Themes in The Ultimate Safari

1. The metaphor of the word “Safari”

As we have previously discussed when talking about the advertisement placed at the very beginning of the story, it is relevant to point out that the word safari in this short story goes beyond the normal meaning one could look up in a dictionary. As a matter of fact, the refugees embarked upon it do not actually enjoy this alleged wonderful activity.

What we actually find is a family and other refugees trying to escape from the bandits who were harassing the population of Mozambique. Needless to say, the refugees were actually experience a safari, given that during this journey they saw wild animals, big tents… However, the people who actually took the safari were white people, whose

conditions were much better than the ones of the refugees, who did not even have water or food. In this respect, it would be pertinent to provide these illustrative quotations:

“We could see the fires where the white people were cooking in the camps and we could smell the smoke and the meat. […].The wind brought voices in our own language from the compounds where the people who work in the camps live. A woman among us wanted to go to them at night and ask them to help us. They can give us the food from the dustbins, […]” (9).

2. The consequence of war on families and individuals

As a result of the war, families and individuals have to cope with different and hard situations. From reading and working with “The Ultimate Safari”, one can become aware of the real conflict which occurred in Mozambique and during the apartheid regime, given that readers can learn what being a victim of war and politics means.

At the same time, it is worth mentioning that war always implies the loss of loved ones; in fact, the daughter lost her parents, given that they never returned home (allegedly, they were killed by the bandits). Similarly, war in “The Ultimate Safari” can also be used as a tool for the better understanding of the period of colonialism, in which one can perfectly see the contrast between the people in power and those whose power is practically absent.

Another consequence which may be highlighted is the miserable condition in which refugees live during the war. As far as this story is concerned, children are affected by some illnesses as a result of starvation and drought; in fact, the narrator’s little brother’s head suffered an abnormal swelling on account of an illness: “I have turned eleven and my little brother is nearly three although he is so small, only his head is big, he’s not come right in it yet […]” (13).

Ultimately, it would be relevant to consider the devastation of the refugees’ livelihoods. In fact, at the very end of the story, the grandmother betrays that after war: “There is nothing. No home”. (14) As a consequence of that, they have to stay there and make a new life in a refugee camp.

3. Old generation vs. new generation

It is significant to remark that, since the story was narrated by a child, the readers tend to be optimistic with regard to the future. Nonetheless, if the story had been narrated by the grandmother, that optimism might have turned into pessimism, because, as the author Ann Elisabeth Pettersen Stevens stated: “the grandmother has lost her hope for the future, but the child has not” (2014: 25). In order to illustrate this, it would be pertinent to resort to the following quotations: “Do you hope to go back to Mozambique – to your own country? / I will not go back. […]. Why does our grandmother say that? Why? I’ll go back” (2008: 14). As these quotations show, on the one hand, the grandmother depicts a sense of hopelessness; whereas, on the other hand, the little child depicts a sense of optimism.