Survivor: Africa - Season Summary

Season Summary

16 new castaways were marooned in the outskirts of the Shaba National Reserve, Kenya, Africa. The group was divided into two tribes named after two real-life Kenyan tribes, Samburu and Boran. During the first six days, Samburu dominated in challenges, while the depeleted Boran already lost Diane and Jessie. Despite their early winning streak, Samburu was divided into two existing voting alliances defined by age, the younger members (Silas, Kim P., Brandon and Lindsey) and the older members (Frank, Teresa, Carl and Linda). After losing the third Immunity Challenge, Samburu's age-defined voting blocs resulted into a 4-4 deadlock tie vote between Carl and Lindsey. Since it was the tribe's first Tribal Council, and previous votes will be counted to beak the tie, a nature quiz tiebreaker commenced. In the end, Lindsey edged out Carl, sending him home, and giving power to the younger Samburu alliance. Because of Samburu's lack of unity, momentum changed, as Boran won another Immunity Challenge. Linda was eliminated by the younger Samburus, thus evening up the tribes with six members each.

Despite their rise to power over the Samburu tribe, a new twist shook things up in the younger Samburu alliance. In Day 13, both tribes were given the vaguest Tree Mail yet, asking them to send half of their tribe "to a quest." Boran chose Kelly, Big Tom and Lex, while Silas (the leader of the younger Samburu alliance) sent himself, Frank and Teresa (the only two remaining members of the older alliance) to represent Samburu. Everything turned on its head when Jeff announced that the sent castaways will be switching tribes. When the new Boran tribe lost the fifth Immunity Challenge, Frank and Teresa made a plea to the original Borans that Silas must go. And in that night's Tribal Council, Frank and Teresa did their revenge on Silas, who was unanimously eliminated. Silas' elimination caused a big surprise for remnants of the younger Samburu alliance, who wanted to target one of their new members to even up original tribe members at five each. But after losing the sixth Immunity Challenge, and knowing that Lindsey has previous votes, the former Borans turned on her, thus sending her home.

On Day 19, the two tribes gathered at the Immunity Challenge, where they merged into one tribe. They later decided on the name Moto Maji. The former Samburu members, Teresa, Frank, Kim P, and Brandon entered into the merge in a precarious position being down 4 members to Boran's 6. However, Teresa hatched a plan to turn the former Boran members against each other. First, the entire tribe agreed to vote off Clarence, fearing his physical prowess at challenges. However, unknown to anyone else, Teresa voted with Clarence against Lex. Angered by this mystery vote, Lex swore to track down whoever had cast that vote against him and promptly vote them off. He mistakenly suspected Kelly of treachery and swayed his alliance of Tom, Ethan, and Kim J. to vote against her. In order to save herself, Kelly sided with the former Samburu members and voted against Lex, but Lex managed to convince Brandon to also vote against Kelly, thus eliminating her. Brandon's actions made both his old and new allies, minus Lex, lose trust in him, and the six other people banded together to vote him out. However, this put the former Samburu members in jeopardy, as they were subsequently picked off one-by-one. Teresa, the last original Samburu left, tried to shake things up, but was also eliminated, but not before telling Lex that she was the caster of the mystery vote and not Kelly.

At the final two Immunity Challenges, Kim J shocked everyone by winning both times, causing the men to have to turn on each other. Tom, who had been conspiring to have others vote off Lex earlier, was voted off unanimously. The next day, Lex awoke very sick, and this heavily affected his challenge performance. At Tribal Council, Kim voted off Lex and subsequently brought Ethan with her to the Final Two. Kim indicated she knew she would not win the $1 million against either Lex or Ethan, and chose to take Ethan to the finals because she was closer to him.

At the Final Tribal Council, Kim J. was met with mixed criticism from the Jury. She was praised by the jury for lasting all 39 days, in spite of her age. However, she was perceived as riding the coattails of Ethan, Lex, and Tom for the entirety of the game. Ethan's answers were straightforward, but did cost him a chance at a more lopsided win, as his critical response to Brandon actually turned Brandon (who had been looking for a reason to castigate his non-buddy Frank) into a vote for Kim. The Jury voted 5-2 for Ethan to win due to his more active strategy and congenial personality and was named the third Sole Survivor.