Nguvu

**Highest Placing Member**:Annaliese (Sole Survivor/20)

Nguvu was the merged tribe from Survivor: The Congo.

Despite the two *The Congo* tribes merging with two dominant alliances, one castaway united their detractors to form a faction that controlled the first merged vote, though their success was short lived when the dominant alliances agreed to work together. Their tribe colour was blue.

## Tribe History

On Day 23 of *Survivor: The Congo*, the remaining twelve women from the green Bemba and pink Lunda tribes merged into the blue Nguvu tribe. The British Invasion alliance of Alisha, Annaliese, Catherine and Sophie reunited on this new tribe, as did The Maple Leaves trio of Ilona, Lemon and Priyanka. Aliza had worked with both of these groups at different stages of the pre-merge and decided to unite the rest of the tribe together against them. This created a majority faction of five on Nguvu, which consisted of Aliza, Erica, Estelle, Helena and Kari. At the first merged tribal council, The British Invasion voted for Estelle, the Bemba trio voted for Catherine but Aliza's new faction had the numbers to eliminate Ilona and she was made the first member of the jury. The Faction returned to camp and were pleased their undercover plan disrupted the women in positions of power. Their plan at the next tribal council was to vote together to eliminate Lemon, but Estelle was voted out because Lemon and Priyanka worked with The British Invasion. This new majority worked against The Faction at the following tribal, where Erica was voted out in a 6-4 vote.

It seemed clear to Aliza, Helena and Kari at the Final Nine that they would be systematically picked off unless they created a plan against The British Invasion. However, Aliza felt vindicated by the fact that she held the Bemba Hidden Immunity Idol and a Vote Steal. Helena also shared with Aliza and Kari that she found an idol at the immunity challenge that day. Prior to tribal council, The British Invasion decided to split the votes between Aliza and Helena whilst The Faction voted for Annaliese. The conversations at tribal caused a paranoid Helena to play her idol, which would theoretically lead to a 3-3 tie between Aliza and Annaliese. However, the four original British Invasion women switched their votes to Priyanka at the last minute and she was voted out in a 4-3 vote. This shocked and frustrated Lemon, who lost her closest two allies already whilst the four British Invasion women remained a tight unit. Helena also felt defeated because she was tricked into wasting her idol.

After Catherine won the following individual immunity challenge, Aliza, Helena and Kari developed a plan that would ensure their combined survivals. The pair spoke with The British Invasion in order to learn about their plans. Though the alliance agreed the tribe should unanimously vote for Aliza, Annaliese and Catherine felt they should vote for Kari in the event this plan went awry. Aliza used her vote steal at tribal council to steal Sophie's vote and voted for Sophie twice, whilst also playing her idol. Although they developed this plan with Aliza, Helena and Kari actually voted for Aliza rather than Sophie because they were confused by the specifics of their plan. This caused a 2-2 tie between Kari and Sophie. It was assumed The British Invasion would have the numbers to eliminate Kari at the revote, but Sophie was voted out because Lemon flipped out of spite for losing her own allies and Alisha flipped due to the growing tension between her and Sophie. This big move finally fractured the core of The British Invasion, but Aliza, Helena and Kari still held a minority position and were now powerless without an idol or advantage. The British Invasion felt most threatened by Aliza, who was seen as the mastermind of Sophie's elimination, and they voted her out when she failed to win individual immunity.

This left a Final Six of Alisha, Annaliese and Catherine from The British Invasion in a precarious majority position along with their affiliates Helena, Kari and Lemon. The latter trio realised it was in their best interest to work together rather than turn on each other and give the majority to The British Invasion. The trio agreed to vote for Annaliese at tribal council because they believed she was the leader of The British Invasion. However, Kari remembered that the last time idols could be played was the Final Six and, worried that Annaliese would negate the votes against her with an idol, switched her vote to Lemon at the last minute. This was the final nail in the coffin for the trio because it gave The British Invasion the numbers to eliminate Kari. Upon their return to camp, Helena and Lemon realised they were powerless against the majority and campaigned against each other. The British Invasion sought revenge on their former ally and voted out Helena on Day 37 before eliminating Lemon after she failed to win the final individual immunity challenge.

At the Final Tribal Council, Catherine tried to highlight that she was a loyal member of The British Invasion who also protected herself by winning a number of individual immunity challenges. However, the jury felt that Catherine floated her way through the game and only made it to Day 39 because she merely followed plans that were made by her allies. Alisha explained how she entered the game knowing her emotions could be her downfall and, after arguing with Sukhvinder about the Lunda idol before she quit, wanted to play the rest of the game with more integrity and less confrontation. She also highlighted the fact that she was the only player to never receive votes at any tribal council. Although the jury respected Alisha's journey, many felt that she needed to take more risks once she reached the merge in order to prove she was deserving of the win.

Annaliese explained that her strategy was to use her social connections to gather as much information as possible in order to execute a plan. This began with her finding the Lunda idol, which was useful when she found herself in an underdog position with Sophie during the switch. Her goal during the merge was to keep The British Invasion united and protected, which  led to her and Catherine switching their vote to Kari and force a tie on the night Sophie was voted out. Despite this switch not leading to Kari's elimination, the jury was impressed with Annaliese constantly thinking about moves she needed to make to ensure she and her alliance would advance in the game. Annaliese was ultimately awarded the title of Sole Survivor after earning eight of nine jury votes, with Helena being the sole vote for Alisha.

## Trivia

* Nguvu was located at the former Lunda camp.