by Thinus Ferreira
Thoriso M-Afrika said that she felt bad that she was unable to translate her theoretical knowledge of the game of Survivor into practical application after she got voted out from Survivor South Africa: Immunity Island on M-Net (DStv 101).
I sat down with the 36-year old marketer from Uitenhage after viewers saw her torch getting snuffed at tribal council in the Wild Coast, as she opened up about feeling like she was alone in a crowd and how her strategy of looking like a wallflower led to her unexpected social isolation.
Why did you decide to enter Survivor South Africa?
Thoriso M-Afrika: Oh man, I'm a superfan. I love the game hey. It's really something I've always wanted to do and learn from because I've been so hooked on the game from the get-go and this was the time for me to do it.
You said at the end that you felt disappointed that you were not able to translate your Survivor theoretical knowledge into practical application and I'm wondering if you can expand a little bit more on that and what the regret is.
Thoriso M-Afrika: I think the biggest thing about it is understanding that the game is primarily about relationships.
So for me, where the luck of the draw just doesn't go your way, I found myself in a tribe of people where I wouldn't naturally gravitate towards, I probably should have done more to try and ingratiate myself with the rest of the tribe - so that's what it probably was.
The thing was, literally, I mean, I realised that for as long as I was in Zamba 1.0, I was probably safe, because it was just a question of waiting for the right time to have those conversations which probably took me longer than what it should have.
It seems on the last day as if you just gave up. We saw you just sitting on the beach, and in the hang mat. Your tribemates were smug and glib and arrogant and borderline nasty to you because they showed how they are when they are in a comfortable power position. You probably felt it serve no purpose talking with them and strategising but do you now feel that you should have?
Thoriso M-Afrika: For me to appear legitimate, I had to at least play into the reality of what the game had been up until that point.
So, it wasn't necessarily giving up but it was realising that the guys I were playing with, didn't want to play with me. You can only do so much.
My safest bet was to go with the Vuna guys and that's why I had the elaborate plan. But the plan really hinged on the person I made a connection with - Anesu - and obviously her going to immunity island, the boys and I just couldn't maintain that relationship going forward.
You never played into the "Angry Black Woman" stereotype. I got angry as a viewer watching tribal council and how dismissive, outright vindictive and rude some of the castaways were and talked to you. How angry did you get at some of them on the inside, and how did your coping mechanisms work to not explode in anger because you seemed very calm?
Thoriso M-Afrika: Of course it affected me, Thinus, I think the thing about it was, probably for about the first 5 or 6 days, literally no one was having conversations with me. Literally. Not around strategy or anything of the sort.
Immediately when that happens in the game of Survivor, you realise that if no one is talking strategy to you, you are the gameplan.
My personality type is such that I work very well with people one-on-one. So I was starved of single interaction with people, which is probably what collapsed my game more than anything. So it was a very dark time in that I was alone in a crowd if you understand the expression.
I was sitting on the beach alone and I literally, actively had to do that daily at sunrise to get some sort of composure moving forward. You experience one person's kindness can shift your mental game.
For me, in the old Zamba tribe, it would have been Renier. Around day 5 or 6 we had a very random conversation around camp around cricket and it became the stimulus for further conversation. That is what I had envisioned to do with every single person. I just was starved of that.
It was Renier and then Anesu. That's why I really felt - and I'm not sure if it came out in the episode that once she was out of there, I really became unstuck.
In the first challenge, the other tribe sent you to immunity island because they thought you were the weakest player. I'm wondering you you felt and dealt with that perception and did it concern you at all?
Thoriso M-Afrika: Not at all, going into the game that was my gameplan - to be the person that nobody ... all I had to do was make the merge.
I felt that if I made the merge I would be laughing until the end. I was quite happy that it picked up so early on, I was just really shocked that it resulted in the extent of the social isolation that it did. It quite surprised me.
I've watched all of the seasons of Survivor SA and particular the last two seasons were filled with people who understood the nuances of the game and recognised that ostracising people entirely is not necessarily the best thing. So it's quite surprising for me to be on the receiving end of it in that regard. I wasn't offended, that was literally my game play.
Looking back, what were you not aware of that shocked or surprised you?
Thoriso M-Afrika: I realised how Renier was literally everybody's number one. It threw me off completely because I really thought we were quite close. So that was quite funny.
The difference is that with Anesu I knew that I was close enough to her but that she would slit my throat in a heartbeat for the opportunity to save herself. I understood that dynamic.
But Renier, he really came off as so genuinely kind and caring and not playing, meanwhile he was playing just as much.
It was fascinating observing your tribemates who had doubts right until the very end whether you really had an immunity necklace or not. They believed you when you showed the paper and said you had immunity. How did you come up with that idea and were you surprised that it worked as well as it did?
Thoriso M-Afrika: The thing about Survivor is that when you're going to lie, you have to make sure that your lie is believable.
For me, I had already sown the seeds in the original Zamba camp, so when I came back from immunity island I did a lot of suspicious things, like digging around and it was quite funny because by day 4 - which was the night after tribal council - four different people had asked me if I had an immunity idol or an idol clue. So the doubt had already been created that early on.
Because I realised that none of them knew and essentially what they tried to dig into was what it was that I got on the island. They didn't buy the story that I had lost the challenge.
So, I allowed that to simmer knowing that at some point it was going to come back, if the need arose it would be something that I could play on.
What did you enjoy about this experience?
Thoriso M-Afrika: Oh my goodness, Thinus, there's so much in each of us that you think you're past but you're actually not.
I love the fact that I can still buy into what I'm selling - that I don't allow people's external narratives about me to dictate what's happening in my life.
I think that's the one thing that got tested in this game. That was quite funny to watch. Because of that it really drove the paranoia of the people around me."Why is she feeling so confident and so safe?" And that was all part of the game, to make something believable.
I think my internal dialogue stood me well. Yes, of course, I made some lapses there but just to trust my instincts - that's something that I take away from that.
Survivor SA: Immunity Island is on M-Net (DStv 101) on Thursdays at 19:30
