Moto Maji

**Highest Placing Member**: Ethan (Sole Survivor/24)

Moto Maji was the merged tribe from Survivor: Africa.

After merging with a numbers advantage, the original Boran castaways remained loyal as the Boran Alliance and utilised an unexpected vote flip at the first merged tribal council to their advantage. After systematically eliminating their Samburu rivals, Boran was forced to turn on each other to make it to Day 39. Their tribe colour was green.

## Tribe History

The green Moto Maji tribe was formed on Day 25 of *Survivor: Africa*, containing seven original Boran and five original Samburu castaways. Despite having their differences throughout the pre-merge, the Boran players decided it was in their best interest to remain united against Samburu. However, Palesa felt she had a strong relationship with Maria from the new Boran tribe and approached the Samburu castaways with the idea of forcing a tie by voting for Ethan. Maria decided to cause distrust amongst the majority by sharing Palesa's plan with the rest of Boran. At the first merged tribal council, Palesa and Samburu voted for Ethan but Maria voted with Boran to eliminate Palesa. The Boran majority with Maria agreed to split the votes between Curtis and Ryan, which caused a 4-4-3 tie when the original Samburu castaways voted for David. Though it appeared that Boran would work together to vote for Curtis, Ethan and Sophie switched their vote to eliminate David (who held Heath's idol in his pocket) at the revote.

Benji knew he was in a position of power within his majority alliance of Boran castaways, but his power only increased when he found the Moto Maji Hidden Immunity 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 player 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.

    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.

## Trivia

* Moto Maji was located at the former Boran camp.