Wunmi Mosaku has had a whirlwind year — an Oscar nomination for Sinners, a Bafta win, a new baby, a press tour for Aaron Sorkin's Facebook drama The Social Reckoning, and now a side gig as executive producer and narrator of Africa Earth's Wild Home, a Disney+ and National Geographic nature series. In a recent chat with Condé Nast Traveller UK, she shared the travel memories behind it all, and they're worth stealing notes from.
Her safari stories are the standout. In Kenya and South Africa, she heard a male lion roar from what guides estimated was 15 miles away — and the air still vibrated like he was around the corner. She also learned the hard way how bad humans are at judging scale: told there was an elephant nearby, she scanned at eye level and saw nothing but trees, until it clicked that those trees barely reached the animal's leg. Her takeaway? Nature is mighty, slightly terrifying, and you're just a guest in it — a theme she says runs through the documentary, which she hopes will make viewers feel protective of the natural world.
Her most personal memories belong to Nigeria, where her family is from. Returning at nine years old after a first visit aged three, she stepped off the plane, smelled the hot air and red dirt and instantly recognised it: "this smells like Nigeria." The trip was about family as much as place — dad, cousins, grandma, aunts and uncles — a full house compared to life in England with her mum and sisters. There's also a fun fruit mystery: a childhood memory of an apple that didn't taste like an apple took twenty years to solve, when a guava garnish on a cocktail revealed she'd been remembering a guava tree.
The surprise destination of her travels? New Orleans. She found an American city where Africa is everywhere once you look — in the ironwork, Adinkra symbols from Ghana, and house designs built for airflow in the African tradition. She was especially moved by the Sunday gatherings at Congo Square, where libations are still poured for the ancestors. Her verdict: it's the closest she's felt to the continent without being on it.
There are practical gems too. She packs with military precision — categorised checklists, hanging wash bags, over-the-door shoe organisers repurposed as wardrobes for multi-city trips — and swears socks go in first because they're always the thing she forgets. And she and her husband have landed on a simple travel rule after a sleepless, overstimulating trip to Las Vegas and an uncomfortable stay at a posh French resort: decide who else will be holidaying where you're going, because that shapes whether you'll enjoy it. Her ideal view, meanwhile, is uninterrupted sky and water — preferably from a mountain cabin with snow and deer.
For travellers, Mosaku's story is a good nudge: go for the sensory recognition of a place, not just the itinerary — and pick your fellow travellers as carefully as your destination.
Story via Condé Nast Traveller UK.
