(VIDEO)What Gabrielle Union said about ‘spiritual cleansing’ at River of No Return in Ghana
Renowned American actress and model, Gabrielle Union shared an account of her 2022 visit to Ghana, where she retraced her ancestors' footsteps.
In a recent interview on "Reclaiming with Monica," she described the emotional experience of visiting the "River of No Return," a site used during the transatlantic slave trade to prepare enslaved Africans for shipment.
Union recounted the intense physical and spiritual impact of the visit, which deepened her understanding of her ancestors' pain and resilience. Their guide illustrated the brutality of the slave trade by comparing the distance enslaved people were forced to walk to a journey from New York to Florida.
She mentioned that the experience left a lasting impression on her.
“We were in Ghana at the River of No Return where they would, you know, after basically marching our ancestors the distance from New York to Florida, they would put them in this river to clean them up and they’d, you know, lather them in grease to create the appearance of good health, to get the highest dollar,” she recalled.
Gabrielle recounted a harrowing moment when her mother, then in her late 70s, collapsed while they were approaching the river.
“As we were walking down towards this river, my mom falls out. And my mom is late 70s, and I’m thinking, oh, this is it. My mom just died. And everyone’s, and this is all, you know, the cameras were rolling. So this is all being caught,” she said.
In that moment, she said she clearly heard her late grandmother’s voice: “She’s all right. She’s all right.” Her mother revived and insisted: “Take me to the river.”
Gabrielle also recalled a striking, almost supernatural moment involving her husband, retired NBA star Dwyane Wade.(Read Nollywood actress Eve Esin and Ghanaian partner wed [VIDEO])
“I kind of had lost track of where my husband was. And it was this beautiful sunny day, it was hot, beautiful sunny day. And my husband is in the river, and I just hear him scream. And I look over and his arms are outstretched, like Christ.
“And the sky opens up, and it is downpour out of nowhere. And it was the most cleansing, it was like something out of a movie,” she said.
She added that the sudden rain felt like a spiritual cleansing, bringing everyone to tears.
“Luckily, we caught it. And he’s just standing there and he’s being, like, cleansed, if you will. But everyone was very, very emotional,” she added.
Gabrielle and her husband Dwyane Wade visited Ghana following the launch of Ghana’s ‘Year of Return’ by former President Nana Akufo-Addo in September 2018 in Washington, D.C., to mark 400 years since the first recorded enslaved Africans landed in Virginia, United States.
The initiative invited people of African descent, especially in the diaspora to visit, invest in, and reconnect with Ghana.
It was during this broader movement of reconnection that Gabrielle Union visited Ghana in 2022.
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