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Horaaay! It’s officially #ThusoMbeduDay on the entire African continent

Hooray! We are excited to announce that today we are celebrating the #ThusoMbeduDay. Surprisingly enough it's not only South Africa that is riverebating with excitement, but the entire African continent as the rest of the world officially readies for the international release of 'The Underground Railroad' on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, May 14.

Mbedu’s journey to global super-stardom has been long time coming. It all started on the Mzansi Magic’s telonovela ‘Isibaya’ when she played the role of Nosisa in 2014 to now becoming an undisputed international superstar – with two Emmy nominations in tow – playing the larger than life role of a young African American woman Cora in director Barry Jenkins’ adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s 2017 Pulitzer Prize winning novel ‘The Underground Railroad’ (Amazon).


#ThusoMbeduDay: Gauteng Tourism Authority hosted the official screening of ‘The Underground Railroad’ at The Leonardo Hotel in Sandton.

We are not talking about a small time production here, but a significant achievement described by the UK’s The Guardian “as unbearably bleak, brutal and brilliant as the book”.


 The Amazon series follows Cora as she journeys to freedom from slavery in the southeastern United States during the 19th century.

A slave catcher (played by) pursues her as she moves from town to town, away from the Georgia plantation she escaped by literally following an underground railway transport system.

For the South African-born actress, the script was very interesting as it’s relatable and she sees some familiar intergenarational patterns of “systemic oppression” in it. She categorically praises it for giving voice “to the intergenerational trauma, anger, and resentment internalised as a result of living in an African nation that has been oppressed, and then coming to America where systemic oppression is deeply rooted.”


The reality, she tells www.wd.com, “is you can take parts of the book and literally draw parallels to stuff that is happening today”.


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Prashirwin Naidu
Prashirwin Naidu
Aspiring scribe, Prashirwin Naidu is a writer focusing on cars and the arts.
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