Republic of the Philippines

SAMAR STATE UNIVERSITY

College of Graduate Studies

COURSE : Masters of Arts in Education

COURSE NUMBER : ED 508
COURSE DESCRIPTION : Afro-Asian Literature
TERM : Second Semester
PROFESSOR : Dr. Laura Boller
DISCUSSANT : Shiela Marie C. Pombo

The Ultimate Safari by Nadine Gordimer

Nadine Gordimer
(November 2, 1923-July 13, 2014)

Nadine Gordimer, a South African author and political activist, was the
daughter of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants, Isidore Gordimer, a Jewish
watchmaker, and Nan Myers, who had immigrated to South Africa from Great
Britain as a young child
Born in Springs on November 2, 1923, a mining town near Johannesburg. From
her early childhood, Gordimer witnessed how the White minority increasingly
weakened the few rights of the Black majority.
She was educated at a convent school and began writing at the age of
nine. Her first short story was published at the age of fifteen, in the Liberal
Johannesburg magazine, Forum.
In 1949, she married to Gerald Gavron, a dentist. This marriage, though short,
lived produced a baby girl. In 1954, she married again to a Jewish refugee and
an art dealer, Reinhold Cassirer and had a son with him.
Nadine wrote ten novels and nine short story collections which reflect politics
like an unforgiving minor held up to the South Africa government. Her written
works gave her the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991.
Long regarded as one of South Africa’s leading political activists and
intellectuals, Gordimer saw many of her books banned in her country at the
time of their publication due to her stance against the apartheid policies of the
government.

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 Republic of the Philippines
SAMAR STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Graduate Studies

Unlocking of Difficult Words

 dauntlessly- fearlessly, bravely

 thatch- dried plant material (such as straw or leaves) that is used to make
their roof of a building
 mealies- corn
 stoically- showing no emotion especially when something bad is happening

An Analysis of the Story of The Ultimate Safari

Characters:
 The daughter - narrator; age of nine or ten; has an extreme naive idea of
what the future will hold
 The bandits - so called by the government; one of the Mozambique rebel
factions supported by the South African government; threaten the lives of
many
 The grandfather- once the owner of three sheep, a cow, and a vegetable
garden; suffering from some form of dementia
 The grandmother, Gogo - the matriarch of her extended family; the
strongest adult character in the story
 The little brother- less than a year old when the family is forced to leave their
village, turned three when the story ends; suffers greatly from malnutrition
 The father
 The mother
 The elder brother

Setting:
 Mozambique- South African border sometime during the 1980s
 Kruger Park- the popular national reserve in northeast South Africa that
borders Mozambique and has for years been a tourist destination for rich
foreigners wanting the experience of the ultimate African safari.
 During dusk
 A refugee camp
 The ambiance is saddening and frightening

Plot:
Exposition
It was a night in a middle of chaos when the children's mother left but
never came back. They were waiting for her since that night. Because of the
idea that the bandits might came and kill them anytime, they managed to stay
home and hide.

Rising Action
The bandits came to their village several times an took everything away
but the last time, they came back, there was nothing left to take so they burned
the thatch and the roofs of the houses fell in. Until, their grandparents came to

Arteche Blvd., Guindapunan Catbalogan City, Samar Philippines 6700 | Telephone No. (055) 251 - 2139; 251 - 2016 | Fax: (055) 543 - 8394 website: www.ssu.edu.ph.
 Republic of the Philippines
SAMAR STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Graduate Studies

take them to their house. In their grandparent's house, they were safe but they
were starving for a month. So, their grandmother decided that they should go
away, hoping that they could find a new home with food and no bandits.

Crisis
Along the way, the grandmother traded her church clothes and shoes to
someone for food and water container. Then, they met a group of people who
were also going away and they joined them. They ll had to go through the
Kruger Park wherein they moved like animals among the animals, away from the
roads, the electrified fences and white people's camps. They fed on mealies,
wild fruits and flesh of dead animals. They walked by day and night. Tired
beyond endurance, they slept the nights huddled together, afraid to be
dragged away by the lions. Fortunately, the man who led them all the way
managed to jump off and scared away the beasts. The next day, the
grandmother was moving on unflinchingly, her feet bleeding, without brushing
off flies from her face and holding the little girl's younger brother in her arms. On
the way, the grandfather is lost when he went into the grass to ease himself.
They waited and searched for him for a day

Climax
The grandmother stoically made the decision to give up the search and
move on with the group.

Falling Action
They reached the refugee camp where they are all taken care of. They
have a small place for themselves in a huge tent. They were given free food
and medicine. Soon, the grandmother was able to find a job.

Denouement
The grandmother dauntlessly strived to secure the futures of her
grandchildren; her needs came last, and though not able to buy herself a pair
of shoes, she sent the two children to a nearby school, bought them school
shoes, and ensured that they always do their homework.

Conclusion
In the end, the grandmother's bitter feelings surfaced when a journalist
asked her if she would ever go back to Mozambique. Her answer is a
categorical, “no”, because everything is gone. This left the young girl perplexed
as she still hopes to return to her homeland and find her parents and
grandfather there.

Narrator
First person point of view

Conflict
Man vs. Man
Man vs. Society

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 Republic of the Philippines
SAMAR STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Graduate Studies

Symbolism
 The Ultimate Safari- The Extreme Journey
 The little girl- hope and childish optimism
 The grandmother- strength, courage, and sacrifice
 The grandfather- weakness, frailty, and sacrifice
 The Kruger Park- their homeland Mozambique
 The white people- racial discrimination
 The huge electric fence- (surrounding the park) apartheid
 The bandits- death much like, “the lions in the city”
 The elephants and their babies- family
 The lions- danger, “bandits in the jungle”
 The big tent- huge success of the refugees as they reached the camp
 The polished shoes- the bright future that awaits for the children

Subject Matter
 Oppression
 Hope
 Sacrifice
 Apartheid

Theme
 One should never lose hope for the future.
 “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these
is love.” -Holy Bible
 “Nothing great was ever accomplished without making sacrifices.”

LITERARY THEORIES IN THE STORY

Post colonialism
- focuses on the influence of colonialism in literature

Feminism
- concerned with the roles and dominance of female characters within
works

Marxism
- considered of a series of struggles between classes-- between the
oppressed and the oppressing; focuses on the political, economic and social
status in the literature

Sociological Approach
- centers the author and the content of the work; stresses the connection
of the author to his society and position in the society

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 Republic of the Philippines
SAMAR STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Graduate Studies

The Ultimate Safari by Nadine Gordimer (Summary)

That night, our mother went to the shop and she didn't come back. Ever.

A young girl acts as narrator as she relates the tribulations of what is left of her
family. There has been a rebellion and her father has probably been killed in it.
The girl narrates that her mother went to the shop one evening for oil, but she
has not returned. After her mother does not come back, the girl and her siblings
huddle together in fear and stay inside for a night and a day until their
grandmother and grandfather come to them.

Because she is much healthier than her husband, the grandmother gathers
the children and takes them to her home. There is little left for them there,
however, as the bandits have stolen the cow and three sheep. A nursing mother
donates some of her milk for the narrator's baby brother, and the grandmother
leads the children out to find wild spinach that they can eat. The children
remain with their grandparents for about a month. Finally, because the
grandfather has no seeds to plant and no livestock, the family departs. The
children are glad to leave the tragic place where their mother and father no
longer exist and there is no food.

Along the way the grandmother gives her church clothes in trade for water,
and she sells her shoes to buy a container for the water. Later, a man leads
them into the Kruger Park, the national reserve: a kind of whole country of
animals – elephants, lions, jackals, hyenas, hippos, crocodiles, all kinds of
animals— In order to cross to a safer place. He tells the family that they must go
the long way around the electric fence, which he cautions them not to touch.
The man also tells the family that they must move like animals with the animals,
and they must not make any fires or talk to any of the workers in the park.

Not long after they start their journey, the narrator's little brother becomes
listless and stops talking. He must be shaken awake in the same way his
grandfather must be. Nonetheless, the family perseveres, and they walk during
the night as well as in the daytime. They see fires where the white people visiting
the game preserve have camps, and they can smell the meat and the smoke
from their fires. But they dare not ask anyone for anything. Even the native
people who work there cannot feed them or they will lose their jobs.

Somehow along the way, the grandfather, who has become very debilitated
and merely mutters rather than speaks, wanders off and is lost in the high grass
of the preserve. After searching for him without success, the starving family must
keep moving. At last, the grandmother and the children reach the refugee
camp where they are provided some space under a big white tent that they
close off with cardboard. The narrator's little brother has become so emaciated
that he just stares and can no longer talk. He is given some medicine, and the
grandmother is told that he may revive. The children are given shots.

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 Republic of the Philippines
SAMAR STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Graduate Studies

The family stays in this tent most of the time, but the narrator and her brother
do go to school. With her earnings from carrying bricks, the grandmother
purchases shoes for the narrator and her brother, although she is still without any
herself. She has the children clean these shoes every morning before school
begins. No one else has shoes like these, the narrator comments. She adds,

When we three look at them it’s as if we are in a real house again, with no war,
no away.

One day some white people come and interview the people living in the tent. A
woman asks the grandmother what she will do when the war is over.
Our grandmother looked away from her and spoke – There is nothing. No home.

However, the narrator, still a child, is more optimistic. She hopes to find her
grandfather and then her mother and father. "They'll be home and I'll remember
them."

Arteche Blvd., Guindapunan Catbalogan City, Samar Philippines 6700 | Telephone No. (055) 251 - 2139; 251 - 2016 | Fax: (055) 543 - 8394 website: www.ssu.edu.ph.