile guests as Hillary Clinton and IMF chief
Christine Lagarde.
The manicured Mo and her guests lounge in plush
apartments, chat over coffee, contemplate tasteful
visual cues. Africa's first syndicated talk show
was so slick that people initially questioned
whether it could actually have been created in
Nigeria.
Mo Abudu has built a media empire — without any
training.
Abudu assured them it was. There was more to
come. Nine months ago she started Ebony Life
TV – Africa's first global black entertainment
network. Oprah who?
"When I started my journey into television, there
was nothing that I didn't try, to reach this woman,"
says Abudu about her early attempts to contact
Ms Winfrey.
"We sat for days on end, would send daily faxes,
would send weekly faxes. At some point, when we
didn't get a response, we realized that Oprah
wasn't going to save us, she wasn't there to help
us to get this talk show of Africa started. And then I
just basically got out there and said 'let's just do
the very best that we can.'"
Mo's big moment
Winfrey or not, in less than a decade Abudu has
built a TV network creating 1,000 hours of
programming yearly. And there are plans to make
even more channels — all under the Ebony Life
banner.
"At some point, when we didn't get a response, we
realized that Oprah wasn't going to save us
Mo Abudu"
But what makes Abudu's story remarkable is not
that she conquered African TV — but that she did it
without any prior media experience.
"I went on a training course for learning how to
present, went back and said: 'Here I am and I want
to produce my own talk show!'" said the British-
born entrepreneur.
"Of course, there were many knock backs along
the way, many people telling me 'you can't do
these things.' But I think what's important in life is
that you believe in yourself and the things you can
do."
Before she was the queen of African chat shows,
Abudu was a head of human resources at oil
giant ExxonMobil for a decade. Then there's
the consultancy firm she set up, the executive-
training center she developed, and the charity she
founded.
The 'other' Africa
So where did this drive to be on TV come from?
Abudu puts it down to a "deep-seated passion to
tell Africa's story." Even if that meant standing in
the middle of London with a microphone.
"A couple of years ago I stood there with a
microphone, and just randomly stopped people in
the street," explained Abudu. "I said: 'When you
hear the word Africa, what comes to mind?'"
"I heard 'starving children, poverty, HIV, Mugabe.' I
heard 'babies with flies on their faces.' And my
next question was: 'Why do you think this of
Africa?' And the response was: 'It's what I read in
the newspapers, it's what I see on television.'
Because that's the popular notion of Africa."
Not if Abudu has anything to do with it. Her show
celebrates a very different continent, one brimming
with entrepreneurs, academics, and artists, all
taking their place on her coveted couch.
"It's glossy, it's got razzmatazz," she says about
her network's distinctive style.
"It shows that there's a new generation of Africans
out there that want this content they can identify
with, that speaks to them."
Dream big
I think what's important in life is that you believe in
yourself and the things you can do
Mo Abudu
Born in London, Abudu spent her early years
between the UK and Africa. On holidays she would
visit her grandparents' cocoa farm, and
remembers them spreading out beans to dry in the
Nigerian sun.
Growing up in 1960s Britain was tough for one of
only three black children in her school. She
was asked questions like: "Do you guys live in
tress? Do you dance around fires? What do you
eat for breakfast?"
When she was 11 years old, Abudu's father died,
and her 73-year-old mother still remains a huge
source of strength and inspiration.
"She is very prayerful woman. I am very prayerful
woman. So I find that through working hard and
praying hard a lot of things just get done," she
said.
It seems the 'Oprah of Africa' doesn't need Ms
Winfrey after all.