What started as a private journey for household and buddies to rejoice her milestone fiftieth birthday in Africa, changed into a chance to share a profound second of therapeutic and pleasure for Gabrielle Union. Her two-part BET particular Gabrielle Union: My Journey to 50—airing June 15, 2023—takes viewers to three African nations—Ghana, Namibia, and South Africa—as she paperwork her epic countdown to half a century of dwelling.
Along with her husband Dwyane Wade, her daughter Kaavia, her mom Theresa Union and different shut relations in tow—to not point out her celeb buddies similar to Angie Martinez and Essence Atkins—Union says that My Journey to 50 additionally serves as each a reckoning and a therapeutic.
“I used to be all the time going to movie it as a result of my mother and daughter have been going, and I knew that we have been going to have some necessary breakthroughs. I needed to have the ability to doc three totally different generations of our household in Ghana, in South Africa and Namibia,” explains The Excellent Discover star. “I simply needed to see that only for ourselves and share with our household.”
That recreation plan modified, nonetheless, when plenty of sudden yeses rolled in. “I simply did not assume individuals would be capable to actually come and simply depart their households or work,” admits Union. “The extra people who began to RSVP, I [felt] there have been much more tales than simply my private household and [that] it may very well be helpful to maybe doc it. I floated it by my man [Oscars and BET Awards producer] Jesse Collins and Jesse was like ‘let’s make this one thing that is greater than you and greater than this second.’”
Celebrating her fiftieth in Africa was largely led by a private want to “decenter my trauma,” shares the Convey It On star and fierce LGBTQ+ champion who has visited the Mom Continent a number of occasions all through her life. However My Journey to 50 isn’t just a seek for self solely. As Union confronts the maintain being raped as a teen has had on her for 30 years, she additionally makes different connections, with historical past, legacy, international fellowship in addition to pleasure and love. It’s one which resonates past simply her. As a working mom who suffers “mommy guilt,” the actress additionally relishes sharing this expertise together with her daughter.
“The areas happened by means of private curiosity—issues I noticed on social media that other people that I knew had gone, locations strangers had gone on,” shares Union. As an illustration, her good good friend Taiye Samuel led her to Ghana, the place she and her crew linked with Diallo Sumbry who was pivotal in Ghana’s epic “Yr of Return” marketing campaign.
“I knew I needed to go away there totally different. I knew that the extra I knew about self and my superhero origin story—and I imagine everybody’s origin story begins in Africa, the birthplace of civilization—I’d have a greater thought of my path of life for the subsequent 50 or 60 years,” continues Union.
Half one of many particular explores the traumatic historical past and lingering impression of the TransAtlantic slave commerce, primarily at Assin Manso River and Salaga Slave Market in Ghana, with a compassion for ancestral Africans who have been kidnapped and enslaved that’s hardly ever captured. They even spend time on the Memorial Wall of Return. Fullness, not brokenness, is the emphasis. A safari at Etosha Nationwide Park in Namibia with a view from Kaavia’s eyes reveals off the wildlife for which Africa is extensively identified, whereas additionally zoning in on who guidelines what on this aspect of the world. It additionally provides an introduction to the Himba individuals, who nonetheless function historically however, as Union reveals, face challenges that resonate now.
Queen Sono star and native South African Pearl Thusi, who seems within the particular, turned Union on to Soweto-born Chef Wandile Mabaso. The chef’s international pedigree contains working below 21-time Michelin chef Alain Ducasse in Paris, and his personal five-star institution Les Créatifs in Johannesburg. Union and her crew additionally bought a private tour of Nelson and Winnie Mandela’s Soweto house with their granddaughter, Swati Mandela. Different South African highlights embody turning up on the in style and opulent Soweto membership Konka and hanging in Cape City on the Klein Goederust vineyard, which the Siguqa household acquired in 2019, making it Black-owned for the primary time because it began in 1905. The latter is large as a result of, though South Africa is 80 % Black, it’s removed from being considerably Black-controlled, particularly of their globally-renowned wine trade.
For her precise fiftieth birthday, Union ventured to Zanzibar, Tanzania. After enjoyable on a wonderful personal island, the primary celebration was held on the luxurious Melía Zanzibar which boasts beautiful views and a pristine sandy seashore. It’s a serious departure from the Africa we’re so typically proven, which is among the most important causes the Being Mary Jane star is so excited to share this journey. Her hope is that extra individuals may also be open to African locations.
“I believe when individuals, definitely of us in America, have any thought about any nation outdoors of America that’s not Europe, we’ve got not been getting correct data,” she says. A lot in order that Union notes that many individuals are shocked by locations like Tanzania, which she has posted on Instagram. “If we nonetheless have this stage of shock, I must hold speaking about it,” she explains.
Ultimately, Union hopes My Journey to 50 will encourage others “to seek out their very own connections” and strongly believes “the extra we share with one another, the smaller the world will get.” At one level within the particular, she says, “There is no such thing as a one technique to exist as a Black particular person on this world.” And that’s precisely what this “little Black woman from North Omaha, Nebraska” reveals.
Ronda Racha Penrice is the creator of Black American Historical past For Dummies and editor of Cracking The Wire Throughout Black Lives Matter.
