Oscar nominee Gabourey Sidibe is stepping into a new role on television tonight. The actress will host AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange, a show on the World channel about art and pop culture in the African Diaspora.
Now in the its fifth season, the show aims to shed some light on the silenced female voices of Africa. When asked why she thought it was so important to highlight those voices on television, Sidibe said, “I think it’s important to give a voice to anyone who’s in the struggle. Fresh eyes who haven’t been aware of a struggle maybe will have better ideas on how everyone can help.”
AfroPoP will air weekly from tonight through February 5, each episode diving deep into an untold narrative. For Sidibe, she’s especially a fan of the “Stolen” story airing on February 5. “I really like that story,” said the Yelling to the Sky actress. “The United Nations has a family reunion program for refugees, who are displaced from their families during the war. That’s what the story is about in the beginning. Then you start to find out that slavery is still happening and it went from being a documentary about a family to being a thriller.”
Her experience with emceeing AfroPoP was educational. Although her father is Senegalese and she had traveled there perviously, she learned more about other societies and cultures within Africa. “It was interesting to see how similar the other places are or how different they are,” said Sidibe.
AfroPoP begins airing tonight at 7 p.m. EST on the World channel.