Boran Alliance

**Highest Placing Member**:Sharn (Second Runner-Up/24)

The Boran Alliance was an alliance from Survivor: Africa.

This majority alliance was established by three smaller alliances, although Benji was considered a crucial member of each faction. He controlled the alliance across all three tribes he was on throughout the game, though his threat level was poorly maintained and he was eventually voted out by three affiliates of the Boran Alliance. One of these players eventually won the season as a result of this big move.

## History

### Origins

The gold Boran tribe was formed on Day 1 of *Survivor: Africa*. Over the course of the first few days, Fenella and Shonee (known as 'Shonella') bonded as the weaker women of the tribe and formed a Final Two deal. Similarly, Heath and Tegan formed their own Final Two deal because of their bond as parents. These two pairs joined forces and brought in Benji to create a strong alliance of five. Benji himself also aligned with David and Sharn, who viewed themselves as outsiders on the tribe and formed their own Final Two deal. When Boran lost their first immunity challenge on Day 6, Benji brought David and Sharn into the alliance to give them the majority over their rivals. At tribal council, this alliance voted out Dean after splitting their votes between Dean and Ethan. This gave the Boran Alliance the clear majority over their divided rivals. Whilst the Boran tribe won the next two immunity challenges, Heath found the tribes Hidden Immunity Idol and decided to share this information with his closest ally Tegan. When a Double Tribal Council occurred on Day 12, the Boran Alliance agreed to vote for Ethan. However, Benji was worried that he was the third wheel amongst his core alliance of five. He told the minority he would be willing to vote for Shonee before telling David, Sharn and Shonee that Heath and Tegan were coming after Shonee. At tribal council, Fenella, Heath and Tegan voted for Ethan, the minority voted for Shonee but Benji used his little white lie to blindside Tegan.

### The Switch: Samburu

A tribe switch occurred on Day 13, where Benji, Fenella, Heath, Sharn and Shonee from the Boran Alliance were switched to the Samburu tribe. They joined original Samburu castaways Emily, Lance, Ryan and Sarah. The power held by the Boran Alliance grew when Sharn found the Samburu idol, though she only shared this information with Benji as he was considered her closest ally on the tribe. After losing their first immunity challenge, the Boran Alliance agreed to target Sarah. Benji, however, convinced the original Samburu players to blindside Fenella because he wanted to continue separating the pairs in his alliance. Shonee was upset over losing her closest ally, but reluctantly agreed to work with Benji and Sharn. At their next loss on Day 16, the Boran Alliance remained united and eliminated Lance for being a physical threat. This was followed by Emily when Samburu lost again on Day 20.

With the numbers dwindling towards the merge and currently in a majority position on Samburu, Heath decided to establish himself as an individual player. Despite now playing on opposite tribes, Heath and his original ally David communicated during challenges. At the Day 22 immunity challenge, Heath secretly passed his idol to David in order to build a relationship with him for when the tribes merged. However, Heath was unaware that David then shared this information with his closest allies Benji and Sharn. When Samburu lost again on Day 24, Heath was under the impression that his alliance would be voting for Sarah. Benji realised that Heath was vulnerable without his idol and managed to flip the entire tribe to blindside Heath at tribal council. This move reassured Benji that the idol would still be in the hands of himself, David and Sharn when the tribes merged.

### The Switch: Boran

Meanwhile, David, Ethan, Palesa, Sophie and Tom remained on Boran whilst being joined by Colby, Curtis, Maria and Shelby from Samburu. David felt uncomfortable on this new tribe since he was completely separated from his Boran Alliance. Despite this, he decided it was better to work with the original Boran players because he found them more transparent. Their strength only grew when Palesa and Tom mended their strained relationship. At their first loss on Day 18, David and the original Boran players voted for Colby because they were threatened that he already won two pre-merge individual immunity challenges. David seemed to accumulate power on his own over the next few days, as Heath gave handed him an idol prior to the immunity challenge on Day 22 and the original Boran players agreed to vote for an original Samburu when they lost again on Day 24. However, he, Ethan ands Sophie were told by Curtis and Shelby that Palesa and Tom wanted to vote one of them out. The trio decided to trust the pair, and this new group of five blindsided Tom at tribal council.

### The Merge

Benji, Sharn and Shonee reunited with David when the tribes merged at the Final Twelve on Day 25. Benji and David celebrated the fact that they had the original Boran idol in their hands. after it was given to David by Heath and Benji convinced his tribe to get rid of him. David also brought along his allies from the tribe switch, Ethan, Palesa and Sophie, in order to give the Boran Alliance the majority over the original Samburu players. Their original plan was to target one of the Samburu players, but Maria shared with them that Palesa wanted to work with the Samburu Alliance to blindside Ethan. At the first merged tribal council, Maria worked with the Boran Alliance to blindside Palesa. As the new seventh member of the Boran Alliance, Maria felt it was in their best interest to split the votes between Curtis and Ryan. This created a 4-4-3 tie when the Samburu Alliance voted for David. Prior to tribal council, the Boran Alliance agreed they would all vote for Curtis in the event of a tie. However, Ethan and Sophie felt threatened by David and his relationships with the founder of his alliance. At the revote, Ethan and Sophie voted with the Samburu players to eliminate David with an idol in his pocket.

With only ten castaways remaining, Benji knew he was in a position of power within his majority Boran Alliance. He was aligned with Sharn and Shonee to the point that he knew about Sharn's idol, whilst obtaining a working relationship with Ethan and Sophie from their blindside against Tegan on Day 12. His power only increased when he found the Moto Maji idol. Benji's next masterplan was to flush Sharn's idol because he wanted to be the only player in possession of an idol. He spoke to the Samburu players in the minority with the hopes of voting for Sharn. He then told Sharn that Samburu was trying to vote for her, which forced Sharn to play her idol at tribal council. With the second highest number of votes from Boran, Sarah was voted out and Benji asserted himself as the leader of the tribe. The Boran castaways held the majority at the next three tribal councils and, despite Ethan and Sophie throwing their votes on Shonee on Day 34, Shelby, Curtis and Ryan became the next three members of the jury.

### The Endgmae

By the Final Six, only the Boran Alliance of Benji, Ethan, Maria, Sharn, Shonee and Sophie remained on Moto Maji. The dynamics of this alliance placed the tightly aligned Benji, Sharn and Shonee as the most powerful trio, closesly followed by the duo of Ethan and Sophie. This left Maria as the least connected castaway of the remaining six because she was the only original Samburu player left. After Shonee won individual immunity, the original Boran Five agreed to work together to eliminate Maria. However, the trio decided it was in their best interest to vote out Ethan first in order to split up him and Sophie. Similarly, Ethan and Sophie decided to turn on the rest of Boran by targetting Benji because he was viewed as their leader. The pair approached Maria and Sharn, who both saw Benji as the biggest threat left in the game. At tribal council, Benji felt confident enough in his relationship with Maria and Sharn to not play his idol but was shockingly blindsided. With only five castaways remaining, Maria felt like she was in a powerful position as a swing vote between two pairs. Her power only grew after winning individual immunity, where she could decide whether to vote for Shonee with Ethan and Sophie or vote for Sophie with Sharn and Shonee. She decided to eliminate Sophie because she thought Ethan and Sophie were the tighter of the two pairs.

The game became more fluid at the Final Four because all castaways were separated from their tight trios and pairs, though the "Sh" alliance of Sharn and Shonee were considered the closest duo. The pair believed that Maria would vote with them to eliminate Ethan. However, Maria won the final individual immunity challenge and was conflicted as to whether she wanted to vote with them for Ethan or try and get the votes against Shonee. Ultimately, Sharn didn't want a tied vote and flipped to eliminate Shonee with Ethan and Maria. At the Final Tribal Council, Sharn mentioned she was in partnerships with Benji, David and Shonee but couldn't articulate to the jury who she was most loyal to or explain any big moves that she personally orchestrated. Maria was met with an icy reception by her fellow Samburu players and tried to explain that her flipping was the best move to ensure she survived to Day 39, but her pitch was mostly met on deaf ears. Ethan recognised he was not the biggest strategic player, but drew attention to his social game and the fact that he and Sophie were solely responsible for the eliminations of David and Benji. In the end, Sharn became Second Runner-Up after earning jury votes from David and Benji, Maria became the Runner-Up after earning Palesa, Sarah and Shoneee's votes but Ethan was awarded the title of Sole Survivor after earning four of nine jury votes from Curtis, Ryan, Shelby and Sophie.