Turning 50 is no small thing. Perhaps that’s why we make such a fuss of it—throwing larger-than-life parties, making purchases we’ve dreamed of for our whole lives and, of course, going on once-in-a-lifetime trips. Gabrielle Union understands this. A new BET+ series, Gabrielle Union: My Journey to 50 follows Union, her husband Dwyane Wade, and a group of close friends and family as they embark on what Union calls a “bucket list trip” to four African countries.
Union’s love of travel and adventure is palpable across the two-episode series. From receiving Ghanian names (Akosua Safo for Union and Kwesi Safo for Wade) and seeing the horrific remnants of the transatlantic slave trade along Ghana’s coast to driving through swaths of wavy Namibian desert, sipping wine at a Black-owned winery in Franschhoek, South Africa, and dancing the night away in Zanzibar, Tanzania, she is tirelessly inquisitive and game. She sat down with Condé Nast Traveler to talk about planning the trip, how connections built while traveling can help heal trauma, and finding ways to “pour into” the places we visit beyond just writing a check.
You mentioned in the series that you used the Black Girls Travel Too community and had seen these destinations there. Why is it important for us to have online communities to plan and share travel suggestions with each other?
We only know what we know and there’s a lot I don’t know. If somebody else, especially somebody who looks like me, has been somewhere and they have amazing things to report back and they felt safe and all that then I want to try. I wish I had checked in before I went to Croatia. When Black girls enjoy a place, I feel like there’s a solid, solid chance that I, too, will enjoy it. It’s a resource that I wish more people would use and there’d probably be a little less surprise when we go to certain places and how we might be received.
Why did you want this to be a family trip shared with your daughter as opposed to, say, a solo trip or girlfriends’ trip?
